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What's up guys!
My name is Ryan Barry and I am a pitcher at the University of Tampa.
Wanted to hit y'all with a quick dose of optimism and a message for anyone in here whose son might be struggling with high school baseball, or even just high school in general.
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Anyways, I think everyone knows (or knows of) someone who came into high school baseball and immediately found success. The Freshman that comes in and immediately towers over all the other kids. Or the Sophomore that's already got all the big-time D1 schools coming to his high school games to watch him play. Regardless, my point here is that I was not that kid. My Sophomore year of high school, I got exactly ZERO recruiting interest. I'm talking zero phone calls, zero recruiting emails, zero indication that I was even a college level player. Now during this time, I was also watching my summer teammates get interest from some pretty impressive schools.
I, on the other hand, was not getting the attention of ANY college coaches, much less the attention of a coach at a big-time D1 school. I was 145lbs soaking wet, and knew that if I wanted to play college baseball, it was time to make a change.
I started eating as much as I possibly could, and would drink a MASSIVE milkshake before bed every night. I started stuffing peanut butter sandwiches in my baseball bag, and would eat them whenever I had downtime (yes, I was that kid lol). I started hitting the weights harder than ever, and would spend HOURS on the internet at night, desperate to find the right workout routine that would turn me into a college level athlete.
And by the time my Junior summer rolled around, I was ready.
I was pitching lights out the whole summer, and got up to 86mph.
Just one year before that, I topped out at 74mph.
After spending the bulk of my high school career struggling with velocity, I was finally striking out batters with my fastball, and the rest of my pitches paired even better.
Over that summer going into senior year I reached out to many schools and blasted videos on Twitter. After reaching out to my number one school many times, they finally answered.
This school was the University of Tampa, and the rest of course, is history.
The point of the story is this:
If your son is not the star Freshman of his high school team.
Or even the stud Sophomore on his summer ball team.
There is absolutely no reason to panic.
Different kids develop on different timelines, and there is SO much opportunity for growth between the time you enter high school, and the time at which you need to select a college.
If you need help in baseball development or the recruiting process, we can help you:
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Work hard, be excellent to your teammates, and I'd like to think that if you do those things consistently, things will work themselves out for you in the end.
Stay positive and keep working!
-Ryan
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