Is the disparity between good and bad high school teams growing?

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Nov 3, 2012
480
16
My perception is that the good high school teams are getting better and the bad teams are getting worse. Based on my observations of my DD team and scores you see on Maxpreps, the good teams killing the weaker teams. I'm also seeing teams are running up scores more to inflate stats on these weaker teams. I saw a local score last night of 38-0, and i'm pretty sure this was a softball score and not football.

My theory of why is happening is that the schools who are better off socio-economically have more kids playing travel ball because they can afford to do it. As a result, these schools are getting over saturated with good travel players. My DD school and we have over 30 travel players between JV and Varsity and we're good as a result. Our school district in general, is pretty well off. I look at some other school districts in the state, well lets say aren't doing well economically and there softball teams are very uncompetitive. Not trying to be political, there is also a socio-economic segregation in our country were that segregation occurs on school district border lines. Im guilty as anybody contributing to this.

As mentioned earlier, difference between the haves and have not's is extremely accentuated in softball. This isn't something new, as this has always happened, but I think the problem is getting worse. Its also affecting the participation rate. What's also happening is a lot schools are not fielding a JV program this year because they're not getting kids out. Our JV team is good, but they don't have anybody to play anymore. There are other reasons affecting this likes sports specialization. But the overall affect is the high school softball is a lot of boring blowout games and super inflated stats.
 
Feb 28, 2015
307
28
Heatbox
We beat a team 31-0 yesterday. Not fun and actually glad DD2 sat. She will pitch today in a way more competitive game. IMO the coach needs to have girls step off the bag earlier in games like this. We quit running in the 2nd inning and hit 8 homers on a 180 ft. fence. No fun.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
My theory of why is happening is that the schools who are better off socio-economically have more kids playing travel ball because they can afford to do it.

It seems to me that there is a "sweet spot" on the socio-economic curve for softball. If the parents are too affluent, the kid will rarely develop into a "good" player.

It takes a surprisingly long time to learn how to throw, catch and hit a ball. Unless a parent (*cough* Crazy Daddy *cough*) starts playing catch with the child at 5YOA, the child will have difficulty developing into much of a player. Team practices are never enough to make a child exceptional at softball. Going to a coach once a week isn't going to do it. It is the hours in teh backyard with Crazy Daddy that make the kid "good".

If Daddy is working 80 hours a week or traveling a lot, the kid won't have enough hours of playing catch to really become good.

Compare that with swimming or soccer...a parents simply needs to drive up and drop the kid off, and come back a couple of hours later. No real commitment by the parent is needed other than showing up.

At the upper range, the kids have too many options. HS's in suburban Chicagoland offer spring sports of water polo, badminton, field hockey, softball and track. Badminton has become ridiculously popular, and schools love it--low chance of injury, not much space required, teams can be very large, games are played indoors.
 
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Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
In our area the TB disparity is as you say, but also they allow kids to get a variance to go to other schools. I have a friend who coaches a local high school but has 3-4 kids who would start for his team playing at the neighboring High School.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
My perception is that the good high school teams are getting better and the bad teams are getting worse. Based on my observations of my DD team and scores you see on Maxpreps, the good teams killing the weaker teams. I'm also seeing teams are running up scores more to inflate stats on these weaker teams. I saw a local score last night of 38-0, and i'm pretty sure this was a softball score and not football.

There is definitely some of that to it. There are also two other things that are clearly hurting our area: rec numbers decline and more 'recruiting teams'.

Rec decline hurts in terms of opportunities to play but probably also goes to your point - if you have limited financial means, less rec means less opportunity for these girls to play for a reasonable price. It also means the girls who don't want to make the level of time commitment travel players have to make have less opportunity to play.

But worse for our area is the the amount of teams that can 'recruit' has gone up along with some desirable schools coming into play. 10 years ago it was just the to private schools that cared about sports that were taking in the good players. So you can figure that was a few really good players, but it was OK.

Now there are two fantastic charter schools where everyone would REALLY love their kids to get into. Both these schools have a lottery to get into any limited spots available. Turns out if you have softball talent you get to win the lottery. And since the school is great - even if your kid may not make varsity or JV it is a school you want your kid to attend, so if you are offered a spot, you take it. I can't blame the parents either - taking a spot is the right decision. So both schools have 50+ travel players attending - minimally 30 of which should be at other high schools. And they have REALLY sucked all the pitching up. I counted 10 girls at these two schools not on varsity that could start for another high school.

And then there is a few big schools that have good teams through sheer size. They actually are not quite as strong as they used to be as some of the kids end up at the above schools, but they are still strong.

So net of this is that the talent is no longer spread out - especially pitching.

It has created roughly 6 teams that year after year compete for the state championship in their respective divisions and a whole lot of teams that have what amounts to nothing. Our schedule this year was playing competitive games against one of the above schools or run-rule blowouts (in division because we only played these teams because we had to).
 
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Feb 17, 2014
551
28
I don't think it is like the here. Some of the teams are pretty good most years but not others. Because of the way things are laid out with the state playoffs I think we do have some teams that go deep every year and that has a lot to do with the schools they are grouped with. There are a few of the bigger schools that have mediocre teams right now. The largest HS in the state only has 1 D1 commit right now but the 16th largest is stacked with talent. Lots of public schools leading the way.

Do all other states follow a class system based on population? If 4A is your highest classification are you saying the same teams are dominating 4A every year? Not seeing that too much, IMO.
 
Apr 20, 2018
7
1
La Crosse, WI
Same thing happening in SW Wisconsin. For the first time in my 11 years of HS coaching, there isn't a clear cut "best" team in our region. The teams that were picked to compete for the conference title are struggling to beat teams. Each of my previous 10 years, there was one team who we pretty much knew would win the conference title. Not so much this year.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
I think there are some valid points raised, but there are outliers as well. Financially, our school district is in pretty good shape. With few exceptions, the families are above the average income levels and can afford travel ball if they wanted to. Yet, on a varsity team with 17 players, DD is the only one that plays travel ball. That said, we have several varsity players that are involved in competitive cheer, year round soccer leagues, and year round field hockey leagues. To the point that they spend as much (or more) on those activities as we do for travel softball. Those activities are simply a higher priority for them. At DD's school, the only spring sports that are available for girls are track and softball. So unless they want to get involved in track, softball is their only choice. They are good kids, but softball is a 3 month activity for them, and then they return to their actual activity of choice.

So, yes, our softball team is pretty bad... It is what it is. But if anyone is interested in scheduling a competitive cheer contest, let me know. Our girls are ready :)
 
Nov 25, 2015
77
6
The Frozen Tundra
In the great white north of MN it's usually the schools who have the shut down pitcher. The school where my twins will be going was in title game 2 of last 3 years do to a flame thrower. Problem was if they faced another flame thrower it usually was a 1-0, 2-1 game with loser making that one error that let the winning run in.

Not to be mean spirited, but half the team couldn't hit their way out of a wet paper bag when facing a good pitcher. And most of them play "TB". but in this area doesn't mean much yet.

It took our better pitcher carrying the team for the last 3 years.
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
Where we are there are two high schools that are typically a cut above everyone, and one other that cracks the top tier two out of every four years. We have open enrollment in the school district with some limitations, so kids can choose their schools and the best softball players migrate to the top schools (happens in most other sports as well.) And yes, that is causing the level of play to separate the best from the rest.
 

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