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High school baseball in Iowa


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I was just wondering from anybody who has played high school ball in Iowa why the season starts so late. Most people probably dont know this, but their season starts in May and ends the championships are in late July (this weekend). So if a guy gets drafted, he can choose to skip the rest of his senior season to start his pro career(did Ryan Sweeney do this?). It also gives scouts less of a chance to look at these guys. I heard about this last year and was really shocked that they do this.

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QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 23, 2006 -> 12:39 PM)
Sweeney left his team and joined the White Sox. Its really strange how they do it, but IIRC they do it because of the weather.

it's a leftover tradition from when kids were too busy planting farms and such to play baseball, so the season starts later... very outdated, should be changed, but hasnt been.

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Shut up.

 

Yup, state baseball is starting now. Practice (for good teams) happens year round, but games start in early May and end in July, and it won't change anytime soon. There's 4 sports seasons here.

 

Fall: Football/X-Country/Volleyball

Winter: Basketball/Wrasslin

Spring: Tennis/Golf/Track/Soccer

Summer: Softball/baseball

 

Also, if I can remember this straight, Sweeney had the option to finish out his HS career and sign after he was done with the season, but chose not to. The Sox probably didn't want to risk him getting hurt in the next two months after they signed him.

 

And, again, I reiteate....it won't be changed anytime soon because of how other sports seasons set up.....I don't think the IAHSAA wants to screw with what they percieve to be a system that's humming along. The IAHSAA is a good ol' boys system that is a prideful bunch. That, and it's tradition.

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I like tradition.

 

Tangentially, in another thing that can be filed under "Never Going To Happen", it would level the College Baseball playing field if the NCAA adopted a Summer Baseball season. Say April-July with August being the playoff months.

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Talking to someone who knows.....

 

Iowa high school baseball players who are drafted can sign at any time, and when they do they forfeit eligibility.

 

Also, the season will not be moved as long as "native Iowans" are in charge, according to my editor. If baseball was moved to the spring, it'd kill track, tennis, golf, and baseball all at once. If golf was in turn moved to fall, it'd still kill golf, because the best golfers normally play football.

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QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 24, 2006 -> 02:11 PM)
Talking to someone who knows.....

 

Iowa high school baseball players who are drafted can sign at any time, and when they do they forfeit eligibility.

 

Also, the season will not be moved as long as "native Iowans" are in charge, according to my editor. If baseball was moved to the spring, it'd kill track, tennis, golf, and baseball all at once. If golf was in turn moved to fall, it'd still kill golf, because the best golfers normally play football.

 

Iowa must have a ton of really small schools or something, because having track, tennis, golf and baseball going at the same time (or some similar combination) happens in every state.

 

By the way, where does wrestling fit in??

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QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 04:46 PM)
Iowa must have a ton of really small schools or something, because having track, tennis, golf and baseball going at the same time (or some similar combination) happens in every state.

 

By the way, where does wrestling fit in??

Council Bluffs

Souix City

Iowa City

Des Moines

Quad Cities

Dubuque

 

That's the 6 areas where I imagine high schools with enrollment much over 1000. So yeah the state is filled with smaller schools.

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I believe Iowa is the only state left that does summer baseball. They used to do both spring and summer but not anymore. The weather is a big issue for it but so is tradition. There has also been some talk about changing it but I hope that doesn't happen.

 

As far as little schools, yes there are tons of them but every year more and more consolidate to make bigger schools. There are something like 48 4A schools in Iowa, that may be a stretch but I know for state and substate in baseball there were 48 schools 2 years ago. Most of them have over 1000 high school students. Mason City, the school I went to was around 1300 students and Fort Dodge and Marshalltown also were over too.

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QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 04:46 PM)
Iowa must have a ton of really small schools or something, because having track, tennis, golf and baseball going at the same time (or some similar combination) happens in every state.

 

By the way, where does wrestling fit in??

 

 

Wrestling is a winter sport.

 

Iowa has 29 schools with an enrollment of over 1000 grades 9-11. 44 schools would be over 1000 if you take those with 750 in grades 9-11.

 

Iowa has 398 school districts with no need for that many.

 

My HS had roughly 500 kids, and we were a middle of the road 3A school. Football has 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, A and 8 man, while basketball and baseball are just 4A-1A.

 

Smaller sports are 1A-3A while a sport like tennis is just 1A and 2A.

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QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jul 29, 2006 -> 11:20 PM)
Wrestling is a winter sport.

 

Iowa has 29 schools with an enrollment of over 1000 grades 9-11. 44 schools would be over 1000 if you take those with 750 in grades 9-11.

 

Iowa has 398 school districts with no need for that many.

 

My HS had roughly 500 kids, and we were a middle of the road 3A school. Football has 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, A and 8 man, while basketball and baseball are just 4A-1A.

 

Smaller sports are 1A-3A while a sport like tennis is just 1A and 2A.

 

 

Iowa used to have well over a 1000 schools I would imagine at one time. Every year schools keep consolidating and I would imagine in abougt 10-15 years there will probably only be about 250 schools.

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