High School Program - Stars Baseball

Stars teams compete at the 15U, 16U, 17U and 18U levels in summer tournament play. These teams travel to regional and local tournaments designed to expose players to elite competition and college recruiters. These tournaments can include but are not limited to the CABA World Series, Amateur Baseball Championship, PBR World Series, and more.

The goal of Stars Baseball is to provide the absolute best coaching and competitive environment for players who wish to compete and excel at the highest levels of the sport.

Emphasis on Fall/Winter Training and Preparation: each team has a paid Head Coach with college or pro baseball experience. Our teams practice from November through February with defined plans and goals, by month and by position. Off-season training programs are geared around the following skills: fielding, hitting, velocity, strength training, and throwing. All training programs are supervised by our professional coaching staff.

Our Winter Program has 5 specific goals for our players: 

1. Earn a spot on your high school baseball team
2. Improve your baseball acumen
3. Promote strength and health through MLB-based conditioning principles
4. Develop key measurable skills to help strengthen your recruiting profile
5. Build “Stars Nation” unity in our teams and program

There will typically be 2 practices per week. One day may be dedicated to position-specific activities. Team and position-based practices may be combined across high school levels. Conditioning is self-directed by the player with guidelines from the Stars. 

College Recruiting: high school coaches have knowledge and experience in the college recruiting and pro scouting process and a proven track record placing players. We will hold a “Recruiting 101 Info Night” for Stars families, and have our own NCSA representative to assist you.

Summer Season with Goals: tournament play begins after the IHSA high school season ends and continues through July. Teams will play 6-8 tournaments. Each team plays a mix of local, driving distance and overnight / out of town events. Summer season goals are results-driven: 

1. Maintain the conditioning work ethic established in the Fall/Winter training program
2. Use the baseball acumen developed to execute game strategies for success
3. Win

1. High school tournaments don't care if parents have a job or other day-time commitments. Some of your tournaments might start on Wednesday at 8am, and others might end on Tuesday at 5pm. Save up that PTO if you can!
2. High school tournaments aren't necessarily located in the same city you expect. A tournament based at Judson University in Elgin might have pool play games at Carmel High School in Mundelein. Be sure you know where your games are being played!
3. Related to #2, you should probably plan to just bring your turf shoes, molded cleats and metal cleats to every game. A "turf only" tournament might have games at other locations that have natural grass/dirt fields.
4. There are typically no rules about players chirping from the dugout, even if the pitcher is in his pitching motion (those rules probably went away earlier than high school but it's more noticeable now that they all have loud deep voices). Some teams are doing it all in good fun and rooting on their own players, and others are more obnoxious and trash talking opponents. Regardless, there's a LOT of noise coming from dugouts.

More coming soon!