Help! I can't concentrate at work.

[Sparky Guy]

Unfortunately, the fall is a huge recruiting time for the college coaches. If you're playing HS ball in the fall you're not able to play travel or attend showcases. Being in the mid-west I hate the springs too. Too much fluctuation in the weather. In the spring the colleges are playing at the same time the HS teams are. The HS age travel teams are shut down.

It may seem better in the short term for HS ball to be in the fall. In the long term it's best things are the way they are. US folks in the cold weather states have to suffer through it. I know my DD played college in a cold weather state. It sucked to sit there at the home games wearing a parka. It snowed on her senior day.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

WOW! Big 10 teams travel a LOT! Part of that is because the weather gets so bad in this part of the country, that the teams have to play a lot of games in the south. For example, the local college here plays a lot of games in Florida while waiting for the snow to melt.

Yup - he made them ALL.

It does help to have the unblinkable means to get all this travel done too.....

 

[RubberBiscuit]

I wish high school softball were in the fall here! First, the weather is generally better here in the fall (Indian summers). Second, there would be a winter between the end of high school ball and summer ball.

Springs are brutal up here in upper Midwest. Here is my characterization of a Spring HS SB season:

1. Getting the SB team together right after basketball (actually already too late for the skilled positions) and urgently prepare them inside on a basketball court for an Opening day that has a 1% chance of happening and if it does there will be flurries with 30mph winds that then limits the HS SB fan base down to about three parents....

2. Then about a day after the last flurry is forecasted to have that immediately get replaced by monsoon season. Leaving everyone to place bets on whether the snow cover will pull back to reveal grass before the water covers it.

3. Then to have non-SB-caring and lazy HS AD's press to not have to reschedule games and force the girls out into unsafe field conditions only to see a farce of a game due to conditions. Cold and rain can be great equalizers. Also, I LOVE watching a game that has to incorporate a ball-drying sequence to the bench after each pitch.

4. Have the SB schedule get all pushed and squished into the last third of the originally scheduled season only to have the pitchers drop like flies because they have been "practicing" too much on indoor hard surfaces that progressed into needing to pitch seven games in seven days whilst still trying to resemble being a student....

5. Then to end with a playoff game guaranteed to be on graduation day where all the seniors are soooo stressed out and distracted that they can not even remember their names.

No it's all good in Spring.........

 

[quincy]

I was hoping for an update on the game, maybe when MsDinosaur gets to work we will hear how it went.

 

[MsDinosaur]

I was hoping for an update on the game, maybe when MsDinosaur gets to work we will hear how it went.

It actually turned out to be an informal round robin scrimmage between four teams. So now I know what a jamboree means!

It went pretty well IMO. DD was upset that she missed the bunt sign--she said they hadn't actually taught it to her. =:-O My retort as mean Mom was that if the coach is giving you a sign you don't understand, call time and go ask him what he wants. On the other hand, that sort of thing is exactly what a scrimmage is for...

DD caught two of the three games; the senior catcher with the bad arm/shoulder caught one. DD did well behind the plate. Nice framing, held runners well and I didn't see any passed balls. So-so at the plate. 1 for 4. A ground out to third, a strike out swinging (she said the pitcher got her with a drop ball that looked really great, until it just wasn't there, LOL) and she ended the last game with a full count strike out looking...on a ball we all thought was low and away (but the sun was going down and I'm sure the blue was eager to get home). The one hit, however, was a doozy. A line drive shot to left that cleared the leaping left fielder and went all the way to the fence, with the bases loaded. All three came home and she ended up with a double.

She felt that she'd done poorly, but I don't agree. The other girls on her team have more experience and certainly made some great plays out there, but I think she will be able to hold her own.

I do think she needs to make sure she learns their signs as quickly as she can!

By the way...no one kept score, but the "games" seemed reasonably close. No blowouts. Weather was beautiful, perhaps 5-10 cooler would have been even nicer. It was an enjoyable evening.

 

[BobInMadison]

Springs are brutal up here in upper Midwest. Here is my characterization of a Spring HS SB season:

1. Getting the SB team together right after basketball (actually already too late for the skilled positions) and urgently prepare them inside on a basketball court for an Opening day that has a 1% chance of happening and if it does there will be flurries with 30mph winds that then limits the HS SB fan base down to about three parents....

