The times, they are a-changin'

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I was substitute-teaching at Rancho Bernardo High yesterday (Feb. 13), and some basketball-enthusiast boys in class, naturally, asked me if I played basketball, seeing my height.

I said yes. One asked me an interesting question I haven't been asked before: Did freshmen play on the varsity back when I was in high school?

I said, no, that it was very unusual in most of the "traditional" sports at my high school at that time for underclassmen to play on the varsity. When Dave Cordial, a sophomore, not only made the varsity baseball team but also started much of the season at catcher, it created a sensation. It was very unusual.

Dave was advanced in his skills behind the plate, including his defensive skills and his maturity in handling pitchers.
What I told the student in class at RBHS was that this difference with present-day varsity players was that travel and club teams did not exist at that time they way they do now.

For example, La Jolla High has had a freshman starter in boys basketball (Reed Farley), and sophomores who were part of the rotation (Quinn Rawdin, Charlie Gal). Baseball had a sophomore who was starting catcher the second part of the season (Garrett Brown). It's interesting that we had Colt League and American Legion baseball where I grew up (Camarillo), but no one but Cordial made an early impact the way he did.

A girl in class at RBHS plays soccer. Now, that's a whole different animal. One, girls tend to mature earlier than boys. (There were no CIF sports for girls when I was in high school.) Two, in my experience you see more girls excelling on varsity--at least, in the "traditional" sports--than boys.

Look at Destiny Littleton at Bishop's. She has excelled ever since she was a freshman on Coach Marlon Wells' Knights basketball team. There was no break-in period for Destiny. She was averaging 35 points or so a game from the beginning.

No doubt that travel and club teams have changed the landscape, helping individual athletes develop  their skills in a way you just couldn't do playing only on a high school team.

I remember reading about Jason Heyward's development several years ago.

The Atlanta Braves tracked him on his travel team during his high school years in a way that other major league teams didn't, and they missed drafting him. The Braves, getting to know him and realizing he played a lot more games on his travel team than on his high school team, were well-aware of his considerable talents, and made him a high draft choice.

I was reading recently about Angel pitcher Matt Shoemaker's comeback from a line drive to the head last season. His father was his coach in Little League years. Then they embarked on his travel team years, and he was traveling to hither-and-yon at the tune of 80 or so games a year. Incredible. Every weekend and vacation was devoted to Matt's baseball games.

My brother and I played Patrick Henry Cub League in Long Beach, then Pleasant Valley Baseball Association ball (non-Little League affiliated at that time) in Camarillo at the rate of 21 games a year. Even during high school, when Steve and I played for Camarillo High, Colt League, and American Legion--even with doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday--we were topping out at no more than 50 or so games, I think. A whole different level.

I'm surprised, putting these numbers together, that we even played that many games. We did that as sophomores and juniors in high school. There was not the intensity, the attention, the videotaping, the HUDL highlight films, the taping by dads and moms. No MaxPreps.com. No YouTube.

Plus there were no scouting services like the present ones, no Internet to begin with, no showcases. You get the idea.