Forum for advice for MS and early HS players wanting to play college ball?

[obbay]

Got an invitation letter to the National Junior Honor Society from the school today. I don't see value in spending money on this honor society, when the grades are already proof of academic excellence.

Im pretty sure DD got the same invitation when she was a junior. At the time I checked with the guidance counselor and he tactfully steered me away from it.
DD has been fairly active but has been sure to stay active only in what she cares about. she found that having too many irons in the fire is too stressfull, so sometimes you have to say no. she was selective in picking courses for her senior year as well where she dropped French (that she has been excelling at since 5th grade) and is taking psychology instead. her math teacher wanted her to take Calculus (which she will never need) and instead is taking AP Statistics. shes coming out of high school with a good GPA and well rounded curriculum.

she has applied to 5 schools (3 are DIII)and heard from the first yesterday- they offered her an academic scholarship that will cover something like a 40% of the total cost, every year for 4 years. they have a pretty good DIII softball program.

Academics can be huge in the DIII world

 

[_MIA_]

her math teacher wanted her to take Calculus (which she will never need) and instead is taking AP Statistics.

Most people's jobs involve problem solving and thinking, two skills "higher level" math instills. What does she plan on majoring in?

 

[Bob516]

I'm just saying doing the same think year-round is bound to overstress body parts and parents need to be mindful of giving their kids an off season both for their physical and mental well-being.

Thanks, and I absolutely agree. When I told my pitcher DD (who started pitching this past summer) that I would not be paying for cage time over the winter, she was worried she would lose her form. I told her I had been hearing that a pitcher should take at least 6-8 weeks off during the winter. Both of my girls, 13 y/o, are on a swim team during the winter, so I am really glad they has a second sport, one that is much less likely to cause injury like basketball or volleyball, and is sport that develops the body symmetrically. Also, she sees the swim team as a fun thing to do with friends and is not emotionally invested in winning as she is in softball.

 

[Bob516]

Im pretty sure DD got the same invitation when she was a junior. At the time I checked with the guidance counselor and he tactfully steered me away from it.

Information like this is what I have been wanting to here. Thanks.

 

[Bob516]

Most people's jobs involve problem solving and thinking, two skills "higher level" math instills.

I agree with the value of learning math, so I am not looking to poke fun at your statement, but what is the difference between problem solving and thinking? I mean this as a sincere question.

 

[MNDad]

I think our experience is far more typical. They had no shortage of players to choose from. Pitchers throwing 60+ or batters above .500 in HS are a dime a dozen. What differentiates kids is their grades. It doesn’t help a coach to recruit a player who can’t remain academically eligible. Am I proud my DD plays D1 softball? Heck yeah, but I wouldn’t be any less proud if she’d chosen DII or DIII. We’re not all egomaniacs and how much can you really brag about playing for a perpetual cellar dweller. She fell in love with the school, the campus, facilities, and the city. I certainly didn’t force it on her. She also wanted to face the very best and ISU offered that opportunity.

Playing for a major D1 university isn’t all that bad. I can only speak for DD, but I’m sure it’s the far more typical experience. There’s a larger variety of majors and most schools have at least one department that’s nationally recognized. The girls do actually get to choose their majors, it’s not the coaches. The teams have seemingly endless academic resources. An advisor to help plan classes around the season so they can get everything in and graduate. They have their own tutors, computer labs and study areas. Then there’s the athlete perks of not having to wait in line for books and free food from the cafeteria. The athletic departments and coaches are very concerned about education. All freshman have to live on campus and attend mandatory study halls. They hold an event for athletes they all attend a dinner and learn proper etiquette at the table. Afterwards they meet with area business leaders and go through mock interviews. Not a huge deal, but not something you’d see from a department that doesn’t care about its student athletes. This notion that you don’t get a great education at D1’s is ridiculous. You get out what you put in at any school. That’s true of academics or softball.

In regards just to coaches any softball player with a semester below a 3.0 also has mandatory study halls. Last season the coach added team study halls regardless of GPA’s. If we were on the road it was in the hotel lobby or at the airport. They also watch their grades like a hawk. If a kid skips class or even worse is failing, look out. Thanks to Title IX and huge TV contracts for the conferences softball shares in some of the perks. The P5’s play in multi-million dollar softball fields and athletic complexes, they get an obscene amount of free gear, shoes and clothing.

