Freshman pitcher dd. First time playing school ball.

Pop time 44 said:

DD is a freshman and will tryout for a very good HS program. If she has any shot at Varsity I feel like it will be hitting that gets her there. Honestly I expect JV though.


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xdfp01 said:

My daughter has been a pitcher since she was 8. Started out little league- all stars (3rd, 4th and 8th in the state playoffs) - did local travel teams for a while- moved to a B travel team last year. This year she’s with an A travel team for the first time.

But Monday starts a whole new world for us.

School ball. ugh.

We didn’t have a junior high team- my oldest daughter didn’t play softball. I have no idea what to expect and I am so crazy nervous about it.

I guess I’m so anxious because it feels like the perfect storm brewing.
1) There are very small numbers of upperclassmen (1 lone varsity pitcher), but about 20 entering freshman all trying out (no joke). My daughter is 1 of 3 that takes pitching lessons all year around. There are a few others that pitched good enough for little league play, but don’t take lessons.
2) It feels like every single one of the other freshmen parents volunteered to become assistant JV coaches this year.
3) There’s rumors that some of the freshman are such a good team/players that some may play varsity. Not sure if my daughter is one of them.
4) But at one point she did leave the town’s local travel team for the other teams since they practiced more. So she’s more or less an outsider… or at least it feels like it.
5). President of our school board has a daughter on the team.

I’m just so anxious about it all. I’ll add that 3 of the new ‘volunteer’ coaches were old coaches from the local team that she left. Maybe that’s the reason for most of my uneasiness I guess. I know high school ball is supposed to just be for fun. This just sure doesn’t feel like it’s going to be fun. So I guess I’ll say that I will accept ANY & ALL advice on how to still find or make this season fun anyway. For her. But for us too, or (serious question!) is it never fun for parents or never intended to be fun for parents. ? Parents can only have fun in travel ball. ?

Sigh. I will try ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING

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BobInMadison said:

There is another side of the coin.

Last year my DD 3's HS team had 4 decent pitchers. They put 2 on varsity, the other 2 on JV. The two pitchers they put on JV could hit and field better than many of the girls on varsity. The other JV pitcher was moved up to varsity during the year, so after that my poor DD 3 pitched every inning of all but one of the remaining games of the season. This fall they had DD 3 play fall ball with varsity, and they had all 4 pitchers. So the other 75% of the time she was fielding.

It was clear DD 3 would've been on varsity last year if she didn't pitch. Her hitting and fielding are just too good. In fact, while DD 3 wants to play OF, in fall ball she often played SS or 3B because her fielding was so good.

This year will be a really, really sticky situation. The father of two of the varsity players organized a bunch of fundraisers to send the varsity girls to Florida for spring break. JV doesn't go. Last year there were so many hard feelings because of girls on JV being as good or better than some girls on varsity that some long-time friendships were severely damaged. This year it could be much, much worse. Especially for talented players who spent a lot of time doing fundraising. I am worried that some of the better players might quit the team if they don't make varsity, which will really hurt the team the next few years.

EDIT TO ADD: The other pitcher who moved up to varsity did not pitch on varsity. She only pitched JV.

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djcarter1966 said:

Hopefully they don't make JV fund raise...if that is the case that is 100% BS. Why would anyone put in all that hard work for literally no reason...unless part of the money goes for something else. Are they playing some kind of tournament in Fla? Whole thing seems knida fishy.

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BobInMadison said:

There is another side of the coin.

Last year my DD 3's HS team had 4 decent pitchers. They put 2 on varsity, the other 2 on JV. The two pitchers they put on JV could hit and field better than many of the girls on varsity. The other JV pitcher was moved up to varsity during the year, so after that my poor DD 3 pitched every inning of all but one of the remaining games of the season. This fall they had DD 3 play fall ball with varsity, and they had all 4 pitchers. So the other 75% of the time she was fielding.

It was clear DD 3 would've been on varsity last year if she didn't pitch. Her hitting and fielding are just too good. In fact, while DD 3 wants to play OF, in fall ball she often played SS or 3B because her fielding was so good.

This year will be a really, really sticky situation. The father of two of the varsity players organized a bunch of fundraisers to send the varsity girls to Florida for spring break. JV doesn't go. Last year there were so many hard feelings because of girls on JV being as good or better than some girls on varsity that some long-time friendships were severely damaged. This year it could be much, much worse. Especially for talented players who spent a lot of time doing fundraising. I am worried that some of the better players might quit the team if they don't make varsity, which will really hurt the team the next few years.

EDIT TO ADD: The other pitcher who moved up to varsity did not pitch on varsity. She only pitched JV.

Click to expand...