Team Formation at the Texans

A letter from the Athletic Director

Hello Texans families.

Thank you for entrusting us with your boys' high school baseball experience. We strive to partner with you in helping each of them to become stronger players, better teammates, and godly men. I would like to take a moment to detail how Spring teams are formed in the Texans organization.

Team formation decisions are made by the coaching staff in multiple sessions of conversation and debate. We take into account performance in previous seasons, skill rankings in tryouts and the input provided from our independent review team. We not only review the needs of each team, but the needs of each individual player as well, thoughtfully considering not only talent and experience, but also where each player is best served in terms of playing time, at bats, pitching reps and team chemistry.

Please see the team categories below and a brief explanation of their formation criteria.

Varsity Team

This team will initially be formed of the most dedicated, experienced, and well-rounded upper classmen. As this team will play the most games and historically has fewer bench players, the ability to “own” at least two defensive positions, including the pitcher position, is crucial for those in this first group. The second group of players added are those whose skill level at a specific position allows them to be considered a legitimate starter at that position or an excellent back up player at two or more positions to allow them the opportunity for adequate playing time.

All Varsity players will be expected to travel with the team to Florida for the Home School World Series in May.

The third group that rounds out this roster are the role players that may excel and

contribute at a high level in one specific skill that the team needs in order to put the best product on the field. This could include, but not be limited to, pitchers only, designated hitters and pinch runners. As this third group, by their nature, will see less playing time at this level, the coaching staff will look for opportunities for these players to get additional reps on the mound, in the lineup or on the field on the Junior Varsity and Junior Varsity 2 schedules as possible. All Varsity players will be expected to travel with the team to Florida for the Home School World Series in May.

Junior Varsity Team

This team is initially formed of the most well-rounded players that have Varsity level skills, but based on the depth chart of that respective class of players and positions to be filled, the coaching staff does not see that adequate playing time on Varsity would be available for the maintenance and growth of those skills. This roster is often supplemented with athletic upper classmen for whom baseball is not their #1 priority or sport.

All JV players are invited to be in the dugout for Varsity games.

All JV players are expected to be willing to master new positions, develop high level skills and hone pitching acumen in preparation to contribute at the Varsity level. Some JV players will be asked to travel with the Varsity team when a deeper roster is needed and will be expected to be great teammates on the bench, ready to play if the opportunity arises. Many of the advanced JV players may be asked to travel to Florida for the Home School World Series in May. All JV players are invited to be in the dugout for Varsity games, to be great teammates on the bench and to be ready and willing to contribute on the field as needed.

Junior Varsity 2 Team

The Texans family continues to be blessed with talented young players allowing for the formation of a second JV team, and it will be a very good one. The JV2 team will be composed of our up and coming athletes that would benefit the most from additional game experience and pitching reps without having to compete with the full JV roster for that playing time. Those players that perform at a high level should be prepared to be contributors and role players for the JV and Varsity teams when needed.

The Texans family continues to be blessed with talented young players allowing for the formation of a second JV team, and it will be a very good one.

More experienced and developed full time players from the 8th grade roster will be eligible to compete for playing opportunities on this squad based on their performance and the game to game roster needs of the team. All rostered players are expected to be willing to learn new positions, high level skills, and pitching acumen in preparation for the future. All JV2 players are invited to be in the dugout for JV games, to be great teammates on the bench and to be ready and willing to contribute on the field as needed.

Freshman Team

Similar to the Varsity team in many ways, our Freshman team often needs to be our most competitive. As the Texans allow younger players to begin their High School career early if skill level allows, we often have Freshman age players with previous High School experience and very high skill levels. Additionally, with home schooling allowing for a small degree of graduation date flexibility, it is common for more sports-astute families to join the Texans with Freshman players that are a few months older than is typical (Great idea, BTW. Feel free to schedule a time to talk with me about this if your player has sports ambitions beyond High School). The combination of these two issues can create a roster that competes at a 5A-6A level.

Our Freshman team often needs to be our most competitive.

Most schools that we can schedule true Freshman games with are the larger schools with more players to choose from, and a higher number of competitive players in the pipeline. Those schools are always in need of Freshman games, but they will not continue to schedule games with programs that do not offer good competition. Additionally, many small to medium size opponents are hesitant to schedule their JV teams against a Freshman opponent, not anticipating a good match-up, so offering a quality opponent to them helps keep our game numbers up. The limited game schedule of this team will focus on higher level opponents and the roster will include Freshman age players from JV and JV2 teams as well as higher performing, full time players from our 8th grade roster.

8th Grade Team

The next wave is coming!

I am very excited to see our growth in this age group. Our talented group of 8th, ,7th , and 6th grade players will play a mix of home school, private school and select level teams with a scheduling preference for weeknight games so as to not compete with their respective select baseball schedules. In addition to full time Texans players, we will offer part time roster spots to those that are still playing with their select and travel teams. The more advanced, full-time members of this group will be offered co-rostering opportunities with the JV, JV2 and Freshman teams as their skill set and respective team needs allow. All players are expected to be willing to learn new positions, high level skills, and pitching acumen in preparation for the future.

Practice Squad

The Texans organization is acutely aware of the social, developmental, and communal value of high school sports, and as such, we do not cut any player that wants to grow, learn, work hard, make friends, and build character (baseball is particularly good at that last one).

The Texans are a family and if your boy has a good attitude and wants to be a part of what we do here, he can be.

High School sports, by nature, is a competitive endeavor and not every member of the organization can be guaranteed a chance to play, but we do commit to giving all players a chance to grow and an opportunity to improve.

Practice Squad players are expected to work to improve their skills during and outside of the Texans schedule to prepare to be on the game roster in the future. Practice Squad players will be uniformed and need to be prepared to fill in with their assigned team when needed, and to be great teammates on the bench, ready to play if the opportunity arises. Developing your player is very important to the coaching team. If your player is on our Practice Squad, he is welcome to contact us for improvement directives and at home skill development ideas. Practice Squad players will be invoiced at a reduced rate reflective of the limited game opportunities.

Thank you for being a part of the Texans family. I'll see you on the field!

Brian Reavis,

Texans Athletic Director