2 Sports At The Same Time

[The Flush]

How many of you let your kids play 2 sports at the same time?

My 9YO son has played every sport available to him so far, but seems to have narrowed it down to baseball and soccer right now. He has been offered a roster spot on a travel club soccer team for the spring, which he wants to do if for no other reason than to just play/practice more often. The club also has a very good reputation for developing the players skills, so it would be good for him as a player. However the soccer season overlaps the baseball season. Soccer runs March-mid May and our rec league baseball begins practice around April 1st with games beginning around May 1st. Soccer games are usually on weekends while baseball games are usually on weekdays. The games only overlap for 3 weeks or so, but there could be practice conflicts. As a coach, I hate when kids miss practice, but i also know how much my son practices at home and I know he will not fall behind in baseball. If I coach again, I will also have some influence over practice schedules and can try to avoid practice conflicts.

We have not made a decision yet, but need to tell the soccer club yes or no by Dec 31. If we only allow one, it will be baseball.

Does anyone have any wisdom on allowing a kid to play overlapping sports or advice on how to handle the overlapping sports?

[AdamInNY]

I deal with this with both my boys who are around the same age (8 & 10). One plays baseball, soccer, and basketball, the other soccer and baseball. Soccer and basketball are both inhouse rec leagues.

I've found that as long as I've been up front with the coaches as early as possible everything has worked out. For example our soccer season starts in Sept, but registration is in June. My son was asked to play in a fall baseball league over the summer after signing up for soccer. I made it clear to the baseball coach that he had committed to playing soccer and would play on the baseball team when it didn't conflict. The coach accepted this.

As the season went on there were a few conflicts, and even days where a soccer game conflicted with a playoff baseball game, but I felt it was important to have my son know that he to fulfill his commitments.

[The Uncoach]

One of the overlapping sports must have priority for games. Ex- My middleschooler runs track for his school in the spring, but the coaches understand that he will leave early or miss on certain days for baseball team practice. Also, any baseball game trumps anything track, except for a couple of really big, important Invitationals/Meets. Many coaches are agreeable to multi-sport situations, ime.

[raptor]

Fall sports should take priority for both practices and games and most coaches in my experience get that. Mine plays football and misses every fall field baseball practice and Saturday tournament games. He shows up on Sunday and hits on his own. But for the last couple of years there has been no throwing between early November and early February, and seldom pitches in fall games. Hopefully that's enough rest.

[tg643]

Flush ... When a player misses practice but practices on his own he's still having a negative effect on the team. the player is placing himself above the team. Special rules are being made for that player. There are things you can't practice with your son that he can practice with the team. That said, I've come to recognize self indulgence over the team has become the new normal. Coaches put up with it. I never did. When my 13U team turned 14U there were some upset players and parents when I didn't invite the practice skippers (due to other teams or sports) to remain on the team. My son played football in middle school along with travel soccer. There was never overlap.

[raptor]

TG there are some coaches who still think that way, and regionally if there is no overlap that's well within their prerogatives. Every situation is different, and for a lot of teams fall baseball is nothing more than staying sharp, and in states like CA, Fla, Tx and Ga a lot of athletes play football in the fall..Saturday in tourney baseball is made of the players who only play baseball and fill ins from other teams. Many teams combine in the fall. Sunday is when the spring lineups play. Now if its spring and a kid is missing baseball for another sport, that's a different story.

[Allie Fox]

Here in the Peach State my seven year old plays baseball, wrestles and does Brazillian Jiu Jitsu. Baseball does not really interfere with wrestling and BJJ for him but many of the other kids in his 8-12 class play football and it almost kills the latter two sports for the season. This year he has even had to train with the High School wrestling team just to keep fresh.
And as much as I hate to admit it baseball may become secondary to BJJ this spring. He has had a few very strong tournament performances so far with another coming up in January. I'd hate to break the momentum.

[Jake Patterson]

Flush ... When a player misses practice but practices on his own he's still having a negative effect on the team. the player is placing himself above the team. Special rules are being made for that player. There are things you can't practice with your son that he can practice with the team. That said, I've come to recognize self indulgence over the team has become the new normal. Coaches put up with it. I never did. When my 13U team turned 14U there were some upset players and parents when I didn't invite the practice skippers (due to other teams or sports) to remain on the team. My son played football in middle school along with travel soccer. There was never overlap.

