Quitting School Ball For Full Time Travel (In Middle School)

[MsDinosaur]

When I hear some complain about school ball, my first reply is "what did you do to make it better"? You ran off to play TB 2 hours away instead of developing girls right in your neighborhood, then you complain about the lack of talent in school? The BEST powerhouse schools have feeder travel/AAU type teams that start at the early ages, really large for football and basketball, but it works for softball and baseball too.

Like I said, a successful HS program begins years BEFORE you get there.

Good point, that's another reason to hold my tongue if I'm tempted to start complaining when DD hits HS ball in August.

However, in my defense, I tried to make DD's neighborhood rec team into something more. I'm sure I was somewhat of an irritant to my daughter's rec coaches and the other rec families.

I was the one who lobbied for softball pants instead of a motley collection of shorts (cutoffs for softball, really??? And inevitably some girls would show up wearing flip flops.). Their rec association provided fields for a VIP C tournament and allowed the rec teams to enter for a nominal $50 fee (rather than the usual $250+). Each year, I found out who the coach needed to contact and when, and tried to persuade everyone to pitch in a couple of dollars to sign the team up. I was successful two out of three years, but most of them weren't really that crazy about shlepping their kids to another bunch of games. I thought several tournament games at five dollars apiece was an out-of-this-world deal! DD really liked being in the tournament and wanted her team to play like one of those real C teams. The rest of her rec team seemed content with the yearly rec league and that one VIP tournament--if it didn't interfere with anything else their family had planned. IMO there was never going to be a good match between what we wanted and what the rest of the neighborhood team wanted.

So yes, I admit it. We ran off to a TB team; we probably should have given up and left a year sooner. I don't know if the girls she used to play with will end up resenting her in HS, but we did try... JMO.

 

[fastpitch]

The original intent of the OP is how bad does it have to get before you would take your DD off a school team.

I am not talking about playing for a bad team, that happens if you play enough softball.

I am talking about a situation that is so bad that the girls aren't having fun, they are regressing in their skills, and there isn't any support from the middle school or HS coaches.

It's easy to sit back and say, "stick it out", "sacrifice for the team", but at what point is it to much when the commitment doesn't go both ways?

What do you say to your #1 pitcher when she has 7 strike outs in an inning because the catcher can't catch the ball? What do you say to your SS that has lost every MS game by an average of 20 runs for 1.5 years?

I realize that our situation is unique with 3 middle schools in our community but it's just hard to watch.

In your situation its definitely not a bad idea to skip MS ball altogether and just do TB. For the motivated TB player in a school with many less dedicated players/coaches there are better ways to spend your time than to be a part of poorly run practices/bad games every day after school. Too much bad softball for players who are more than rec players promotes burnout IMO.

Edit: sorry. just reread your post. not sure if I would take DD out after season has started. i'd stick it out. Just not return next year assuming only 6th or 7th grade. Probably also miss MS games for TB if there is a conflict.

Its easy for folks to say be part of the solution... but for a truly talented/dedicated player to be put into a situation where they are just that much better than everyone else is just not fair to that player and will hold them back and possibly burn them out.

Some are lucky and just live in softball "hot beds". But for the rest, if a HS program wants good players, I believe its those coaches jobs to start that feeling of school pride and motivation with the parents and players at the younger ages in the feeder leagues in the area. Most HS coaches don't have the time or energy to do that so it doesn't happen... I've seen two coaches do that. It's not easy. They had the time, energy and enthusiasm to start with the younger age groups and have built some successful HS programs around them. Can parents do that too? I suppose they could. But they'd have to start much earlier than MS as this original posters DD is in.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Good point, that's another reason to hold my tongue if I'm tempted to start complaining when DD hits HS ball in August.

However, in my defense, I tried to make DD's neighborhood rec team into something more. I'm sure I was somewhat of an irritant to my daughter's rec coaches and the other rec families.

I was the one who lobbied for softball pants instead of a motley collection of shorts (cutoffs for softball, really??? And inevitably some girls would show up wearing flip flops.). Their rec association provided fields for a VIP C tournament and allowed the rec teams to enter for a nominal $50 fee (rather than the usual $250+). Each year, I found out who the coach needed to contact and when, and tried to persuade everyone to pitch in a couple of dollars to sign the team up. I was successful two out of three years, but most of them weren't really that crazy about shlepping their kids to another bunch of games. I thought several tournament games at five dollars apiece was an out-of-this-world deal! DD really liked being in the tournament and wanted her team to play like one of those real C teams. The rest of her rec team seemed content with the yearly rec league and that one VIP tournament--if it didn't interfere with anything else their family had planned. IMO there was never going to be a good match between what we wanted and what the rest of the neighborhood team wanted.

