What Your Son Is Walking Into: A Coach's Guide to Missouri High School Baseball Tryouts

On this page

What actually happens at tryouts What coaches evaluate first What metrics does my son need? "My son's numbers are below the table" What separates two similar players Your job in all of this What to do between now and March

The season I lost before it started

I remember the jump to high school baseball like it was just yesterday, and I remember being wholly unprepared and exposed in my first couple weeks of tryouts and practices.

When I entered into high school, I had all the confidence in the world that I would be a starter on the varsity team and play the position I had worked on for the majority of my life as a 14 year old. That confidence that had won me so much praise and success on the youth travel baseball circuit backfired when I stepped onto the field with players 3 and 4 years older than myself, and I was shown what developed high school talent looks like at the varsity level.

I did not make the best first impression with the coaches and started the season playing JV and on the bench for varsity. Eventually I made my way up to getting sufficient playing time on varsity later in the season, but I know that if I had been prepared for what was expected of me I could have contributed much quicker and gotten a lot more opportunities to help grow me as a player.

Here is the part I want you to hear as a parent. Nobody in my house knew what to measure. My parents got me everywhere I needed to be, but no one ever told us what a varsity coach actually looks at. That is what this post is.

---

What actually happens at tryouts

A typical tryout will run anywhere from one to two weeks, and most will fall around the one week standard. The bigger schools will have a longer tryout because they need to measure the ability of all their players across multiple levels of teams — a freshman team, JV, and varsity. A smaller school like the one I coach at will likely not cut anyone, but understand that not getting cut and getting playing time are two very different things.

Coaches will run their tryouts in a different style and format, but a few things are constant no matter where your son goes:

• Defense gets evaluated individually — ground balls hit at him and fly balls hit over him, one player at a time, with everyone watching.
• Offense gets evaluated through on-field and caged batting practice.
• Baserunning and baseball IQ get evaluated through scrimmages that challenge a player in a live environment.

Day two and three will likely fall into more position specific duties, like catchers and pitchers going off on their own. It is also when players start assimilating with the team culture and proving to the coaches that they can put in the effort each day, not just on the day someone is holding a radar gun.

What I am writing down

Yes, I am writing down the metrics for things like throwing velocity and 60 times. But I am also writing down their overall athleticism, their attitude, whether they talk a lot or not, how smooth they are swinging or fielding, and other very specific mechanical flags that most coaches will recognize in players.

That second list is the one your son has no idea is being kept.

Will he get cut?

Cuts are unlikely at any school in Class 4 and below. Higher Class 5 and Class 6 schools will cut some players who aren't freshmen and can't play at the level of JV or varsity.

Missouri baseball runs from Class 1, the lowest, up to Class 6, and the size of the class usually determines the competitiveness of the program, though that is not always the case. A Class 1 school might produce one college level player every four years. Put a Class 6 team against a Class 2 team and most of the time the Class 6 team would trounce them, simply because there are more students and more talent to pull from.

In the Springfield area, Nixa, Kickapoo, Ozark, and Republic are Class 6, Willard is Class 5, Logan-Rogersville is Class 4, and Fair Grove is Class 3. The same 14 year old with the same numbers is walking into four very different situations.

What to wear

This sounds small. It is not.

Your son should show up in baseball pants, cleats — metal or molded, depending on whether the field is turf or dirt — an athletic shirt that can be tucked in, and a baseball hat. Most players will get the pants and the cleats right, and then wear a shirt untucked and a hat that does not represent a baseball cap.

What he wears will likely be the first thing a coach sees and makes a judgement on about the level of player he is evaluating. Missing or wearing improper gear can make or break playing on JV or varsity, and it costs you nothing to get right.

The fastest way to hurt your chances

Attitude is the single worst and most likely way a player can hurt himself in the tryout process. Having a poor attitude, or even just complaining when things don't go the way they were supposed to, will catch the ear of the head coach extremely quick.

Tryouts are not a place for simply testing the limits of what you can do. They are a personality test for who you are, and coaches care a lot about who you are.

---

What coaches evaluate first

Every class of baseball tries to teach and play close to the same style. Coaches will teach bunt plays, first and third, pick-off plays, and many other non-basic aspects of the game that gain their team a strategic advantage. But what every coach sees first when selecting his starting roster, at nearly every level, is this:

• How hard do you throw?
• How hard can you hit the ball?
• How fast do you run?
• How well can you make the routine play on defense?