We seldom allowed the boys to play more than one sport at a time. Also, I agree with TG... in that once a player committs to a team he should be doing that and that only... Making special arrangements teaches him little and does affect the other team members. The only exception we made to this was when our boys played school basketball we allowed rec basketball Sat am. or when they played soccer we allowed weekend tourny teams.

Last, I know as a HS coach I would not allow a player to be playing multiple teams/sports unless it was the end of the season when a few days of overlap between HS and Legion were .possible, but all the coaches understood this and we worked together to protect players.. Those who played other sports such as AAU basketball during baseball season had to make a choice.

[dadair6]

When I coached and had players playing multiple sports at the same time I let them know up front that missing my practices for the other sports' games or practices would result in diminished playing time in our games. I couldn't allow players who came to every practice to have to split time with kids who only showed up to games.

[Chris O'Leary]

My son and many of his friends play soccer 10 months of the year. There is about one month of overlap in the spring. The general rule of thumb is that games trump practices for both sports. Each team practices twice a week, so he tries to make at least one practice a week. We don't do tournaments until soccer season is over in May.

[clayadams]

My kid is playing basketball, but the travel baseball team is still doing winter workouts/practices. The coach fully understands that basketball, since it's a "winter" sport, will take priority over the baseball practices, especially since baseball is out of season. Around here soccer is much more of a year round sport so I do wonder how that'd work with baseball/softball. Seems like you'd have to choose or make one a priority.

[Jake Patterson]

My kid is playing basketball, but the travel baseball team is still doing winter workouts/practices. The coach fully understands that basketball, since it's a "winter" sport, will take priority over the baseball practices, especially since baseball is out of season. Around here soccer is much more of a year round sport so I do wonder how that'd work with baseball/softball. Seems like you'd have to choose or make one a priority.

Seems reasonable!

[tg643]

TG there are some coaches who still think that way, and regionally if there is no overlap that's well within their prerogatives. Every situation is different, and for a lot of teams fall baseball is nothing more than staying sharp, and in states like CA, Fla, Tx and Ga a lot of athletes play football in the fall..Saturday in tourney baseball is made of the players who only play baseball and fill ins from other teams. Many teams combine in the fall. Sunday is when the spring lineups play. Now if its spring and a kid is missing baseball for another sport, that's a different story.

I don't consider fall baseball to be a season. If a regular season team has an offseason team I consider that to be optional play. Or if an offseason only team labels play as optional it's ok to miss time.

[tg643]

My kid is playing basketball, but the travel baseball team is still doing winter workouts/practices. The coach fully understands that basketball, since it's a "winter" sport, will take priority over the baseball practices, especially since baseball is out of season. Around here soccer is much more of a year round sport so I do wonder how that'd work with baseball/softball. Seems like you'd have to choose or make one a priority.

When my son was asked to play for one of the top soccer clubs in the country the expectation was he would quit every other sport. I thought that was foolishness at age twelve. They tried to mislead me by saying all their players get college scholarships. I asked if all the U13 players get rides or is it all the U18 players. When the coach fessed up it was the U18 team, I asked how many of the U18 players were in the program at U13. That was when the hemming, hawing tap dance started.

[tg643]

We seldom allowed the boys to play more than one sport at a time. Also, I agree with TG... in that once a player committs to a team he should be doing that and that only... Making special arrangements teaches him little and does affect the other team members. The only exception we made to this was when our boys played school basketball we allowed rec basketball Sat am. or when they played soccer we allowed weekend tourny teams.

Last, I know as a HS coach I would not allow a player to be playing multiple teams/sports unless it was the end of the season when a few days of overlap between HS and Legion were .possible, but all the coaches understood this and we worked together to protect players.. Those who played other sports such as AAU basketball during baseball season had to make a choice.

In Pa a player can't even practice with the next seasons team until the first season ends. When Tyrelle Pryor was a senior making it to the state championship in football cost him the first two weeks of the basketball season. His football team won states on Saturday. On Monday he scored 27 with 16 rebounds on no practice with the team. He had to go to the park to shoot. He wasn't allowed to use the high school gym.