2. Then about a day after the last flurry is forecasted to have that immediately get replaced by monsoon season. Leaving everyone to place bets on whether the snow cover will pull back to reveal grass before the water covers it.

3. Then to have non-SB-caring and lazy HS AD's press to not have to reschedule games and force the girls out into unsafe field conditions only to see a farce of a game due to conditions. Cold and rain can be great equalizers. Also, I LOVE watching a game that has to incorporate a ball-drying sequence to the bench after each pitch.

4. Have the SB schedule get all pushed and squished into the last third of the originally scheduled season only to have the pitchers drop like flies because they have been "practicing" too much on indoor hard surfaces that progressed into needing to pitch seven games in seven days whilst still trying to resemble being a student....

5. Then to end with a playoff game guaranteed to be on graduation day where all the seniors are soooo stressed out and distracted that they can not even remember their names.

No it's all good in Spring.........

Being a fellow cheesehead, I can attest to this. The last two years have been the WORST! DD #1 suffered through freshman ball in unspeakable conditions, and decided not to even play sophomore year. The local lakes didn't thaw until mid-April!

I thought it was bad as a freshman that she had to play her last 5 games in 4 days (2 of them double headers). Game Friday, double header Saturday, double header Monday.

She steals a lot of bases, so her legs were ripped to shreds. The last of those games between stolen bases and passed balls, she had about 7 in one game. Absolute h*!! on her legs. Varsity was worse. They played the last half of the season in slightly over a week. (2 weekends with a week in between). The HC said is was very appropriate that it rained during the awards banquet.

Then there was the time when she had an away game, already rescheduled for an earlier rainout or snowout. So, we drove all the way to this other town, only to have them make a game-time decision to cancel the game. The third reschedule was for the double header the last day of the season.

I was the announced for DD #3's opening day for rec ball softball that year. THe Saturday the day before Mother's Day. I swear that there were snow flurries during the game.

 

[29dad]

Springs are brutal up here in upper Midwest. Here is my characterization of a Spring HS SB season:

4. Have the SB schedule get all pushed and squished into the last third of the originally scheduled season only to have the pitchers drop like flies because they have been "practicing" too much on indoor hard surfaces that progressed into needing to pitch seven games in seven days whilst still trying to resemble being a student....

No it's all good in Spring.........

Same thing happened, of course, in Minnesota. We lost our top pitcher for the entire TB season, but nobody felt sorry for us because pretty much every team was in the same boat. Compressed high school schedules in the spring took most of the blame, whether accurate or not I'm not entirely sure, but i do know that it was the worst year for injuries to pitchers that I've ever seen.

 

[MsDinosaur]

I am half tempted to go up there and scout a few teams

I was in your exact position last year, and no, so far it hasn't been any easier this year, in fact I think I worked myself up into a bigger knot last Saturday at our jamboree than I did all of last year. I think that is because making varsity as a freshman last year was like icing on the cake. This year there are greater expectations....

IA, just having made varsity as a freshman is huge. How did your jamboree go?

Am I wrong, or didn't O get accolades at both the conference and district level last season (as a freshman)?
I can see why you'd have high expectations for this year!!! Good luck to her, btw----except against PHHS of course.

 

[Lenski]

This is my dd's senior year in HS. I remember her freshman year like it was yesterday. There were a total of six catchers trying out that year and she was the only freshman catcher at the school. I was so proud of her when she made starting varsity catcher. I was constantly being told by parents and assistant coaches that she would get the job by a landslide but I refused to believe them. I was also told by a parent that crazy things happen in HS softball that you don't necessarily see in TB. I refused to believe that too and boy was I dead wrong! My advice to you is to capture as much of her HS experience as you can on video! You will not believe what you will capture. You will not believe the amount of pride your dd will exude during a HS game....especially against her school's rival. The stuff I failed to capture on video makes my head spin. I missed her first HS home run, her first caught stealing, her first tag out at home, her first everything.....you name it.....in the first 4 or 5 games of her freshman year. The "stuff" happens fast. She had an unassisted double play (pop up bunt on a suicide squeeze), she caught a pop-up without moving her feet even though the ball was behind the umpire...the base ump had to make the call, she threw out a runner by backing up the 1B on a bad throw from the SS on a routine ground ball......this is stuff off the top of my head from her freshman year alone. I'm sure you get the idea. Anyway, I wish your dd's the best and if possible, capture her HS experience on video!