The End of One Season, the Start of the Next...

Got the practice schedule for Logan's basketball team.  4 practices a week.  He really needs it.  Basketball is a hard game to master and you can only do it by constant practice.  At the moment, football is his favorite sport, followed by basketball and with baseball a distant third.

Some of the other kids in the Mavs organization are doing private instruction right now.  We did that all through last year.  I think this year, we may skip it.  If Logan drops a sport, it's going to be baseball.  I don't believe in pushing him in sports.  At their core, they're supposed to be fun.  Challenging?  Yes, but fun, primarily.

I also still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from last season, but I need to get over it.  Logan spent the entire off-season working his butt off and when the season started, the coach had him batting 11th.  He started off badly, and I think part of it was due to being stuffed into the bottom of the order.  After a couple weeks, he shook the rust off and was essentially the team's best hitter until the last two weeks of the season where he went back into a slump.  Overall, he ended up 5th in batting, out of 12 kids on the team.  Not much difference between him and #3 and 4, either.

Unfortunately, I think the coach had his mind made up about who was going to play where, and what he saw didn't have any influence on his decision.  Logan deserved a much better place in the batting order and a lot more infield time and he didn't get them.  (The coach did begrudgingly move him to 7th in the batting order after Logan went through a 2 week streak where he hit .700.)

This year, it's a different team and a different coach, but like I said, I feel a little let down by his experience last year.  Baseball is a sport where perception plays a much bigger role than in other sports, in my opinion.

It dawned on me that part of the reason is that baseball doesn't really give you a way to have one player play directly against another.

In football, every practice, Logan is running drills against other players.  A common drill is an angle-tackling drill where players take turns running the ball (playing RB), then switching and playing LB to try and tackle the RB.  You get a pretty clear picture of where the kids fall after watching that for a few weeks.

Logan got his starting FB job because during tackling drills, he made a habit of dragging his tacklers for a few extra yards per touch.

In basketball, you can have players match up, one-on-one and see how they do.  You can watch them on their man in scrimmages.  You can have them play one-on-one.  It's really easy to see where they stack up.

In baseball?  Not so much.  You can see who does better in fielding drills, but a lot of that is subjective.  Hitting?  You can get a good idea of how kids hit by watching them in BP, but you can also ignore that if you want, too. 

Anyway, I'm still hacked off that he played the entire season in the outfield last year.  There were better infielders on the team, and they all deserved the bulk of the playing time.  Near as I can figure, there were 4 of them.  However, there were also kids who were clearly not as good and they all got more infield time, too.  Part of it is that Logan was a very good CF, but part of it, frankly, is just that I don't think enough effort was being made to develop players.  Overall, I wasn't impressed with what I saw last year.  The year before?  It was very, very good.  Last year?  It went very, very badly, I think.

I'm ready to support Logan in any way, in any sport, if he shows the drive.  I'm not going to nag him to practice, though.  I'm not going to set up private instruction in sports he doesn't care that much about.  Baseball may be the first sport he drops. 

Personally, I think he shows a lot more talent in baseball than in basketball, but if he wants to play High School basketball, he might need to crowd out baseball.  Another kid on the basketball team found a summer league to play in, and I will try to get details on that so Logan can play that next Summer if he wants.

In the final analysis, his success in sports is going to depend on a few things.  One is his physical development.  If he continues to grow to be big and strong, he'll have an advantage in sports.  The other is his desire.  If he wants to be a great baseball player and wants to put in the work, I'll support it.  If he doesn't, I won't push it. 

Logan's new team

Logan worked out with his new team yesterday.  There are 3 other kids from his elementary school on it.  Logan and one other kid will really improve this team for next year.  The kids all looked okay and like Logan, they were probably all a little bit rusty. 

Logan is by far one of the faster kids on the team.  His old team, he was probably dead middle of the pack.  Didn't really see them hit much, but Logan really should be one of the better hitters on the team.  Fielding?  He really didn't look that different than the other kids.  Maybe a little better than some, but they all looked rusty. 

The coach is a new one who doesn't have a kid on the team.  I was one of only 3 dads helping with the practice.  I really don't have time to commit to this, especially once Springtime rolls around.  Oh well.  I'll figure that out later.

I think Logan is really going to like this team, though.  The new coach made it through the whole practice without yelling once.  Every team has its advantages and disadvantages.  I'm still very happy that he's on this team, though.

I hope we don't do much in the way of Fall workouts.  The kids get worn out and there's just not much benefit to them.  I guess they keep the kids thinking about baseball, though.  Personally, I'd like to see them put baseball aside until after basketball season is over, though.

Northview Black Wins!!!

Logan's team won its football game today, 16-8.  (In this league, a kick for a PAT scores 2 points.)

Logan was out for a few plays after complaining that he got his bell rung.  I really don't like his helmet.  I see it's some sort of reconditioned helmet that probably wasn't that nice to begin with.  Almost all the helmets these days are pumped up with air and I don't think this one is working properly. 

I'm going to buy him a helmet.  The season is halfway through, but I don't want this kid getting a concussion. 

The whole shebang costs less than $200.  I can get one through Amazon Prime, so it'll arrive this week.  I know that doesn't sound like a good use of money, but I've never been one to skimp, especially where there's a chance of preventing a mishap for my son.

I'm not sure how bad he's getting his bell rung, but it's bad enough that he'll miss a few plays now and then.  I'm already counting on the likelihood that the helmet won't fit him next year, but who knows. 

Logan had a great game today.  Completed two passes.  Ran the ball tough up the middle.  Had three runs in particular that were pretty big.  Two first downs and when we had the ball on the 6, he ran it to the 3, where the QB punched it in the next play. 

Got roughed up a bit, but if he wants to play fullback, he needs to get used to it.  I don't get to worried about injuries except for knees and concussions.  Both of those are the types of injuries that don't ever really heal.

Anyway, great win today.  The team we played was the other Northview team.  I think because so many of their kids go to school with our kids, they came in really fired up.  Looked dire until the 4th quarter.  They went up 8-0.  We pounded the ball in for one TD.  We converted our kick.

So, rather than settle for the tie, they threw the ball deep and we picked it.  That set up the winning drive just as time expired.

The team, overall, is 1-1-1.  However, the loss and the tie could just as easily have been wins.  We've played all 3 other teams in the league.  Now, we play them one more time, then the season is over.