As others have stated, D1 doesn’t always mean good. There are some horrible programs out there. However, on average it’s still some pretty high level softball. Take DD’s school for example. By P5 standards most would say we suck, and rightfully so. However if you take the best DII or DIII schools and put them in the Big 12, I can guarantee they’d finish dead last. They all have players who can play at that level, but as a team they just don’t have the depth. The comparison is always about how they beat a team in the fall. Fall softball is like NFL Pre-season and means very little. For example the Browns were undefeated in the preseason.

 

[55dad]

I think our experience is far more typical. They had no shortage of players to choose from. Pitchers throwing 60+ or batters above .500 in HS are a dime a dozen. What differentiates kids is their grades. It doesn’t help a coach to recruit a player who can’t remain academically eligible. Am I proud my DD plays D1 softball? Heck yeah, but I wouldn’t be any less proud if she’d chosen DII or DIII. We’re not all egomaniacs and how much can you really brag about playing for a perpetual cellar dweller. She fell in love with the school, the campus, facilities, and the city. I certainly didn’t force it on her. She also wanted to face the very best and ISU offered that opportunity.

Playing for a major D1 university isn’t all that bad. I can only speak for DD, but I’m sure it’s the far more typical experience. There’s a larger variety of majors and most schools have at least one department that’s nationally recognized. The girls do actually get to choose their majors, it’s not the coaches. The teams have seemingly endless academic resources. An advisor to help plan classes around the season so they can get everything in and graduate. They have their own tutors, computer labs and study areas. Then there’s the athlete perks of not having to wait in line for books and free food from the cafeteria. The athletic departments and coaches are very concerned about education. All freshman have to live on campus and attend mandatory study halls. They hold an event for athletes they all attend a dinner and learn proper etiquette at the table. Afterwards they meet with area business leaders and go through mock interviews. Not a huge deal, but not something you’d see from a department that doesn’t care about its student athletes. This notion that you don’t get a great education at D1’s is ridiculous. You get out what you put in at any school. That’s true of academics or softball.

In regards just to coaches any softball player with a semester below a 3.0 also has mandatory study halls. Last season the coach added team study halls regardless of GPA’s. If we were on the road it was in the hotel lobby or at the airport. They also watch their grades like a hawk. If a kid skips class or even worse is failing, look out. Thanks to Title IX and huge TV contracts for the conferences softball shares in some of the perks. The P5’s play in multi-million dollar softball fields and athletic complexes, they get an obscene amount of free gear, shoes and clothing.

As others have stated, D1 doesn’t always mean good. There are some horrible programs out there. However, on average it’s still some pretty high level softball. Take DD’s school for example. By P5 standards most would say we suck, and rightfully so. However if you take the best DII or DIII schools and put them in the Big 12, I can guarantee they’d finish dead last. They all have players who can play at that level, but as a team they just don’t have the depth. The comparison is always about how they beat a team in the fall. Fall softball is like NFL Pre-season and means very little. For example the Browns were undefeated in the preseason.

For what it is worth my DD is majoring in, wait for it.... Psychology! Lol! According to various rankings the University of Minnesota is ranked in the top 5 in the nation for psychology undergrad and the top ten for graduate school. It is a great research school and they have emphasized that. She chose the school for their academics and was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to play softball as well. A fabulous education in your chosen field of study and a good softball school are not mutually exclusive...

I think if she would have decided she had wanted to be an engineer or maybe something in the hard sciences it would have been a lot harder to balance softball and school.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

 

[_MIA_]

I agree with the value of learning math, so I am not looking to poke fun at your statement, but what is the difference between problem solving and thinking? I mean this as a sincere question.

Yes, I worded it badly. Problem solving involves "thinking" although not all "thinking" has to involve problem solving obviously.

 

[YOCOACH]

I want my DD to get a solid education that will open opportunities for her. If she could she would play softball for the rest of her life. Softball is a necessity to her, it is at the core of her identity. Now that she is taking 9th grade biology in 8th grade she is talking that she wants to work in the health field, so I am glad she is seeing career directions for herself.

She is a catcher, loves the position and gets plenty of praise for her play, from umpires and opposing coaches alike.

