letting kids play other sports

riseball said:

Up until 9th or 10th grade I think you need to focus on building the athlete and not the player. Then when they have the athletic foundation they are well positioned to specialize and become an elite level player.

Click to expand...

With the current recruiting environment that idea has to be scrapped sometimes with the top recruiting prospects being looked at earlier and earlier. They are targeting some of the top 12U players right now.

I strongly encourage my dd to play multi sports. Especially now that shes in HS. Play more sports, make more friends, have the time of your life in HS

Hawkeyes said:

Quick question on this. Did you talk with school ball coaches before laying out this criteria as the travel sball trump school sport practices? How did they take that?

Click to expand...

like I said: "There may be repercussions."

no, didn't clear this yet.

Certainly, one shouldn't force a kid to choose between playing a sport she enjoys for her school,
and attending an excellent fall recruiting opportunity for her main sport in its off-season.
But some HS coaches can be irrational.

In our case we are talking about missing one fri and one sat practice to attend a well-regarded Fall showcase for softball.
No HS games will be missed.

If the coach decides to bench her because of this choice, she is prepared to accept that.
What else can you do?

Sparky Guy said:

Usually the girls get the leftover times once the boys are finished taking all the time slots when there are limited facilities in the school.

Click to expand...

if this were to happen at our HS I would be in the superintendents office the next AM. Remind them about Title IX. If facilities/fields must be shared, then coach A picks one slot (ie Mon after school), coach B picks (ie tues afterschool), then coach C, etc. no one sport should get all the after school slots while the others take leavings.

luckily not really an issue at our HS. there are enough fields surrounding the school for every sport (boys and girls) to have a field after school during their season, for both games (JV usually plays away when V is home, and vic versa) and practices. Not certain how wrestling and boys and girls basketball divy up time in the gym, swim teams ride bus together to local CC for practice.

corlay said:

If the coach decides to bench her because of this choice, she is prepared to accept that.
What else can you do?

Click to expand...

I wish i had that answer. Our HS does not like travel ball. they are entrenched in the "you play the inseason sport." Travel softball in Iowa is tough because out high school season runs from mid may - mid July. We are seeing more and more high school softball players playing travel ball and those are girls are succeeding in HS ball. Maybe that will change the culture.

Golf coach contacted DD about joining golf team. She has never golfed before. Completely new to her. he just said i know she had hit a ball and we can start with that. He told us that she had permission to skip any golf practice for softball commitment. I thought that was pretty cool. Granted Golf is very individual and different than your team sports

Encourage the kids to do other things. Do a play, play and instrument, play a sport even if you aren't great at it. If you choose to play a HS sport it has to be the top priority during that season. It's only a couple of months. If you kid doesn't want to play another sport and concentrate on softball that's fine too.

djcarter1966 said:

Really weird most school have practice right after school 6pm is is very conducive to getting homework done and eating dinner

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

You would of thought practice would be right after school. She's fine with her decision. More time for homework like you said.

DD is on the 8th grade middle school softball team. Before the season started she had to sign a commitment form that said MS softball comes before everything else, and the only excused absence from practice or a game is if there is a death in the family. I think every unexcused absence means you sit out 4 innings. Every two is a full game. Seems a little strict to me, but at least there is no gray area.

As for other sports, DD was a phenomenal soccer player. Always led her club team in goals and penalties lol. Schedule conflicts with softball always were a problem, and she would choose softball every time. She gave that up two years ago. Really she doesn't have any other interest in playing other sports. She shoots archery for the MS every winter, and runs track for a month in the spring. Other than that it's playing softball, practicing softball, or working out for softball.

In my experience, school trumps travel because of the short playing season whereas travel is pretty much, yr round.

Playing multiple sports is possible but I don't they all can be at the travel/competitive level. Conflicts will arise and something will suffer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mudrunner said:

DD is on the 8th grade middle school softball team. Before the season started she had to sign a commitment form that said MS softball comes before everything else, and the only excused absence from practice or a game is if there is a death in the family. I think every unexcused absence means you sit out 4 innings. Every two is a full game. Seems a little strict to me, but at least there is no gray area.

Click to expand...

I would have trouble with that one. If there is a conflict between travel and MS team schedules, my DD is going to the one we are playing a lot of money for. Here's my priority chart....TB game > MS game > TB practice > MS practice.