I only can hope you are right my friend. Every year I see this thread and the frustration just builds.
Article on early recruiting...
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I only can hope you are right my friend. Every year I see this thread and the frustration just builds.
- Dec 2, 2012
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SoftballMom2,
I empathize with your situation and concern, but rest assured your DD will find her spot in the collegiate softball world. If she is throwing in the low 60s now, and has the desire to continually get better, she will find a spot on a team that meets her needs and wishes. You your DD are embarking on a time when advice will flow freely from many sources and some of it will be contradictory. You and her will need to sort through a lot of "stuff" over the next few years, and learn on the fly. There are no absolutes or perfect strategies in this process.
My DD just verbaled to a school that was on the very top of her list for a couple of years. Notice I did not say it was her first choice or dream school. She never allowed herself to be tied to one school and she kept an open mind throughout the process. She had a list of prospects, and a list of criteria that she used to evaluate those prospects. The best piece of advice my daughter received early in the process was from her exceptional head coach at the time. He told her to list things that were important to her, before beginning the recruiting process. It took several months to develop that list, but that list ultimately served to ground her, and us as her parents, when "opportunities" arose. No matter how good the opportunity, if it didn't fit the criteria, she/we moved on and never sweated the decision.
A given at the top of my daughter's list of criteria was a high quality education in her desired major. The criteria that I am the most proud of her for establishing (and sticking with for 3 years) was she wanted to be on the field and playing as soon as possible. She wanted to have an opportunity be an impact player on a team that was competitive as an underclassman. At the age of 13 she told me she is going to work too hard, and devote too much time to wait for a chance to play. As competitive as she is, she could not imagine sitting on the bench for a couple of years waiting her turn. The trade off for her was not being tied to a level of play (DI, DII, DIII, NAIA etc) and not being limited to a single position. She worked very hard to become competent at several positions. She also eliminated schools with bulging rosters. The most important thing she did is made sure her grades would allow her to play anywhere. There are no guarantees, and shouldn't be relative to playing time, but I think she has focused on the right things to make sure she has an opportunity to achieve her goal of being on the playing field early in her college career.
By waiting until the fall of her junior year to commit, she gained a good understanding of her skills and capabilities. She has played on a top-tier travel team for a couple of years against some of the best competition in the country. Her academic skills are known, and she had the opportunity to make sure her future team's program, coaches and culture were a fit for her. In the fall of 2017, she will be playing at a competitive DI school, in an area of the country she has always liked, with an excellent academic program in her field of study.
My point is... you and your daughter can only control some things in this process. If you focus on those things and not "the system" or what others do, your DD will find her spot in collegiate softball. Learning and continuing to focus what is truly most important to your daughter will make the journey and the outcome more enjoyable.
Great advice keeping an open mind! During my DD's recruiting process the schools that showed interest in my DD rose up the list, while those that did not fell off the list...we were hoping to maximize the educational value of her scholarship and the more interested a school was, the higher the value....parents also need to calculate "out of pocket" expenses, because a 25% scholarship at an in-state school may be worth more than a 50-75% scholarship at some out of state schools.
- Dec 2, 2012
- 127
- 16
Your point is a very good one, and one I forgot to mention. My DD's final decision came down to two schools that showed interest in her, and pursued her. A number of schools showed interest over the last few years, but these two made it clear they wanted DD to be a part of their program. Being "wanted" was important to her.
My sister is an archaeologist. She always wanted to be one, and she is. One of two employed by the state of Nebraska. It's a tough field to have a career in. Very, very Competitive. My sister at one point was wishing she went into geology. Not sure how the job prospects are now, but at the time the field was growing and they were making the big bucks.
- Jun 12, 2015
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Me either! Plus mine are homeschooled so I'm even less aware. I have to do math every time it comes up, and I always tell myself to remember the year but then I forget. I have one in 6th and one in 3rd.
- Aug 26, 2015
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I'm in the same boat. Everyday it seems I'm leaning more towards telling DD to forget softball in college and let her walk on to wherever her full ride athletic college is. Good thing I don't have to say anything about it for quite a while...and maybe just maybe some D1 coaches will ignore the verbal commits and push NCAA to stop the nonsense by that time. 7th grade is not the time to make career choices in America....or has America changed that much and I've just had my head buried in the sand?
As it should be for both practical and emotional considerations. Much better to be in a program where you are presumed to be good rather than where you are presumed to be not good enough. Having said that, the question I tell parents to ask when the pick is made, "If you fell down the steps the first day and could never play again, would you want to stay at that school?". If the answer is yes, we may have a winner.
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