HS tryouts in the OC

[Fredegar]

Can someone from Orange County confirm some CIF rules for me? I was under the assumption that Spring sports (like Softball) can't start their season or have tryouts until a certain date in mid-Feb.

Is that true, or can tryouts occur now? This came up because a friend in the OC told me his son made the Freshman baseball team last week. I didn't know how that was possible. Or maybe CIF has different rules for Baseball vs. Softball, regarding start dates?

[PDad]

OC falls under the CIF Southern Section rules. With the elimination of its "association rule" in 2008, there are very few restrictions on what sports do out of season.

Before that, our HS baseball program did Fall try-outs - they just had to hold them under the restrictions in place at that time.

[Fredegar]

Interesting. Thanks for the response. Sounds like those CIF start dates don't mean much other than when games can occur.

[LaderaDD96]

we had our tryouts back in Early September... I know lots of School's are already playing "Winter League" games and scrimmaging on a regular basis... we just started our off season training and practices last week but i would say most programs are rolling ahead...

[exD1dad]

What happens when there is a scheduling conflict between HS & TB ? Cuz thats about to happen with my DD?

[Sftbll4ever]

Depends on her coaches. I know many HS coaches that will tell the players that if they miss anything for travel, they will not make Varsity, or if they are already on varsity, they will not start.

There are travel coaches that say they cannot miss Travel for HS and if they do,m they can find a new team.

Luckily, my girls never had that conflict. Their travel coaches at one time or another didn't have a clue so missing HS was not big deal. But then again, my oldest only was able to play fall for HS her last two years when the rule went into affect.

It's really where the kids priority lies.

[sr_design]

With elimination of the CIF association rule I've noticed an increase in sore arms, muscle strains, etc and I can only attribute it to overuse. Some HS's have them out up to 5 days a week and some of our girls tell us they do a lot of throwing, conditioning etc. That really does them a lot of good coming up sore when the showcases roll around and you would like them to be at their optimum condition.

On top of that we had one girl that was already cut from her HS team in mid October. She's a solid player, a great leader teammate for us and has been steadily improving. Knowing the talent level of her schools softball players I can't believe she was given a fair shake. They're cutting way too soon. But that's just my opinion.