7th Grade Baseball Outlook

Coach Z and myself had to do some serious recruiting these past couple of weeks, since apparently at this grade level, baseball seems not to be "cool" sport. Others are running for either tennis, golf, or track and field.

I've already had lists made up, had meetings, did anything possible that I could think of just to see if we had the numbers. I did not want a situation in which we had to pull down some 8th graders (my all-stars from last season) to play with us.

As it ends up, we'll probably got 12-13 kids lined up to play ... so I'm hoping none will quit on me.

Last week, I started practice, which ended up being a smart move on my part because I had a few borderline kids not sure to play or not. I'm already hurting because I know of a few 7th graders with some really great talent to play baseball, ended playing something else. With me starting practice a little bit early, I've already got my claws in them to prevent them going elsewhere.

Of course, I've been taking the "advice" from others that my ballclub isn't going to be good this season, due to the lack of talent. I'll admit, I had it pretty easy last year with the group I had and this year, well, it'll be an uphill battle. My main worry is whether or not these players will take the game seriously or not and I just hope we will, but at the same time, we're going to have fun.

As before, I'm not going to play favorites. I'm going to give every player an opportunity to play, regardless of their playing ability. I've already laid down some ground rules on proper and respectful behavior that my players should follow because with this bunch ... you never know.

The outlook is this: we'll see. With a lot of practice, we should be alright. I've got a couple of really good players and a few who are a little rough around the edges. In time, we'll be alright. This week, though, we will particularily difficult due to the girl's basketball tournament in the Twin Cities and we don't have school on Thursday and Friday. Lucky for us, our first game probably won't be until late April.

Updates as they come!