How is this? "Several marquee organizations have expanded the number of teams playing under the banner of the organization, and some have expanded to multiple states, in order to line the pockets of the owners of the organization. College coaches are not idiots...they realize this is happening and it is watering down the talent within the organizations to the point that just being on a team within the marquee organization no longer guarantees the "looks" from college coaches that it used to."
Likelihood of getting recruited by Major D1?
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How is this? "Several marquee organizations have expanded the number of teams playing under the banner of the organization, and some have expanded to multiple states, in order to line the pockets of the owners of the organization. College coaches are not idiots...they realize this is happening and it is watering down the talent within the organizations to the point that just being on a team within the marquee organization no longer guarantees the "looks" from college coaches that it used to."
FTR, I wasn't looking for an amended statement. Since you posted it...
I agree it has watered down the average within those orgs and thereby reduced the value of their name recognition. However, I believe their best players are comparable to what they had before the proliferation of teams and the bulk of them are still gathered on teams by the same well known coaches. Experienced college coaches and TD's are not idiots and recognize those teams by the coach in their name. The rest of the teams still have to establish their own name recognition.
girliesmom - Just for comparison to your niece's journey...A DFP member's DD will be attending University of Oregon (the kind of top program your sister is targeting for her DD) as a freshman next year. She's a very talented pitcher, who can also swing the bat well. She has been verbally committed to Oregon for a few years (maybe since she was a HS freshman).
This may be time for them to realize it is a long shot. I know three girls that graduated from SEC schools in 2015 and 2016. They had committed during the summer after 9th grade and are position players. Several 2021's are committed and Auburn has offered a 2022 pitcher and catcher. Many top schools have already filled their needs at pitcher by this point.
What??? 2022s are in 7th grade! Are you sure about that?
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The problem is there are a lot of parents who think their DD will be recruited based solely on the fact she is on a marquee team. While in reality they have just signed on to pay more for dues and uniforms because instead of shopping for a deal for their players the organizers and looking to line their own pockets. Maybe I am just jaded because DD came up through the ranks on a no-name independent team and we had to fight for every ounce of respect we garnered. The really good players all flocked to the marquee team, and there was only one marquee team per age, two per age group, and the marquee teams were always damn good and we looked forwarded to playing them to measure how far we had come. Now the marquee organizations have 6-8 teams per age group and half of them suck...maybe I am just "old school"
Yeah, we went through similar things. My DD is 3 years older, so it wasn't getting outrageous until her final year(s). A lot of the early expansion was comparable teams moving to a big name org, so that wasn't so bad. The never ending addition of FC teams pushed some of the better ones to switch to smaller marquee orgs (e.g. Team Mizuno/OCBB, SoCal Athletics). Now some of the best are going back out on their own (e.g. Quarles - Ohana Tigers, Blanco - Monarchs, Mercado - Athletics), which leaves the marquee orgs with their top teams and a bunch of others. It's ever-evolving out here and I hope some of these recent changes improve things.
This is an interesting thread. My DD is same age - wants to play mid-level D1 - getting slight interest but nothing very clear and anyone interested needs to see her play more because she was late getting on their radar and they haven't seen her enough. We targeted D1 because multiple people have told us she is good enough for that, including a D1 coach who has already finished recruiting for 2018. 'Finished recruiting 2018' is a common response DD has received. She is super frustrated but just wants to play in college - focus has been on D1 so far (we got a really late start) and the D3s she's been in touch with have all expressed interest, DD just needs to figure out if she likes the schools enough and when we expand our focus to D3s then I'm sure she'll find a great fit. DD is disappointed that we didn't start sooner. That was a combination of ignorance and just not truly comprehending how important the early start is. Her new TB coach (who also says she has D1 ability) has said 'recruiting is a marathon, not a sprint' - truer words have not been spoken!
Anyway - back to your niece- - I think the best thing you can do is tell that family what you know from your experience/advice you've heard:
- it's highly unlikely at this point that they can reach this dream because these schools have almost certainly finished recruiting for her year,
- the family should consider changing their focus and if they still want to hold on to this dream, maybe consider trying a JUCO transfer route (although from what you've described I doubt that would be good enough in the eyes of others for them)
- maybe they should ask for an objective opinion from someone about your niece's skills. If her skills are there then that leads to the discussion that coaches watch parents too and 'gently' tell them that they should let DD drive this effort, which they should be doing anyway.
I agree with the advice about treading carefully and/or staying out of it because you don't want to affect relationships there so you will probably need to tell your mom that sometimes you just need to let people figure things out on their own!
Anyway - back to your niece- - I think the best thing you can do is tell that family what you know from your experience/advice you've heard:
- it's highly unlikely at this point that they can reach this dream because these schools have almost certainly finished recruiting for her year,
- the family should consider changing their focus and if they still want to hold on to this dream, maybe consider trying a JUCO transfer route (although from what you've described I doubt that would be good enough in the eyes of others for them)
- maybe they should ask for an objective opinion from someone about your niece's skills. If her skills are there then that leads to the discussion that coaches watch parents too and 'gently' tell them that they should let DD drive this effort, which they should be doing anyway.
I agree with the advice about treading carefully and/or staying out of it because you don't want to affect relationships there so you will probably need to tell your mom that sometimes you just need to let people figure things out on their own!
Teams may be out of money for a particular class, but coaches are always recruiting good players.
Academic scholarships and financial aid are not on the same timeline as athletic scholarships.
There is always some last minute shuffling with coaching changes, grades, ect.
If a player is confident in her abilities and has a dream school, consider walking on the first year and proving yourself.
There are lots of players who transfer, and playing at a JUCO can be better experience than sitting on the bench at a D1.
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Dumb Question... what is JUCO ? Jr.______ College____________ Thx
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