re: 2026 Louisiana HS Baseball Season

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And as wahoocs said ANY kid with an ARM has a handler now and THEY have enough stroke to manipulate when said arm does or doesn’t pitch - before NIL it was just upper round draft possibles - now with NIL it’s exponentially more.

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it happens even in travel at the youth ages. rare but the hardest throwing 10u kid now is requiring all hotels paid, all flights paid and 1500 per game appearance. this is from his parents

most of the time just have the big teams sponsor kids and take care of travel and lodging. I had heard of some requesting walking around money before but never specific amounts like 1500 a game and never in freaking 10u.

crazy to me

Why do you think so many HS coaches nationwide are aligning themselves with travel ball organizations.

The pay to play structure is affecting all sports - heck 7on7 is affecting teams summer workout plans.

I have always stuck with HS sports because it's the last pure level of sport, unfortunately I see a lot of changes I don't like.

I have even seen some of these HS baseball "phenoms" be starters on their HS football team, yet skip district HS football games to attend fall baseball showcases, some of these kids are in your area. I could not imagine that in my day, both my HC's would tell me to clean out my locker.

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Why do you think so many HS coaches nationwide are aligning themselves with travel ball organizations.

The pay to play structure is affecting all sports - heck 7on7 is affecting teams summer workout plans.

I have always stuck with HS sports because it's the last pure level of sport, unfortunately I see a lot of changes I don't like.

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most starting aligning themselves with travel orgs to make extra money and thats still the most common reason

but it also gives them a chance to be around the game many of them love for longer during the year. gives them a chance to meet and learn from other coaches too but it also allows them some control over their kids during that time and ability to promote more of their kids

and of course the 7v7 is affecting summer workout plans, has for 20 years but most of that is on the coaches themselves, they created it. and then you got kids going to private coaching because many football coaches refuse to learn real S&C and insist on running it themselves or refuse help and put out a absolute dog shite program when it comes to S&C which is pretty much inexcusable in this day and age with how easy it is to research or even outsource it to some of the best coaches

but yea the other reason HS coaches are attaching themselves to travel orgs is the Karens i spoke about and its actually way way less bullshite on the parental side, the travel team will just cut your arse and find someone else. at the school there is always someone to answer to that wants to side with the parents.

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Absolutely not. Games are mandatory, I'll die on that hill.

You start making HS football games optional for the players, that's not a serious endeavor and no serious coach will want to be part of it.

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well then you will force more to be 1 sport only. the real problem is wwba worlds being held in the middle of football season, not to mention the rainy season, in the first place.

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Imagine Jay Johnson finding out a kid he's recruiting is playing Friday night football instead of traveling 16 hours to do a showcase in the middle of the offseason. "Scratch that name off our list. Doesn't he know all the best players are here?"

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no but Jay will certainly have coaches at those events recruiting thats for sure. and its less about kids that a program like LSU would be recruiting but it certainly helps the lower D1 guys who cant go to every event. so they go to a big one like wwba. wwba is one of the most scouted events, granted it also has the most teams but usually your best players in the country are there.

point is plenty of kids go and get offers from it. you dont get offers pulled because you are not there but many get their first offers from it. its the biggest event in HS travel baseball.


now do i like it being in the middle of football season...frick no. hs football is pretty much my favorite thing to watch.

but i also understand why a kid would choose to attend that.

i get you dying on the hill that games are mandatory. i would not let my own kid skip a game for any event. Im just saying, I understand it from those that their goal is to play baseball in college. But ill also say....if you are the type of athlete that is not getting an offer until 17u wwba, then you prolly should be baseball only by that point anyways.

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and its less about kids that a program like LSU would be recruiting but it certainly helps the lower D1 guys

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And this is definitely true. But unless they've changed some of the dates, these usually conflicted more with summer practices rather than games.(I'm referring to WWB and Lake Point)
Also seems that there is just as much conflict between coaches of different sports as there is understanding these days.

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And this is definitely true. But unless they've changed some of the dates, these usually conflicted more with summer practices rather than games.(I'm referring to WWB and Lake Point)
Also seems that there is just as much conflict between coaches of different sports as there is understanding these days.

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wwba nationals is in the summer and usually doesnt conflict with anything but summer workouts

but WWBA worlds, the big one is in Sept or october and its usually a thursday through monday. example for 2026 the 18u & freshman is Oct 8-12. last year is was oct 9-13 (thurs-mon)

underclass is oct 1-5, soph is sept 24-28

13/14u is oct 16-19th


and yes lots of conflicts especially in the summer with the baseball & football coaches. many football coaches want the kids back in football only as soon as HS playoffs end. Many baseball require some type of summer ball program, either local or national for the big time kids.

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I want what you are smoking. It ALL goes back to simply what is the definition of committment. Agree. The definition most certainly changed with this generation.

P.S. - do you honestly think the Barbe Baseball HC would let his star players miss his district games for a 7 on 7 football showcase during baseball season? Like I said, lay off the pipe.

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no i dont but there are no 7 on 7 during baseball season.....do i think they would let them miss a summer tournament for a big 7 v 7 event...yes

do i think they would allow an athlete to miss practice for a track event....yes, they have and do

do i think the football coach would let his star running back miss a game for wwba knowing that if he didnt, the kid might just quit football all together.....yea i think he would

im not smoking anything, im telling you how it is. The real questions is should wwba worlds be during football and be so important....absolutely not but it is.

and its a little different for a kid from Barbe or Catholic or Sam Houston vs a kid from say....Captain Shreve or even walker.... that is a fringe D1 guy. The ones from the latter can have their coach really help them, the others might need to be at WWBA worlds to be able to get the scholarship.

i dont like it and I think you took my reply as i approve of it, i dont, but I also understand that a coach prolly doesnt want to lose his best player and would be more willing to work around it

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do you honestly think the Barbe Baseball HC would let his star players miss his district games for a 7 on 7 football showcase during baseball season?

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Do you know how meaningless the regular season is for them? Who cares what they do in district, state is basically them vs the field every year

Hewitt out of pitches

U-High singled in another ER, 5-2 now with runners 1st and 2nd w 1 out. Bot 6 still