Expert: Martin Hoover - 10/12/2006

Question
Hi,
   I am planning on trying out for a travel team this weekend and it says don't tryout if your going to miss games, I am going on a vacation at the start of the season and I want to tryout for my highschool freshman team. Should I tryout for both teams and play for both teams or take a chance and only tryout for 1. If take a chance and only tryout for 1 team, which team, Travel or High School.
Thanks, Ray

Answer
Ray,

You seem to be asking more of a guidance question than a baseball questions, so I will try to help you out with the best logic possible.

You are a high school freshman... chances are you have a full semester of classes, projects and tests, and will have to worry about that.  Keep in mind that your grades come first, and baseball second(yes, I actually said that baseball comes second).

Both travel teams and high school teams have positive and negatives attributes to them, but I would not try to do both, as with school and practices, you are looking at a lot of time.

I live in Hesperia, California and the high school baseball teams play pretty much year round, except for a few months in the winter... in fact, the baseball teams have practice pretty much during the entire school year.  You might want to talk to you coaches, and see what each can offer you in advancement, training, experience, and schedule arrangements.

I hope this has helped you, I know that it's difficult to decide, but just remember that you don't want "too many irons in the fire".


Yours in Baseball,

Martin Hoover