Not playing HS....hurt playing in College?

Cannon, you aren't the only one, I'm sure. However, you're probably amongst the .0002%. I gave you a spare .0001 just for the sake of statistical error. You're in elite company my friend.

Cannonball said:

I know you are right about this but I can't be the only HS Coach in America that gets their players recruited. My players all play for TB teams that say that they get their players recruited. Typically, that means that they give out the URL for the parents to sign up for some service. I can't think of one HS player of mine that has gone on to play in college that I wasn't the one who made the contacts and pushed the recruitment. There has to be more HS coaches out there that do the same. Note - I will say that it gets harder and harder to get a coach to make that initial call back to me if I don't catch them in their office. I've sent some pretty good players to some of these schools. Players who ended up in their career record books. So, I know you are right about colleges moving away from high school. I have a senior this year who is a stud. She has all of the accolades etc. and I just now found her a place to play. She will own the record books of where she is going by the time she is done.

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The only HS coaches that I know that are getting players recruited in this area are ones that are heavily involved with the travel programs in the area. We have one program that the majority of the players play for one high school. This program practices on the schools fields, holds tryouts there, etc. When we played the school in MS ball, almost all the players on the team had helmets for the travel team that is based in that area. There is also another program that the AC of the MS team is a coach for a travel team comprised of half girls from his school team and half girls from my DD2s school. They were 14u last year and I believe are a 16u team this year. They are a very low level team, the 12u team from our organization run ruled them in 3 innings last season when they played at the 14u level.

The organization that my DD2 plays for also practices at various school fields in about a 30 minute driving radius, but it is because in that area, the field use is run by the county. Schools obviously get priority, but after that the county takes over. There isn't a real good relationship between most other travel teams and school teams here though, besides the ones I mentioned.

Some HS coaches even tell their players if they are playing travel and the coach finds out, they will be cut from the team, even if they attend travel practice. Even on the weekend. They are not allowed to have any contact at all during the HS season.

I was told by our HS coach that our school district doesn't like travel ball coaches or players and that anyone with $1000 can play on a travel team, HS ball is where the top players are. He does absolutely nothing for recruiting for college. He can't even provide proper stats. I have not asked for stats on my DD1, but saw a write up on one particular player for a game that I was at that stated she had a 1.000 Fielding percentage. I witnessed her commit 3 errors in that same game. I was told they do not keep stats at our school at all except for the HS V team. Other parents that I have talked to have been able to get basic stats for the MS team at their school. Even HS JV all they care about in the score book is runs/outs/count, they don't do anything else with it. Not exactly sure how you can get a college coach interested in coming to see you play for school in your junior year and have no stats because you played JV your Fresh/Soph years.

It is great to see that you as a HS coach are helping your players. I wish that was the case at more schools. Keep it up.

Some HS coaches even tell their players if they are playing travel and the coach finds out, they will be cut from the team, even if they attend travel practice. Even on the weekend. They are not allowed to have any contact at all during the HS season.

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In some states that rule is a made by the state sanctioning body. I know in Illinois players cannot play or practice with their travel team during the school season. Once the HS team is eliminated from post season play the kids are free to go back to their travel teams.

MoparFin said:

I was told they do not keep stats at our school at all except for the HS V team. Other parents that I have talked to have been able to get basic stats for the MS team at their school. Even HS JV all they care about in the score book is runs/outs/count, they don't do anything else with it. Not exactly sure how you can get a college coach interested in coming to see you play for school in your junior year and have no stats because you played JV your Fresh/Soph years.

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MS and JV stats have zero importance to a college coach or anybody other than their parents. Even varsity stats don't mean much because so often they're either inaccurate or the competition was too weak to be meaningful.

Without stats you get colleges interested by showing up to their camps. DS is a HS senior who plays JV football. He went to a camp this summer attended by several college coaches at various levels. Based solely what they saw with his work ethic and potential he has multiple schools recruiting him. Get her in front of the coaches so they can see first hand what shes got. Be realistic about what level she's at and she'll get lots of attention.

Sparky Guy said:

In some states that rule is a made by the state sanctioning body. I know in Illinois players cannot play or practice with their travel team during the school season. Once the HS team is eliminated from post season play the kids are free to go back to their travel teams.

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Never knew that. Both states we have lived in while the kids have been in HS its been ok per the state, but the school coaches have the say. I always thought it was just a coach thing.

MNDad said:

MS and JV stats have zero importance to a college coach or anybody other than their parents. Even varsity stats don't mean much because so often they're either inaccurate or the competition was too weak to be meaningful.