Then you feel the same way we did and my DD does even now. After a late change in her major in the last remaining months of her Senior year, she chose a college within an hour and a half drive of home that happened to be in the top 10 colleges for her hosen major. It was a D2. The college coach had no idea she even existed at this point. She went on an unofficial visit and introduced herself to the coach. After she told him her stats as far as hitting goes, then told him what position she played, he told her he had no money left for her year. She told him she was coming anyways and also told him she would come as a walk-on. After doing his due diligence (he knew many of the Umpires we played with and they all told him of her excellence behind the plate as a defensive catcher as well as the HR's she hit), he made a spot on the team without even seeing her play a game and before tryouts were even held. He also promised her money next year if she looked as good as he heard. 6 months later, she will be the starting catcher for the team come Spring. All of the players aren't happy with this; especially the two Junior catchers she will replace and they are trying to bully her off the team instead of working to improve their own skills and earning their spot. I guess it's just one more sign of the times we live in. Don't work harder to earn your position, just get everyone else that may be better than you to quit so you can get your "entitled" position.

That said, the top 1% of the top 1% get to play in the NPF. Even then, the shelf life of professional sports are limited and although SB, in general, is less of a contact sport and offers more longevity than other sports, it's still limited and your DD will have to hang up her cleats sometime or another. Add into that where a majority of their salaries are far below the poverty level as determined by our government, I would be hard pressed to steer DD in that direction.

As I have done with my DD, I would strongly urge you to start the talks of, "What do you want out of life in your future and what do you want to achieve?" This will put her focus more on her career in the form of long term goals as opposed to her short term goals of playing SB in college and possibly choosing her college based on SB. I have great respect for riseball and he is definitely correct in saying that most colleges offer great academic resources for student athletes. However, DD and I have far different experiences with the D1 schools than he and his DD did. At that time, DD wanted to go into Nursing. All of the D1 coaches, with the exception of 2 of the smallest D1 coaches, told her to choose another major or else they would rescind the offer. About half of the D2 coaches that made offers did the same. The D3 coaches told her they'd work around her schedule and most of the NAIA coaches did also.

DD loves and lives SB. However, after our talks of what do you want for your future in the long run, she has come to the reality that SB will end someday; most likely at the end of college, and it will be time to make a living. She has also realized that her identity will come from her family and her career as opposed to a game she played for many years at a high level. She'll always utilize the life lessons she learned from that game and continue to mature and grow, but she has determined that the same game she has learned those life lessons from won't define her after college and her SB career is over.

 

[YOCOACH]

At most large schools the athletic department invests heavily in the academic success of the players. The players have academic resources at no cost, some of which are not readily available to regular students. If you put forth the effort it is pretty hard not to be successful. Beyond graduation their are additional benefits that athletes can utilize. You have to either be in way over your head or a screw up not to do well and graduate. My DD is already in her industry with a job, her MBA paid for and just completed her last class for her BA.

riseball, as you know, I have great respect for you. However, there's a reason that most of the players you see in the P5 colleges are either communications or business management majors. Out of the top 8 teams in the WCWS last year, you had 2 Engineering majors and one Pre-med major student-athletes. Most, but not all, of the other players were one of several previous mentioned majors by both Sluggers and myself. Yes, most of the colleges, no matter the level of play, are vested heavily in their players academic success. But realistically, is this not because they are "giving them," a "$270,000" education if offered a 4 year full ride and want them to remain eligible to play?

Maybe I'm cynical. I probably am. That said, I know what DD, my wife and I went through during the recruiting process and how many D1 and D2 Athletic scholarships were rescinded when DD stuck to her guns and wanted to be a Nursing major. I also know that the pitcher from Tennessee I was talking about earlier, who happened to be a National Honor Society graduate and her class Valedictorian in HS could not graduate in 4 years from there; not due to being a screw up or being lackadaisical in her studies, but she wanted to graduate with a degree in a very demanding field.

As I'm sure you know, all it takes to be considered a full-time student is 12 semester hours. Also, as I'm sure you know, in order for players to remain eligible to play collegiate SB, it only takes them passing 9 hours. For those players that have very demanding majors such as Pre-Med, Engineering, Nursing, etc. etc., few graduate from the Major D1 level in 4 years since many players only take the 12 hour minimum requirement class hours due to sports taking up so much of their time and the academic requirement to graduate in 4 years is, on average, 120+ hours including electives.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it can't or won't be done; just that a majority fail to do so and it's not just D1 Student-athletes. All SA's across the board struggle with demanding majors. That's why so many of them quit their Freshman year if they go that route and try and play a sport also.