Hillgrove 8th Grade Program Philosophy

Purpose:

The Hillgrove 8th Grade Program is 100% developmental. Our focus is to prepare the kids for Hillgrove HS baseball by teaching all the offensive, defensive, pitching, baserunning and team defensive concepts so the transition to HS will be seamless. Practice takes precedence over playing games and player development is highly valued over winning games. Yes, we want to win but we will learn how to play the game and act correctly. Ultimately, our program’s goal is to help our players improve over the course of their 5 or 6 years in our program and in turn give our program the best opportunity to compete at the highest level in the GHSA state playoffs. In the process, we have had over 50 kids in our 13 years of our program move on to play at the college level and 3 to move on to play professionally. The team is comprised of 7th and 8th grade baseball players that live in the Hillgrove feeder plan.

Yearly Plan:

Tryouts generally take place the first 2 Sundays in August of each year with 7th and 8th grade players that live in the Hillgrove HS school district. Once the team is selected, all practices will take place at Hillgrove HS on the baseball field and in the cage area.

  • Fall

    • Practice begins after Labor Day, ends the week of 1st semester final exams

    • Practice takes place 3 night a week with a specific focus each night

    • Heavy focus is on long throwing to improve arm strength

    • No games in the fall

    • Want to promote kids playing multiple sports if they so choose

    • Also want kids to learn as many concepts and develop over the fall

  • Winter/Spring

    • Practice resumes the 2nd Monday in January

    • Will practice for about another month before games begin

    • Will play in travel tournaments on weekends against travel teams

    • Will also play other feeder teams from surrounding high schools on weekends we are not participating in a travel tournament

    • Usually play 1 tournament in February, 3 in March, 2 in April, and 2 in May for a total of 8 travel tournaments

  • Summer

    • Becomes part of the Hillgrove HS summer program along with our current 9th graders to make a Hillgrove HS 15u team that is coached by our Hillgrove Varsity Coaches and former Hillgrove players that are currently playing college baseball

    • Will practice 3 times a week and play in a HS summer tourney or travel tournament each week for 4 to 5 weeks

  • Fall of 9th grade year

    • Get to start workout program with returning JV and Varsity players to begin improving the physical component of their development if they don’t play football or run cross country

    • Will also get a player evaluation from our coaching staff to tell them their strengths, their weaknesses and the things they need to improve upon to become a better player prior to HS tryouts in January