Just Curious

[Mudcat]

I used to read the Charlotte.com message board to kinda keep up with teams in the Charlotte area. This new board, though a much improved format I must admit, seems to be pretty much the same discussions. Are you all wanting to get discussions going on a state wide basis or keep it to the Charlotte area.

[Intimidator Coach]

I may be out of line here , but i dont think it matters where the talk is from or about, Just so long as people enjoy the conversations .
IMO

[NCBBallFan]

Definately as wide-spread as we can.... Gonzo has posted invites to all the NC folks up on the state-specific thread of High School Baseball Web...... Anyone I chat with, I invite onboard.... It's just that the people that headed up getting it started (Braves, Prepster, Gonzo, Applejack) are most familiar with the SW4A....I'm in the Meca8, playme is in the NW4A....We have people from NPC jumping in...a lot of gastonia people signing on, even some folks from the Asheville area.

It's spreading, but it may just be primarily west part of the state this first season...it takes time to grow a board.... If we can get any easterner's to join us, that would be great. Most of us don't get too much chance to see them play down-east and they play some great ball (Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Green Hope, Hoggard...et al).

We have a lot of 4A talk right now, but it needs to spread down to the 3A, 2A..even 1A (but there's not too many 1A schools in the immediate vicinity...most are up in the mountains).

It's hard to talk about players out of conference because you may only see them in the summer or every other year or so if you're lucky. Most "best players" list you will see here are conference specific, but there are a few exceptions.

We have some scouts that fan out and see a lot of players.....It may be that we (hopefully) can get some responses out of them.

:xyzwave:

[Mudcat]

I coach our local high school kids in the summer and fall and we do some traveling. We get to play against the Charlotte kids from time to time. That is why I enjoy reading this board. I am familier with some of the kids. We have for the pst 3 yrs kept our HS team together and played summer and fall ball and it has really paid off. It's hard to beat the all star teams that are put together but we can generally compete and it makes the kids better. Gave the Hurricanes a good game in Greensboro last summer. Think we lost 6-4. I enjoy the info. We are in the mountains.

[NCBBallFan]

Keep us posted about "your kids"..... might have played some of them in the past.......

[Mudcat]

as the Mudcats in the summer, but our kids are the West Henderson HS team. Went 25-2 last yr and lost 2 starters to graduation. One is now at Gardner Webb and the other at Brevard College. Did pick up a couple of transfers though. One from Crest and one from Northwest Guilford. Faced Pope from South Meck in Greensboro but only had 5 of the varsity starters there that weekend.

[Intimidator Coach]

I am a NPC fan , but not many of us are on yet. Ive been here for almost a year now .

Our conference overall is pretty young , Northwest may have more seniors than the rest, and should be a contender with West Rowan for the title, but who knows what will happen.

[Mudcat]

The strongest team out of our area this year in the 3A classification will be Tuscola. We are 2A. We played a team called the "Intimidators" from Kannapolis in Morganton Labor Day weekend a couple of years ago. Our kids were all rising sophmores and juniors then. It was a good game for the championship that weekend. Was that your team and how many of those kids are still playing?

[THEBIG"O"]

Mudcat......At what level do your "boys" play during the summer and fall? AAU, AABC, USSSA, etc?

[Mudcat]

we played some USSSA and open tournaments. Mainly in TN and SC. We have played AAU but got I got tired of all the paperwork and crap you have to deal with in AAU. Understand they even want to tell you what motel you have to stay in now. Probably 75% of our weekend tournament games are in open tournaments played on college campuses in SC and eastern TN. We seem to get more attention from college coaches for the kids there. Have 3 kids signed for next yr now and 4 more that will this spring. Would love to come to the Charlotte area for summer tournaments. Maybe you could direct us to some. But please no AAU, lol.

[THEBIG"O"]

Yea I know what you mean with the AAU situation, and I think they are losing a lot of business from good teams beacause of that. We played in several tournaments in Jeffrson City TN, throughout last summer and fall. They have a ggreat sports complex there, where a man who loves baseball has dedicated many many years of hard work to build. It's kind of a field of dreams type of thing. Is this where yall played or was it somewhere else?

[Mudcat]

We love to go to Jefferson City. We have been playing in Geralds tournaments for 4 yrs now. Great guy. We also like the tournaments the Diamond Devils put on and the Carolina Clipper tournaments. Get a lot of college coach action there. My catcher got a full ride from Presbyterian after we played there last summer.

[THEBIG"O"]

Yes we played in two Diamond devils tournaments last year, and we really liked them. Somebody needs to get some annual tounaments going in Charlotte. Even if it was just once a month. The only ones I know of in this area are the ones On Deck occasionally does. It is a shame that Charlotte is as big as it is and as all of these teams and yet every weekend all of them go out of town and spend their money in some other city to play baseball.

[Mudcat]

Being where we are in the mountains we are used to having to travel for tournaments. With our climate we ought to try to hold some. We did have 12 schools in the mountains keep their teams together last summer and 9 in the fall so that helped a lot with games. It is also improving the level of play here in the mountains. Produced the last 3 state champs in 3A. Don't have any 4A schools in the area besides AC Reynolds. Impact did set us at 1 in 2A this year.

[THEBIG"O"]

I know that here in Charlotte commitment in a player is hard to come by and when the highschool season is over very few teams actually stay together. Most disperse and look for the team where they can get the best exposure. But from what it sounds like to me, most of the highschool teams are playing togther all year. Is that basically how it is where you live? If so I think that is magnificent. I know that while you may sometimes get better teams when you can pick and choose from all the kids, it also can make it hard when you must pitch against a guy on thursday and then share a hotel with him two days later.

[Mudcat]

TC Roberson was probably the 1st in the area to start keeping their kids together year round. West Henderson has been doing it now for 4 yrs and I know Tuscola has for several years now and so does Franklin. Even though we take our lumps against some of the all star teams it really helps in the long run. When you have a HS team playing nearly 100 games a year as a team, well, you know what that can do. Another plus is the kids all get along and have a blast when we travel. It's also kinda fun to win some games when you've got a bunch of soph, juniors, and seniors, all from the same HS against some of these stacked teams. The kids get pumped to play those teams. We are always looking for teams to come in to play in the summer. We have one of the nicest facilities in the state. Sunken dugouts, high walls, a real stadium type atmosphere/

[THEBIG"O"]

I think thats awsome that you can keep these teams together. I'm sure it helps with the comradory amoungst teamates and also creates some good rivalrys come HS season. I would like to see more of that in Charlotte but who can blame these kids with the offers that are made. There are just too many outside influences here, which dont get me wrong, it isnt all bad. On Deck here has one of the nicest facilities to work out in, and they also offer a very good program to play in ( The O's). And I am just afraid that the schools do not have the money, nor the human resources to compete with these types of places.

[Intimidator Coach]

Mudcat , the Intimidators was an 18u team i helped get started . I didnt coach that group but they were part of my Club.
Most of that bunch have graduated , i think 2 of the players are at Kannapolis , 2 at South Rowan and 2 at West Rowan . The NPC is very young this year .
Northwest Cabarrus has the best chance to win the championship at this time based on who returned .

[SabreFan]

Mudcat: I know about the Diamond Devils website to register for their tournaments. What website, or where can you go to find, or who can you call to find out about the Carolina Clipper tournaments that you enjoy and that are competitive?

[Mudcat]

It's www.carolinaclippers.com the site is down right now but will be up this week sometime.

[SabreFan]

Thanks Mudcat, I will keep looking for the Carolina Clippers website to come up this week.

[Braves]

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