So yes, I admit it. We ran off to a TB team; we probably should have given up and left a year sooner. I don't know if the girls she used to play with will end up resenting her in HS, but we did try... JMO.

Hey, at least you tried and had good intentions. When we first moved to this little town from the big city, there was a sign outside city hall about youth softball sign ups. While signing DD up, a man told me they needed help coaching, I explained I had played BB but never even watched a whole game of fast pitch softball. Since I knew 6u would be coach pitch, I thought "surely I can handle that".

First night of practice, oh boy, I thought "what the hell I have gotten into". I thought at first the league commissioner had given me the worst players he could find, after watching the other teams practice I realized it wasn't just my team that sucked.

Quickly I learned 5-6yo had a hard time throwing/catching that heavy 11" ball, a single in practice was turning into a double/triple with errors. I then had the infield roll the ball ( like bowling ) to the bases, you wouldn't believe how much of a defensive difference that made. We went on to win the league out of 7 other teams. The next year every 6u team was "rolling". lol

Over the summer and fall we worked from groups of 2 to 12 ( whoever could make it ) practicing overhand and other basic skills as we had to move up to 8u. I kept most of my girls via the draft, and we won the league that year too. After Allstars I asked the parents how they would like to play in a more competitive roll over the summer ( TB ). They all wanted to so we jumped in with both feet!

We played 2 more seasons of rec during the spring and travel in the summer/fall. Our last year of rec, which was first year 10u, we came in second in the Dixie Youth World Series out of 400 teams. ( it's a playoff type format like HS, but multi state ) After that we dropped rec and traveled full time.

We mostly played in the southeast region, from Oklahoma to Florida and as far north as Illinios. Won 3 state championships, 2009, 2010, 2011.

Some of the girls were getting offers from real TB exposure teams for the 2012 season. I made a hard decision to step down, I felt it was in their best interest.

Sorry for the long boring background, but that's where our MS / HS run started, a bunch a snot nose 6yo's playing rec together. In MS they won the West TN Athletic Conference ( never had been done), in HS they made it to state ( first in school history ), and then made it 3 years in a row.

Out of the 13 girls that first year of rec, 7 were left playing by their HS senior year, 6 are playing college this spring, 1 will next spring.

Our first year rec Allstars

[/IMG]

My 6 seniors from last year, after a HS tournament out of town.

[/IMG]

And as a bonus, a rare sighting of GD, trying to explain things to the HS coaches. I gotta try to get some sleep, DD starts her college playoffs at 10am today.

[/IMG]

 

[chinamigarden]

GD your story of your first practice reminds me of my first baseball practice. 6-8 YO boys, machine pitch. I had a practice plan all drawn up. It became obvious within minutes that the first lesson we needed was, how to tell your right from your left and which hand does the baseball glove go on. It took me a minute before I realized I did not have 5 left handed kids, and no their parents did not buy them the wrong glove.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

GD your story of your first practice reminds me of my first baseball practice. 6-8 YO boys, machine pitch. I had a practice plan all drawn up. It became obvious within minutes that the first lesson we needed was, how to tell your right from your left and which hand does the baseball glove go on. It took me a minute before I realized I did not have 5 left handed kids, and no their parents did not buy them the wrong glove.

A friend of mine at work, had his first BB practice with his 6u BB team last Saturday. A couple of days before he asked me to look over his plan sheet, I laughed because it looked like spring training for the Cardnials. I reached into my desk and handed him my bottle of aspirin, told him that's the only plan he needs. Two before practice, and two after.

 

[Greenmonsters]

And as a bonus, a rare sighting of GD, trying to explain things to the HS coaches. I gotta try to get some sleep, DD starts her college playoffs at 10am today.

[/IMG]

Good luck for DD's playoffs. Is she going to leave her cleats at the plate?

FWIW - The coaches don't seem to buying your argument that the concession stand hot dogs deserve a 5-star rating. And you appear way less green than I expected - must be the lighting.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Good luck for DD's playoffs. Is she going to leave her cleats at the plate?

FWIW - The coaches don't seem to buying your argument that the concession stand hot dogs deserve a 5-star rating. And you appear way less green than I expected - must be the lighting.

Thanks man, we're going to need it. I have a feeling we are fixing to get "smacked". Play the #6 team in the country the first round.

 

[sportinus]

best of luck to your DD