Is the female multi-sport HS athlete a thing of the past?

NBECoach · Feb 26, 2019

Thanks for all the great responses. I will resurrect this thread in 2 weeks with updated players numbers and the number of multi-sport kids .

We recently began to do exit interviews with the players at the end of each season and have changed some of the things we do based upon the responses we got. Beginning this season we will include questions on the pros and cons of playing multiple sports. I would suggest any HS coach do exit interviews. You could be surprised by what goes on on your team and what they think vs. what you think they know.

OK04dad · Feb 26, 2019

As a parent, just wanted to say "thank you" to NBECoach for taking the interest in promoting softball and women's sports in general. It has been my experience that not all HS coaches/schools are as committed in their approach to softball. Hope things work out well for you!

Sandrahd · Feb 26, 2019

Well, 14YO DD plays softball (fall), basketball (winter), and soccer and track (both spring). She plays only travel softball, and it is what I call travel ball lite. Her team plays only 1 tournament/month, and she really joined it because she is a pitcher and needed the extra reps. She has practiced pitching year round for several years.

11YO DD does all of the above for her middle school as well as runs XC. When/if she decides to join a travel/club team, it will probably be soccer.

As long as they enjoy it, we will support them and won’t push them to specialize. If their goals change, we may have to discuss the path to reach those goals, but we haven’t run into that yet.

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CanOfCorn · Feb 26, 2019

In our area a number of town recreation administrators got together and talked about dwindling numbers in baseball and softball. I was invited even though I had recently retired from being part of the governing recreation league (several seasons after last child aged out). We discussed some of the following.

Like [MENTION=10877]BT3100[/MENTION] mentioned there is more emphasis and stress to specialize at an earlier age which comes from coaches and parents. There is a little bit of keeping up with Jones because Little Susie next door is good and coaches feed this because if your not working 12 months a year Susie is going to take your college scholarship. That pulls from all sports.

The other thing were the variety of sports and activities girls participate in, not only the breath but depth. There are new options (lacrosse) or sports which were mostly boys (hockey) which have gained popularity. New leagues because AAU and similar didn’t exist and as people have mentioned year round tournaments.

There are fewer kids and more money. People had larger families so with two kids there is more time and more money in a family so girls in our town now do things like horse back riding.

Ask Harry Potter, girls move packs. Get 2-3 to play a sport and you get 10. A motivated parent or two with a clique of girls can change everything.

Girls have tons of activities like dance, ice skating and gymnastics which are more fringe activities for their male counterparts.

As a sport softball (and baseball) have steeper learning curves, everyone who has watched 10U recreation kid pitch can nod. Soccer is easier to pick up at a basic level.

Softball (and baseball) also have a failure stigma attached to them. Strike out or make an error and it is on one player for all to see. If you miss your defensive assignment or get beat midfield in a soccer game you have other to back you up. With constant motion sports the player feels less on display and more part of the crowd.

Cell phones. You signed your kid up to get social interaction and they were happy to see their friends. They don’t need that now, wait I need to take an SnapFace.

On top of all of this it only takes one overzealous parent or obnoxious coach and they are done. Kids don’t have to take it (and they shouldn’t) because there is something else to do. Plus with parents watching more they now can see the bad coaches instead of telling the child they might be imagining it.

FWIW our local baseball coach has done really well but he has been involved in the local youth leagues for some time, gives a yearly free coaching clinic to youth baseball coaches and generally takes some time to connect with the kids from age 8 up. The result has been .650 winning pct and up for several years (inc a few state title appearance) but he mentioned to me even his numbers are down. Our local HS SB coach was a donkey behind (and very self centered) and the program fell apart (now have new coach).

CoC

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Chris8 · Feb 26, 2019

marriard said:
Not sure there is an off-season. Travel has replaced a lot of rec - however it is a much bigger commitment for a new player so makes it harder for lots of new players to enter the sport. There is a culture by 14U that you are either serious or not. If you are not, you don't play anymore. More girls quit because travel is a BIG commitment - all weekend 2-3x a month.

The other issue of course is that the sport is transitional. Once a kid goes through a level, the family generally commits to the next level. So once they go to travel now, they leave rec behind. Having a separate season meant all the serious travel coaches/parents also were involved in rec as well for longer. Who runs rec when the dedicated people have gone? A lot of time no one.

