Southside Prospects · Compete · Develop · Excel

The Prospect Standard

The player handbook and the Daily Minimums card for Southside's high school (17/18) and youth teams. Everything in it is a choice, not talent: how early you show up, how you're dressed, how hard you run to first with two outs down six. We don't hold the line on results. We hold the line on the things you control.

Get the handbook & card Read the 25 non-negotiables

The whole book in one line

“Do the small thing, on the day you don't feel like it.”

FaithGrowthGritGratitudeCharisma

For coaches, players and parents

Two editions. Four PDFs. One standard.

Send the handbook home once. Print the Daily Minimums card two-sided, laminate it, and it lives in the bag with the batting gloves.

High school ↓Youth ↓

Coaching another Southside team? Ask Connor which edition applies. His contact is at the bottom of the page.

17/18 · Fall 2026

High School

The Prospect Standard · Player Handbook

Player handbookPDF · 26 pages Daily Minimums cardPDF · 2 sides

Practice: Tuesdays 7:30–9:00 PM · Center STLFridays 6:30–7:30 PM · optional skills
Be early: On the line at 7:15 for a 7:30 practice
Coaching staff: Connor Jenkins, Head Coach · Zane Roos, Assistant
Document: SSP-PDH-HS-2026 · v1.0

Only in the high school edition

Know your numbers
Recruiting benchmarks by tool and position — the ranges that open doors, and the six numbers every player should know cold.
Own your recruitment
The 9th-to-12th timeline, what coaches actually want on video, the rules of contact, and the email that gets read.
Arm care & throwing volume
Rest after pitching by age, the hard rules, when to tell a coach immediately, and the off-season shutdown.
Fuel & sleep
Eight to nine hours, the plate, the tournament-day plan, daily water, and the honest answer on supplements.

Youth · Fall 2026

Youth

The Prospect Standard · Player & Parent Handbook

Player handbookPDF · 22 pages Daily Minimums cardPDF · 2 sides

Practice: Tuesdays 6:00–7:30 PM · Center STLFridays 5:30–6:30 PM · optional skills
Be early: On the line at 5:45 for a 6:00 practice
Coaching staff: Cary Hodges, Head Coach · Connor Jenkins & Zane Roos, Assistants
Document: SSP-PDH-14U-2026 · v1.0

Start here

How to use this book

This is not a rulebook you read once and stick in the bottom of your bag. It is the operating manual for the parts of your development that happen when a coach isn't standing next to you — which is most of them. Team practice is where we sharpen. This book is where you get built.

Read it once, front to back

Twenty minutes, this week. You need the whole picture before the daily pieces make sense.

Then live in four pages

The Daily 15, the Mobility 10, catch play, and your two lift days. That's 90% of the work.

Keep the card in your bag

The Daily Minimums card is the short version. Laminate it — it lives with your batting gloves.

Who we are

Our five core values

Five words. They're the filter every decision in this program goes through, including the ones about playing time. You can be coached on all five. None of them require an ounce of talent.

01
Faith
Belief that shows up before the proof does. Faith in the work you can't see paying off yet, faith in the brother next to you, faith in the plan when you're 0-for-3 — and, for those who carry it, faith in something bigger than a baseball game. Faith is what lets you take a confident swing on an 0-2 pitch.
What it looks like here · You take a good, committed swing when you have every excuse to take a defensive one.
02
Growth
You are not your last at-bat. The only score that matters over a season is the gap between the player who showed up in August and the one who walks off in October. Chase the version of you that hasn't happened yet — and be willing to look bad for a week while you build him.
What it looks like here · You ask the question instead of nodding. You keep the new feel for a full week before you judge it.
03
Grit
Doing it right when it's 97 degrees, when you're tired, when the game is out of hand, when nobody is watching. Grit isn't yelling. It's the eleventh sprint looking exactly like the first one.
What it looks like here · The seventh-inning sprint out of the dugout is identical to the first-inning sprint.
04
Gratitude
Somebody paid for this. Somebody drove you. Somebody dragged the field at 6 a.m. and somebody is standing behind the plate in 95-degree gear for gas money. You get to play a game. Act like it's a privilege, because it is one.
What it looks like here · Helmet picked up, dugout cleaner than you found it, “thank you” to the ump, the coach, and your ride.
05
Charisma
Be the guy other people want in the dugout. Energy is a skill, it's contagious, and it's completely free. Nobody has ever been cut for bringing too much life to a team — and everybody remembers the guy who did it on the days he wasn't playing.
What it looks like here · You're the loudest voice for your brothers on the day you're not in the lineup.

Why it's five and not fifty“Character is the tool that makes every other tool trainable.”

Non-negotiables

The Standard

Twenty-five items. They are posted at every game and they do not move. Infractions are paid in sprints or HIIT, on the spot or at the next practice.

