I've known plenty of kids who played multiple sports and benefited from it. They were also starters.
One of the best examples is a girl who played for me one summer who went to a local Catholic HS with rigorous academic standards. In spite of that she played tennis, basketball and softball and was a standout in all three. She went downstate in tennis, and was the shortstop on the softball team.
I've worked with a couple of cheerleaders. Their softball games definitely benefited from the core strength and agility they developed from all that tumbling. One, who I also coached on teams, was a righty I converted to lefty. She was a two-year varsity starter and leadoff hitter. She would have been at least a three-year varsity starter if her school's varsity coach hadn't been another of those baseball converts who doesn't understand the value of the speed game in softball. Took him a couple of years to figure out not everyone on the team has to be able to hit the ball to the fence to have value. His teams started doing better once he got on board with the speed game. Not just with my player but a couple of others too who initially were overlooked.
I've worked with girls who were successful softball players who also played other sports in HS, and I know of others. Including pitchers. Perhaps that's because I live in the North, where you can't play outdoors all years. That gives the kids the time to do other things. What I do see is volleyball demanding kids specialize early around here. They're given no time to do anything else if they want to compete on top teams.
One of the US Olympic softball gold medalists (I think it was Jennifer Brundage but am not sure on that) was a high-level soccer player with multiple D1 scholarship offers who also played softball for a break. Then she burned out on soccer because it became too intense and decided to pursue softball in college instead. Didn't seem to hurt whoever it was any.
Best example for me, though, was my son Eric. His main passion was soccer, and he played high-level travel there. He was going to pursue in college until he decided to go into athletic training and was told by his counselor the time he would have to put in in the training room would prevent him from being able to play. Anyway, he was always a good soccer player, but despite being one of the bigger kids out there he was a little soft. By that I mean he'd tend to avoid much contact. Then he got into wrestling. After a season of that he developed a new-found toughness. From that point on he rarely lost a 50-50 ball (one where both players are going for the ball) and it was nearly impossible for opponents to get a shot off when he was defending them. Nothing that happens on a soccer field is as rough as what happens on a wrestling mat. He also tended to be the guy the team counted on to keep the other team from getting too rough. Not exactly like a hockey enforcer, but he made it clear he could win the physical matchups.
One of the best examples is a girl who played for me one summer who went to a local Catholic HS with rigorous academic standards. In spite of that she played tennis, basketball and softball and was a standout in all three. She went downstate in tennis, and was the shortstop on the softball team.
I've worked with a couple of cheerleaders. Their softball games definitely benefited from the core strength and agility they developed from all that tumbling. One, who I also coached on teams, was a righty I converted to lefty. She was a two-year varsity starter and leadoff hitter. She would have been at least a three-year varsity starter if her school's varsity coach hadn't been another of those baseball converts who doesn't understand the value of the speed game in softball. Took him a couple of years to figure out not everyone on the team has to be able to hit the ball to the fence to have value. His teams started doing better once he got on board with the speed game. Not just with my player but a couple of others too who initially were overlooked.
I've worked with girls who were successful softball players who also played other sports in HS, and I know of others. Including pitchers. Perhaps that's because I live in the North, where you can't play outdoors all years. That gives the kids the time to do other things. What I do see is volleyball demanding kids specialize early around here. They're given no time to do anything else if they want to compete on top teams.
One of the US Olympic softball gold medalists (I think it was Jennifer Brundage but am not sure on that) was a high-level soccer player with multiple D1 scholarship offers who also played softball for a break. Then she burned out on soccer because it became too intense and decided to pursue softball in college instead. Didn't seem to hurt whoever it was any.
Best example for me, though, was my son Eric. His main passion was soccer, and he played high-level travel there. He was going to pursue in college until he decided to go into athletic training and was told by his counselor the time he would have to put in in the training room would prevent him from being able to play. Anyway, he was always a good soccer player, but despite being one of the bigger kids out there he was a little soft. By that I mean he'd tend to avoid much contact. Then he got into wrestling. After a season of that he developed a new-found toughness. From that point on he rarely lost a 50-50 ball (one where both players are going for the ball) and it was nearly impossible for opponents to get a shot off when he was defending them. Nothing that happens on a soccer field is as rough as what happens on a wrestling mat. He also tended to be the guy the team counted on to keep the other team from getting too rough. Not exactly like a hockey enforcer, but he made it clear he could win the physical matchups.