And so on... I could go on the soapbox for hours.

marriard...what a great post...and it feels short.

Our DD was a 3 sport gal until 2nd year of 12U and we dropped soccer. She loved playing but the better players were or had transitioned to competitive clubs and were playing year round for the most part. She didn't like playing with goof offs. Unfortunately that's what it was. It wasn't the level of skill that bugged her but the girls attitude towards playing..and many were there solely because M&D signed them up...Soccer came to an end at her decision. AND she noted she'd have more time to devote to softball.

DD still swims competitively and swims with her club on nights she is not @ softball. It's been great for her conditioning. She's moving to HS next year and may be a 3 sport HS athlete again. She's considering water polo (fall), swim team (winter), softball spring. While still playing TB spring/summer/fall once HS ball is done.

As a pitcher it's like she's in two sports. Softball regular and softball pitching. The dedication to pitch at a higher level is a sport with in a sport. We've discovered that everyone wanted to pitch...until the player/parent realized what it takes to pitch at a higher/competitive level.

We played Rec and TB through age 12. We are big supporters of our local rec league and continue to support them. It is true for the majority when a player moves to the next level they leave rec behind. We know we were the exception. With out rec we would NEVER have gotten our start and want to continue to support those programs.

Having a great REC program is so important IMHO for the growth of the sport and introducing girls to the sport. Many won't jump to a TB team without having tried it at the rec level, at least in our area. Travel has replaced rec to some degree...but what travel entails varies and the parents/players expectations of what it takes to have a competitive team vary.

I see the challenges and the problems. I just don't have the solution. And...Who runs rec when the dedicated people have gone? That question is exactly one of the biggest problems/challenges.

Rambler34 · Feb 26, 2019

For my DD it came down to wanting less wear and tear. She played volleyball, basketball, and softball in 7th and 8th grade. Basketball was the first to go because at the JV/V level it overlaps softball. She also was getting so banged up from basketball she grew tired of it. In 9th grade she played volleyball and softball and everything was much better. I honestly thought she would do both again this year but decided against playing volleyball. She didn't like the way it interfered with fall camps and tournaments. For her it wasn't so much about the year round aspect of a sport but rather she chose to play the one she truly loves.

Chris8 · Feb 26, 2019

CanOfCorn said:
In our area a number of town recreation administrators got together and talked about dwindling numbers in baseball and softball. I was invited even though I had recently retired from being part of the governing recreation league (several seasons after last child aged out). We discussed some of the following.

Like [MENTION=10877]BT3100[/MENTION] mentioned there is more emphasis and stress to specialize at an earlier age which comes from coaches and parents. There is a little bit of keeping up with Jones because Little Susie next door is good and coaches feed this because if your not working 12 months a year Susie is going to take your college scholarship. That pulls from all sports.

The other thing were the variety of sports and activities girls participate in, not only the breath but depth. There are new options (lacrosse) or sports which were mostly boys (hockey) which have gained popularity. New leagues because AAU and similar didn’t exist and as people have mentioned year round tournaments.

There are fewer kids and more money. People had larger families so with two kids there is more time and more money in a family so girls in our town now do things like horse back riding.

Ask Harry Potter, girls move packs. Get 2-3 to play a sport and you get 10. A motivated parent or two with a clique of girls can change everything.

Girls have tons of activities like dance, ice skating and gymnastics which are more fringe activities for their male counterparts.

As a sport softball (and baseball) have steeper learning curves, everyone who has watched 10U recreation kid pitch can nod. Soccer is easier to pick up at a basic level.

Softball (and baseball) also have a failure stigma attached to them. Strike out or make an error and it is on one player for all to see. If you miss your defensive assignment or get beat midfield in a soccer game you have other to back you up. With constant motion sports the player feels less on display and more part of the crowd.

Cell phones. You signed your kid up to get social interaction and they were happy to see their friends. They don’t need that now, wait I need to take an SnapFace.

On top of all of this it only takes one overzealous parent or obnoxious coach and they are done. Kids don’t have to take it (and they shouldn’t) because there is something else to do. Plus with parents watching more they now can see the bad coaches instead of telling the child they might be imagining it.

