What if feels like to get cut...

[Breaker99]

I played baseball and football from the time I was about six years old, but was cut from the football team as the 4th QB in high school during my sophomore year. I played baseball through college. I was a very good baseball player, and a so so QB. But I wanted to play QB, thats what I wanted more than anything. I didn't make it. I found out when they posted a list of those who made the team and my name wasn't on it. I had to fight my way to the front of the group of players trying to find their name on the list and then when I didn't see mine..... I will never forget that feeling of sinking and the feeling of turning around and everyone of my team mates seeing the look on my face. I don't remember if I cried, but I was pretty bummed for a month or so. It was one of the biggest let downs of my teenage years.

Here is what it feels like for an NFL player to get cut as told by an NFL player who takes you through the process... pretty harsh.

What It's Like to Get Whacked | The MMQB with Peter King

 

[#1BostonFan]

I got cut from the basketball team my sophomore and it was a shitty feeling. It was because the coach thought I was a punk and I didn't get to play a single game my freshmen year because of my grades. He cut a couple other kids too who shouldn't have but he just thought we were punks. What really pissed me off was a couple of my friends asked why he cut me like a year later and he said he never cut me but my grades were bad, even though I was passing everything when he cut me. He knew he was wrong for cutting me and couldn't even man up too it.

He was the type of coach to keep guys around he liked from football because he was an assistant and kids who were straight edge and got good grades. Winning didn't seem to matter to him. He always chased away the true ballas if he didn't like them. That and he'd literally try to run you out of the try outs by doing way too much running, knowing his football players were in a little bit better shape.

I remember that year the best balla in our school by far was puking 10 minutes into the try out, he just left. He tried to get back on the team and the coach refused so he dropped out of high school. He even told the coach the only reason he came to school was to play ball and he would just drop out if he couldn't play. The coach said sorry you can't have a second chance and that was the last I ever heard from him.

Long story short, getting cut sucks.

 

[JDM]

So he was a bad guy because as a high school coach he cared more about his players doing the right things than how talented they were?

 

[#1BostonFan]

So he was a bad guy because as a high school coach he cared more about his players doing the right things than how talented they were?

No, but but if a kid is telling you, begging for another chance would you say fuck off knowing he was going to throw his life away? It's not like any of us were truly "punks" he just would judge you on the way you dressed, talked, who you hang out with, etc. I don't think that's right. I mean is a bunch of 16 year olds smoking weed really that horrible?

 

[imac_21]

No, but but if a kid is telling you, begging for another chance would you say fuck off knowing he was going to throw his life away? It's not like any of us were truly "punks" he just would judge you on the way you dressed, talked, who you hang out with, etc. I don't think that's right. I mean is a bunch of 16 year olds smoking weed really that horrible?

I'm coming at this from a very different position as an AD and basketball coach at a relatively low socio-economic school for our region. I've seen guys that fit the description of only coming to school for sports (football rather than basketball, usually). What I see from these guys is they attend class and work hard in-season, but once the seasons over they're no longer in class and failing most, if not all, of their classes.

I find it really hard to develop any sympathy for these guys. They aren't interested in being students, just playing whichever sport is their interest. To be on a school team, school has to come first.

I also find it hard to believe that that none of you were "truly punks" if a kid chose to drop out and "throw his life away" because he wasn't on the basketball team. If not playing basketball is enough to make you drop out entirely, there are other issues at hand.

I've seen both ends of the high school coaching spectrum: The side where the coach doesn't give two shits about the players, and the side where he goes well beyond what anyone would ever expect. I understand both sides, but obviously the second one is the more noble (our senior boys' basketball coach has driven an hour out of his way to pick kids up and drop them after practices, he's had students live with him for small stretches when they're parents aren't able to care for them and he asks nothing in return).

You can only ask a coach to do so much though, and the athletes have to be willing to do their part as well. If things get tough and you decide to pack it up, you can't expect the coach to bend over backwards to save you, regardless of how good you are. He has an entire roster to focus on, plus whatever family situation he has at home. To lay it on the coach for cutting a player because of how the coach sees that player's attitude is unfair to the coach.