Without stats you get colleges interested by showing up to their camps. DS is a HS senior who plays JV football. He went to a camp this summer attended by several college coaches at various levels. Based solely what they saw with his work ethic and potential he has multiple schools recruiting him. Get her in front of the coaches so they can see first hand what shes got. Be realistic about what level she's at and she'll get lots of attention.

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I'm not worried about the stats for my DDs for school. But there are some girls on the school team that may or may not care, just purely for their knowledge cause they will only play in HS. To me there are certain things a coach should be able to tell their players, knowing some stats and being able to show how they changed through the season is one. It was really just another way for me to complain about this idiot, sorry. I am a little bitter I guess because I have been waiting for this year for a long time. My DD1 is a senior and DD2 a freshman. I was hoping I would get to see them on the same team this year, as a battery because DD1 was catching for the team and DD2 is most definitely the most experienced pitcher in the school. Neither one of them wants to play for the HC so my wife and I are going to miss out on something we will never be able to get back. Plus, I would say that DD2 would have had a real chance at getting nominated for stuff like All-District, etc and who knows,possibly could have set some school records, stuff like that. Its those what ifs that she possibly could have accomplished, but she has decided to not because of one individual. I guess my personal pride gets the best of me knowing that the best pitcher in the school is not playing due to one person who is supposed to be an adult but cant act like one. I can say without a doubt she would have been the best pitcher on the team because last season on the MS team, she was throwing harder with more movement than the HS V starting pitcher (a senior this year) who then became ineligible because of grades. Knowing the kid, I doubt that she would be eligible all season. The number 2's fastball is about as fast as my DD2s change up, low 40s. Neither one of the HS pitchers from last year play travel at all, or go to a PC at all. Only time they throw is during the season at school. DD2 has also thrown what was supposed to be BP for the HS V team as a MS player, but struck most of them out. They all complained she threw to fast. She normally throws about 52-55. Not blazing, but she can place it pretty good.

My DD will definitely be going to camps, her team is already scheduled for numerous showcases, and the President of the org, who also coaches the highest level 18u team also said he is going to be calling her up to come play showcases for him. He has numerous girls on his team already committed, so he wants my DD to pitch for him here and there to get some exposure.

You are definitely the exception, although I think it's highly dependent upon your geography and school. In our area there's maybe 2-3 high school coaches and varsity softball programs out of dozens that matter for recruiting and at least one of those HA HC are also a TB HC. The rest of the DDs depend on their TB HC for recruiting.

Cannonball said:

I know you are right about this but I can't be the only HS Coach in America that gets their players recruited. My players all play for TB teams that say that they get their players recruited. Typically, that means that they give out the URL for the parents to sign up for some service. I can't think of one HS player of mine that has gone on to play in college that I wasn't the one who made the contacts and pushed the recruitment. There has to be more HS coaches out there that do the same. Note - I will say that it gets harder and harder to get a coach to make that initial call back to me if I don't catch them in their office. I've sent some pretty good players to some of these schools. Players who ended up in their career record books. So, I know you are right about colleges moving away from high school. I have a senior this year who is a stud. She has all of the accolades etc. and I just now found her a place to play. She will own the record books of where she is going by the time she is done.

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I met Patrick Murphy in 2015 and asked him if a player who wanted to play ball in college would hurt their chances if they didnt play in High School. The gist of his answer was no. It was no longer an impediment as they dont typically go to see players whose season run concurrently with the college season anyway.

Ravenne Chavanne who played for Tennessee ran track in HS and did quite well at it and went on to have a great collrege career.

I think it was Cathi Aradi who told me if you dont play Ball in HS, you should have a good reason and be able to show that you used he time productively - ran track, participated in strength and conditioning instead, something like that.

The reason im dropping names is so you know I could be telling the truth.....

Sparky Guy said:

In some states that rule is a made by the state sanctioning body. I know in Illinois players cannot play or practice with their travel team during the school season. Once the HS team is eliminated from post season play the kids are free to go back to their travel teams.

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It's the same way here in Michigan. I think it's a silly rule that I hope is changed in the near future because players have to choose one or the other.

fuzzy2651 said:

It's the same way here in Michigan. I think it's a silly rule that I hope is changed in the near future because players have to choose one or the other.

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It really doesn't matter. The college season is the same time as the HS season in most states. The college coaches do very little recruiting during the season. There are no/few showcases scheduled. The only thing is does hurt is players being able to practice with their travel team.

In the Chicago area there are players who opt not to play HS and have joined spring teams. The last few years there were enough players to make several teams. They played against each other on the weekends and do some tournaments in states who play HS in the fall.