High school baseball, although no one wants to admit it, is mostly a numbers game. Coaches will start a pitcher who throws 80mph over the one who throws 70mph every time if they can both throw strikes, because the one who throws harder gets outs more often most of the time. The guy who hits the ball 90mph will always start over the guy who hits 75mph.

Is that to say the guy who throws 85mph is a more talented pitcher than the one who gets ground balls and throws a nasty breaking ball at 75mph? No. But it makes the one with the better metrics a more rational choice for the coach, because velocity and speed are huge competitive advantages. Guys who get recruited and drafted all have the metrics to support the success that they might have.

Coaches have no idea whether or not your son is going to succeed. But it helps them make the decision when the sound off the bat is ringing rather than pinging.

---

What metrics does my son need?

Scroll the table sideways to see every class →

Being at the same level as these metrics in one category most likely wouldn't be enough to get a starting role over a more experienced and maybe less talented player. A freshman needs at least two or more of these to be considered for a starting spot, or to be on the higher end of the spectrum in one of them.

---

"My son's numbers are below the table"

Good. He is 14. He is supposed to be.

Here is roughly what the curve looks like for a player who is training:

Scroll the table sideways if it is cut off →

I left the 60 out on purpose. Times for the 60 are specific to an athlete's talent level and training rather than his age, so there is no clean curve to show you.

Most players will see about 5-7mph on the mound each offseason with a structured program. In one offseason I watched a high school junior go from topping out at 77mph to 87mph in about six months. That is not typical, but it happened because everything was pointed the same direction at once.

Which brings up what parents get wrong most often. A proper throwing program will vastly outperform something like a pitching coach once a week. An hour on Tuesday does not build velocity. Throwing, lifting, mobility, and recovery — built by someone qualified and running together — build velocity. Without those, most players plateau right around the age when it starts to matter.

So your son is not behind. He is on schedule — but only if the next eighteen months are structured.

---

The things that separate two similar players

As a current high school coach, I know there are other factors that go into who I want on my team when game time comes around. Attitude and effort are big factors that can separate two similarly talented players. A player that I don't have to micro-manage and can rely on being a good teammate will always play over another who is slightly more talented. Most kids don't have issues with attitude and effort, so it is something most parents should not stress over when selections are being made.

Another huge factor that separates players, especially at the lower level, is baseball IQ — a player's knowledge and affinity for the game. Here is the actual list. Ask your son about these on the drive home and you will find out very quickly where he stands:

• Bunt coverages
• Classic first and third plays
• Hitting the cut-off man
• Making the routine play
• Tagging up
• The hit-and-run
• Pick-offs
• On-deck circle duties
• Reading a line-up card

These are learned by just simply playing and watching baseball. And these things will determine whether your kid plays or rides the bench.

---

Your job in all of this

The best baseball parents I have seen take a step back from coaching their kid and let experienced coaches handle the development of their player.

That is harder than it sounds, especially if you coached him in rec ball and you are the reason he loves the game. But when a parent tries to teach their kid something different than what I would teach, it makes my job as a trainer and a coach very difficult, and it usually leads to a conversation about how my experience will benefit their son more than their own. That conversation is avoidable.

Being a parent that allows or encourages questions from their player is huge for helping them understand the game at a higher level so they aren't guessing on their own. That is the version of involvement that works. Not answers — questions.

The other place you can genuinely help is away from the field. Even coaches at the MLB level don't fully understand why players get hurt as often as they do. The best thing a supporter of a player can do is consistently learn how sleep, food, and recovery are evolving in baseball. Nobody else in your son's life is going to do that for him.

---

What to do between now and March

A year out

It comes down to training or playing, and which one depends on where he stands. A player who does not meet the metrics for the level of high school baseball he wants to play should seek out a trainer and build those tools. A player who already has those tools should play — reaffirm his confidence on the field and gain the experience he is going to need for the spring season. Picking the wrong one is how a kid shows up in March with either no tools or no reps.

The weeks before tryouts

This is not the time to build anything new. Players should be establishing the patterns they've learned over the offseason and during the summer season — throwing bullpens, taking BP, and getting defensive reps in.

Three things you can start this week for free

1. Learn how the game is evolving and what training methods are available now. Development today does not look like it did when you played, and knowing what exists is most of the battle.
2. Practice every aspect of the game he is involved in, not just the fun one.
3. Talk to parents or players who have already played for the team he is trying out for. They will tell you how that specific coach runs tryouts and what he values. There is no substitute for that and it costs nothing.