Committed, SR Season - What to do???

[Vertigo]

She could pick up this Fall, and I assume there's HS ball in the Spring. For next summer, you could look for a league for college-age players. I know they exist in Florida, Texas, and even Kansas. They have current and incoming college players on their rosters.

Great point! A 23U team makes sense! They are pretty competitive around here, and carry all-college players. Schedule is much less demanding travel-wise.

 

[Vertigo]

Also just FYI - my dd has played with or against a few of the players currently on the roster of your DD’s college team. They did not play on the highest level National teams, nor did they travel out to Colorado or California. They are handling themselves just fine on that team.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

A pitcher on my older daughter's travel team is going to a D1 school in Connecticut. Her coach has her on a workout schedule tracker that is very strict to the point that she couldn't go to Planet Fitness in Atlanta because they didn't have free weights. The coach also said she had to play competitive ball this summer to keep fresh. If she was seen slacking off and having a good time at the beach rather than preparing for college ball, they threatened to rescind her scholarship.

 

[Vertigo]

A pitcher on my older daughter's travel team is going to a D1 school in Connecticut. Her coach has her on a workout schedule tracker that is very strict to the point that she couldn't go to Planet Fitness in Atlanta because they didn't have free weights. The coach also said she had to play competitive ball this summer to keep fresh. If she was seen slacking off and having a good time at the beach rather than preparing for college ball, they threatened to rescind her scholarship.

That’s a little OTT if you ask me! Really?? A player can’t go to the beach one weekend of the summer just to relax or spend time with family before leaving for school? That’s insane.

ETA: What if the player has to work that summer too? I mean they aren’t going to be working out all hours of the day!

 

[LEsoftballdad]

That’s a little OTT if you ask me! Really?? A player can’t go to the beach one weekend of the summer just to relax or spend time with family before leaving for school? That’s insane.

ETA: What if the player has to work that summer too? I mean they aren’t going to be working out all hours of the day!

Going to the beach on an off weekend would be fine, I am sure. I think they were more concerned with them taking the whole summer off.

 

[Vertigo]

Going to the beach on an off weekend would be fine, I am sure. I think they were more concerned with them taking the whole summer off.

Gotcha. That I can understand. I just wonder if they hold their current players to the same standard? I know of several D1 players who are not playing on a team this summer - a couple being pitchers. They are hitting the gym and taking lessons, but they are not playing.

 

[nikkilugi]

Since you have experienced the differences, could you please describe for others to learn of this.

I can try - it is hard to put into words for some reason.

In KC there are quite a few organizations. Most of them have at least one team at the higher level that is competitive and that travels / showcases. I can count in my head knowing the orgs that are there right now probably at least 7 that travel to the bigger (expensive) exposure tournaments. They might not each hit all of them but different ones go to different tourneys.

In KC the big letter orgs were USA, and USSSA before we left. Now I think PG is a player and they handle the Top Gun tourneys that come there. There are multiple tournaments in the KC area every weekend. Multiple that include USA tournaments, U-Trip tournaments and sometimes PGF/Top Gun Tournaments. Tournaments all over all the time.

Here in SE VA (Virginia Beach area) there are also quite a few orgs, however, most of these orgs are local/regional - again I am just talking about the Hampton Roads area - not RVA (Richmond) or NoVA (Northern Virginia) or any of the other areas like Charlottesville or SW VA. I mean VA is a big state, lol. Heck Hampton Roads is a big area. Anyway here in Hampton Roads there are a lot of smaller organizations and most have local/regional teams. There are not a lot of tournament options based out of the Virginia Beach area either. There were 3 for the summer 2022 and I'm seeing 4 for fall of 2022.

There are SO many letter orgs over here in VA. Seriously too many for me to count and most have their own small (boo boo as my DD calls them) tournaments each weekend mostly in Richmond and that surrounding area. There are 2 orgs that I know of that take a team and travel to IDT/Sparkler or even travel to Scenic City or Legacy or Veterans. The other org doesn't even bother with PGF - they usually do the TCS Nationals in Myrtle Beach (nothing wrong with that). We have talked to some of the smaller org coaches and they subscribe to the philosophy "play in the area where your players want to go to college".

LL is very big here and a lot of these local teams are definitely fed from the LL girls in their areas. There are good girls that come out of LL - FYI there is NO LL in KC area - but there are definitely teams just basically LL All Stars and they just have a different philosophy than we experienced before.

One last thing we have noticed as a difference. In KC we would play at night. Under the lights games could have a 9 pm start time and run until almost midnight - shoot some games started just before midnight and ran after, lol. They do not play at night here - I can't even remember a VB or Richmond tournament that DD played in that was past a 6 pm start time, even on Friday or Saturday. Maybe someone familiar with the area can explain why - perhaps chances of weather? Because a lot of the fields have lights.

 

[radness]

That’s a little OTT if you ask me! Really?? A player can’t go to the beach one weekend of the summer just to relax or spend time with family before leaving for school? That’s insane.

ETA: What if the player has to work that summer too? I mean they aren’t going to be working out all hours of the day!

To me the point is they have to get their workouts in not over-the-top it's a standard of getting workouts in. Doesn't include the entire 24 hours of each day just get your workouts in.

 

[Vertigo]

To me the point is they have to get their workouts in not over-the-top it's a standard of getting workouts in. Doesn't include the entire 24 hours of each day just get your workouts in.

And I still think a player can go to the gym, workout, play ball, and still have a life outside of that. If a coach sees beach pics on SM and rescinds an offer over that, that’s really sad.

 

[Agcy]

That’s a little OTT if you ask me! Really?? A player can’t go to the beach one weekend of the summer just to relax or spend time with family before leaving for school? That’s insane.

ETA: What if the player has to work that summer too? I mean they aren’t going to be working out all hours of the day!

My DD's college coach offers late because he had on pitcher that he offered spring of JR year and by the time she came back to his camp has lost 5 mph on her pitch because she 'cashed the check' and didn't need to keep digging.

My daughter has 3-5 daily workouts each week - maybe an hour each - and then we work on hitting 2-3 times per week.

At the end of the story - some teams will have a 'test' to pass at the start of fall semester to make sure the players worked on their strength/conditioning.