1
Be early
15 min before practice — dynamic warmup starts then. 1 hr 15 min before games, at the field or cages, cleats tied, ready to move. Every 5 minutes late = a sprint.
2
Attitude
Bring a great one, every day. A bad attitude runs.
3
30 seconds
On and off the field in 30 seconds. Sprint in, sprint out.
4
Passed balls
Block it. Keep everything in front of you.
5
Strikeout looking
Go down swinging — never watching.
6
No jogging
Nobody jogs on this diamond. Ever.
7
Protect your brothers
Zero slander or negative talk toward a teammate.
8
Walks
Pitchers attack the zone. Free bases run.
9
Mental mistakes
Know where the next play is before the pitch. Full-speed physical mistakes are part of baseball — mental ones run.
10
Talking back
To any coach. Not once.
11
Two-out walks
Never give in with two outs. Finish the inning.
12
Missed signs
Know them. Look for them. Every at-bat, every pitch.
13
Dugout clean
No trash left behind. We leave it better than we found it.
14
Dugout is for playersParents
No parents in the dugout, no food deliveries. Players pack their own food and drinks — no fast food.
15
No alcohol at gamesParents
Period.
16
UmpiresParents
Players and parents never talk to umpires. That is the coaches' job — leave it to us.
17
Let us coachParents
No mechanics from the stands. One voice. Interference with your son's development slows it down.
18
Throw strikes
Pitchers live at 50%+ strikes in every outing.
19
Respect the equipment
Helmets, bats, and gloves are never thrown.
20
No phones
Never out in the dugout. Be where your feet are.
21
Do your job
Back up your base, cover your responsibility — every player has a job on every pitch.
22
Know the count & outs
At all times. No excuses.
23
Call the ball
Every pop fly gets a loud voice. Silence causes collisions.
24
On the fence
Locked in, loud for your brothers, in the game — even when you're not in the game.
25
Hit the cutoff
Know the relay before the ball is ever hit.

What we never punish

Effort, and full-speed physical mistakes. Dive for a ball and miss it — that's a play we make in October. Swing hard and miss — good. We hold the line on hustle, focus, preparation, and attitude, because every one of those is a choice. Parents: thank you for helping us hold it.

The card · side 1 and side 2

Daily Minimums

The short version of the whole book, eight blocks on two sides. The full prescriptions, reps and cues are on the card and in the handbook.

Show up right

Every practice, every game

On the line 15 minutes before practice, 1 hr 15 min before games. Jersey tucked, belt on, hat straight, cleats tied, phone in the bag. Late = sprint.

The pre-practice 15

HS 7:15 → 7:30 · Youth 5:45 → 6:00

Arrive and set, a two-minute reset, the seven-minute dynamic, bands on both arms, then partner up. Catch play is live at the whistle.

The Daily 15 · hitting

5 days a week · no cage needed

Five drills, 3×8 each: bow-and-arrow holds, hinge finish-freezes, towel-bat barrel turns, separation dry swings, walk-through swings. One swing thought per session.

The Mobility 10

Every day, including off days

Ten movements, ten minutes, best done at night: hips, t-spine, ankles, trunk, wrists, and the sleeper stretch on the throwing arm. Gentle, never painful.

Catch play · the progression

Bands first. Always.

Seven stages from wrist flicks to pull-downs to five accuracy throws. Long toss is fresh-arm only: 150–200+ ft for HS, 90–120 ft for youth.

Lift

HS 2–3× a week · Youth 2× a week

Day A, post and push. Day B, jump and pull. Throws and jumps first, then strength, then core. Never to failure, never the day of a game.

The five checkpoints & the cues

One thought at a time

The load, posture, the post, the turn, the engine — each with one cue. Compete round: two rounds of eight, two points a ball — 16 is a perfect round, 32 a perfect session. Beat your last total.

Non-negotiable, every game

The effort standard

90 feet every time. On and off in 30 seconds. On the fence when you're not in the game. Know your job on every pitch. Full-speed physical mistakes are free.

For coaches

How to run it with your team

Post the 25 at every game. Infractions are paid in sprints, on the spot or at the next practice — no conversation, no exceptions, and it isn't personal.
Send every family the handbook link once and the Daily Minimums card to print. The card is the version that survives a season.
Ask for the weekly log on Tuesday. If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.
Protect three things with parents: sleep, food, and the fifteen-minute home block. Ask “what was your cue today?” instead of “did you hit it hard?”
The individual work lives with M4P: assessments, film, and the written program. Team practice is where we sharpen.

Questions about the standard

Connor Jenkins

HS Director · Southside Prospects

cjenkins@southsideprospects.com

Hitting development for the club is powered by M4P, the official training arm of Southside Prospects. About the partnership · Book an assessment

Southside Prospects Baseball Club · southsideprospects.com · Center STL, 6727 Langley Ave, St. Louis, MO 63123