FWIW our local baseball coach has done really well but he has been involved in the local youth leagues for some time, gives a yearly free coaching clinic to youth baseball coaches and generally takes some time to connect with the kids from age 8 up. The result has been .650 winning pct and up for several years (inc a few state title appearance) but he mentioned to me even his numbers are down. Our local HS SB coach was a donkey behind (and very self centered) and the program fell apart (now have new coach).

CoC

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Awesome post! well defined. Now the challenge to the sport...how to effectively attract more girls to play and stick with softball?

Fort83 · Feb 26, 2019

uncdrew said:
It's the parents, right?

Parents want their kid to be the best. Parents want to get a full ride.

Now we all know the girls who simply love softball and only want to do softball. Girls who tried other sports and didn't like them or do so well. I have one of those. But I also see a lot of girls who play only softball but don't seem to love it.

I say that it's the parents partly tongue-in-cheek, but if we encouraged our girls to play multiple sports they would, right? My kids take my recommendations all the time. I can sway them in many ways. I wonder if the parents were out of the equation what our kids would do. I could easily see them wanting to play multiple sports more than they do now.

I don't know if it is so much the parents wanting the kids to be the best as it is we only have so much time and money. My DD ('07) was told she had to pick either club soccer or club softball, but both would not work. I would think a lot of the DD's on this page have the same attitude about leaving it on the field/putting everything they have into whatever they are doing. I know my DD was really unhappy at rec ball because half the team didn't try at either sport.

After much looking DD found a soccer league that has a mix of club players and rec players. It is a local Catholic league that allows mixed teams and pure rec teams. Every kid on DD's team plays a club sport, with most of them playing club soccer, and having a coach that understands those teams come first. She does have a lot of fun with it because everybody on the field is there for one thing and that is to play hard. With that DD also plays competitive Bridge (I have yet to figure this out) and has gotten into Olympic weightlifting at school. With all that there just isn't enough time for other sports and school work. I may be wrong with how we do it but it is working and she keeps pushing forward.

CanOfCorn · Feb 26, 2019

Chris8 said:
Awesome post! well defined. Now the challenge to the sport...how to effectively attract more girls to play and stick with softball?

Thanks, probably why I was invited as most of these were my observations from 10+ of recreation league administration.

A couple can’t be fixed, people are not just going to have more kids and raising kids gets more expensive each year. It is off subject but it starts with coaches/parents. We focus so much on where we are going or what scholarship we are chasing we forget to enjoy the ride. Kids learn failing is bad from parents/coaches instead of taking it as a growth opportunity. A simple approach that includes fun with core fundamentals along with a focus on effort over results is my MO. We have heard enough here to realize life can change in an instant. My heart still breaks for some DFP folks.

IMO life is a marathon so teaching kids to get up and dust themselves off is my goal. Softball is a good sport for that.

CoC

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BobInMadison · Feb 26, 2019

There are a number of things that are driving down participation in the more traditional sports:

1. As mentioned in many places, there is far more pressure to specialize at a young age. It is harder to be pretty good at 3 sports when someone else is going to be really good at one of those sports.

2. There are more choices for sports. In Madison, there are several sports available to HS students that were not available a generation ago. For example, there is a very good rowing club, which goes all year around, making it hard for kids to do other sports. Ultimate Frisbee is a really big thing here, and they play fall, spring and summer. That takes away from other sports as well. Also Rugby is starting to catch on. In some other parts of the country, LaX is a growing sport, taking kids away from softball and volleyball, etc.

3. The demographics of sports are changing. Like it or not, many competitive sports are becoming a middle-upper class thing, and mostly white. Look at the US women's soccer team. Soccer is a sport that is VERY popular in Latin America, but the clubs, at least in this part of the country, as mostly white and middle-upper class. It is really hard for kids to afford the $$$$ for an elite travel team in any sport, let alone multiple sports.

In the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, white kids are FAR more likely to participate in school sports, with the exception of football, basketball and track. The local HS is about half white and half non-white, but going to softball or cross-country or soccer or baseball, etc., there will be a lot more white kids than non-white kids. I still remember the first TB tournament my DD 1 went to. She was the only non-white girl I saw in the entire tournament. (This IS changing. I do see a lot more non-white kids on TB teams, esp. in more urban areas).

Already, almost half the kids in the country are non-white. Unless we find ways to attract these kids to sports, the sports will die off. If we can, the sports will thrive.

Is the female multi-sport HS athlete a thing of the past?

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