 

[#1BostonFan]

I just think a basketball coach should want the 12-15 best players who are passing all their classes. In my situation he picked favorites and didn't give everyone a fair chance. He'd have his 7-8 guys who would play and the rest were just kids he liked. You need the 12-15 best so they push each other in practice everyday. If I was a coach I'd try to help mentor kids, not just find perfect 16 year olds.

 

[imac_21]

I just think a basketball coach should want the 12-15 best players who are passing all their classes. In my situation he picked favorites and didn't give everyone a fair chance. He'd have his 7-8 guys who would play and the rest were just kids he liked. You need the 12-15 best so they push each other in practice everyday. If I was a coach I'd try to help mentor kids, not just find perfect 16 year olds.

His job is to get the best team, not the best collection of players. Those are not always synonymous.

 

[JDM]

No, but but if a kid is telling you, begging for another chance would you say fuck off knowing he was going to throw his life away? It's not like any of us were truly "punks" he just would judge you on the way you dressed, talked, who you hang out with, etc. I don't think that's right. I mean is a bunch of 16 year olds smoking weed really that horrible?

If you refused to stop smoking weed, no, I wouldn't let you on my team. If you didn't keep yourself in shape and it was possible to "harass you" or whatever by making the whole team do conditioning until you quit, I don't want you on my team. If you think all you have to do is show up and be athletic, which is the vibe you're very strongly giving off, I don't want you on my team.

It's not a right to play, and if you don't take it seriously, the coach can't help you. If you wanted a chance to get back on the team, you should have stepped up your grades, came back the next year in better shape, and kept your shit together. It really doesn't sound like you earned it, and your description of your coach makes him sound like a very good one.

 

[kennyt12]

In High School i got cut from the baseball team without ever getting a chance to bat. I later found out from my dad that he and the coach, who was his classmate, hated each other in high school. The next year it took me making a great defensive play in the outfield to get a shot. I made the team but ended up behind a guy who wasn't as good because his dad was an AD at the junior high and the coach was good friends with him. I wasn't great but I know I deserved and earned more than I got. I ended uo quitting after that season. The situation has helped me in my basketball coaching career so I wouldn't change it.

 

[MHSL82]

Saying that the only reason why you go to school is to play on the sports team sounds like a threat as opposed to persuasion. However, it's a threat that doesn't really affect the guy receiving the threat. Put me on the team or I will hurt myself in other ways. If he puts you on the team because of that, it's not for basketball reasons, it's for charity, in a way.

I can't take anyone's word that one is a baller. I assume there are more than 12 players that can play well enough to be on a team. It's possible that a coach, looking out for his job, may pick favorites, but the assumption is the coach wants to win and will play the best and a lot of players believe they are the best when they are not. Out of those two assumptions, which either could be wrong, I normally side with the second (that the coach wants to win) over the first (that one is really the best).

I would also assume that one who would quit on school because he didn't get what he wanted may quit on the field when the going gets tough. There are exceptions and competitiveness varies with motivation, but say if a team is 3-8, does this guy still ball? No doubt he'll say he would, but would he?

 

[NinersFan80]

In High School i got cut from the baseball team without ever getting a chance to bat. I later found out from my dad that he and the coach, who was his classmate, hated each other in high school. The next year it took me making a great defensive play in the outfield to get a shot. I made the team but ended up behind a guy who wasn't as good because his dad was an AD at the junior high and the coach was good friends with him. I wasn't great but I know I deserved and earned more than I got. I ended uo quitting after that season. The situation has helped me in my basketball coaching career so I wouldn't change it.

High school baseball is a bunch of politics. I played 2 years of JV (not a lot because they wouldn't give me a chance) so I didn't even try to play varsity because I knew I would never get a chance and it would be a big waste of time. I played summer ball in the same league Ryan Howard played in when he was a teenager and I made the all-star team. I knew I was better then some of the guys but no way I would get a chance.