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

CanOfCorn said:

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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30 years of youth coaching.....seen all that and a shift as well. It's about RIGHT now and winning...more than development. It's partly why REC is suffering, imho. Parents want to win and if their DD is average or above in REC, many see TB as a way to up the competition and chase "dreams". That coupled with lack of skill development, in the form of having fun, at the younger ages also hurts the sport. Part of that is what Marriard alluded to when dedicated coaches/parents leave rec for TB, often no one is left to run the rec program in a overall productive way.

Something I've reminded parents every year, especially the 12u and down... "Relax, enjoy the game, cheer loudly and positively for your player. Oh and by the way.....No one's getting recruited today and there's no big time scouts at our games to sign contracts...so don't sweat it if you DD/DS doesn't make the play perfectly. No one's getting signed today." That usually elicits a laugh, sometimes an uncomfortable one....and only occasionally have I had to remind a parent their kid wasn't getting recruited that day. Usually it's a soft word through the fence and the light bulb comes on back to the first time I mentioned it. Now at 14's it still applies but the players are responsible for their success...no amount of yelling through the fence will help them succeed any more...or not. Well it can lead to not.


"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." Yes as long has you have the right parents supporting that.

I think the “cool kid” factor comes into play with HS sports, as well. Whatever sport the popular girls are doing during a specific season is where the biggest draw is for the girls who aren’t die-hards for one specific sport. Here lacrosse is that sport right now - and where the popular girls play, the boys tend to watch. It just draws the bigger crowd. Some of the girls are decent softball players, but image is more important to them. Sad but true.

The entire culture is different today as well. I was pretty lucky in little league, as I had a good coach who seemed to enjoy helping us learn the game. But beyond that we didn't have very many practices. We didn't have private instructors. We didn't have specialized lessons. We didn't have personalized workout programs. We learned the sports we played by watching our favorite teams on tv and then emulating those players at the playground for HOURS every single day.

While our community has a very nice community park, I rarely see anyone use it...

FP26 said:

While our community has a very nice community park, I rarely see anyone use it...

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We have some great facilities in our area...but you must have "permission from parks and rec" to use them even when not in use for another team/league/tournament etc. We pay for it with tax dollars/fees....but yet access is limited. I get the keep them nice etc...but I drive by so many fields so many days not in use. Sad.

FP26 said:

The entire culture is different today as well. I was pretty lucky in little league, as I had a good coach who seemed to enjoy helping us learn the game. But beyond that we didn't have very many practices. We didn't have private instructors. We didn't have specialized lessons. We didn't have personalized workout programs. We learned the sports we played by watching our favorite teams on tv and then emulating those players at the playground for HOURS every single day.

While our community has a very nice community park, I rarely see anyone use it...

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This is certainly true for boys, although growing up I never really saw girls out at the local parks playing softball/baseball/hoop. Might have been different in your community though.

At the end of the day kids are going to play sports which they enjoy playing and being competitive with your peers makes a sport a lot more enjoyable. The opportunity to play skill-dominated
sports all year coupled with crazed parents thinking Susie is going to be the next Diana Taurasi/Jennie Finch breeds one sport athletes which then makes it difficult for many girls who want to
play multiple sports to be competitive in those sports and so they then just decide to play one sport. It is sort of a feedback loop.

Chris8 said:

We have some great facilities in our area...but you must have "permission from parks and rec" to use them even when not in use for another team/league/tournament etc. We pay for it with tax dollars/fees....but yet access is limited. I get the keep them nice etc...but I drive by so many fields so many days not in use. Sad.

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We cannot use any of the school fields in our town. Luckily, for the moment at least, there is community park which we can use. They are going to fix it up soon and I made sure to e-mail the guy in
charge of the "fix up" to let him know it would be nice if they left at least one of those fields unlocked so people can go play on it when they want to.

pattar said:

This is certainly true for boys, although growing up I never really saw girls out at the local parks playing softball/baseball/hoop. Might have been different in your community though.

At the end of the day kids are going to play sports which they enjoy playing and being competitive with your peers makes a sport a lot more enjoyable. The opportunity to play skill-dominated
sports all year coupled with crazed parents thinking Susie is going to be the next Diana Taurasi/Jennie Finch breeds one sport athletes which then makes it difficult for many girls who want to
play multiple sports to be competitive in those sports and so they then just decide to play one sport. It is sort of a feedback loop.

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I agree regarding baseball. I really didn't see much softball growing up other than a men's fastpitch league (King and his Court played in my home town once). But there were some girls that played basketball at the local playground. Some would join the boys at times as well. Beyond that, the tennis courts were usually filled with the local girls.

We are a small school and need kids to play multiple sports or we won't have them. IMO it hurts us with pitching. We need a pitcher to decide at 12U that she wants to be a pitcher if we wnat to dominate the conference. Instead she plays volleyball in the fall and hoops in the winter along with a JO volleyball and AAU hoops schedule in addition to her travel softball schedule. The poor kid needs a break but three sports are telling her that she needs to focus. I do not know the answer but I want every girl who wants to play volleyball, run cross country, play basketball, participate in gymnastics, shoot trap, play golf, cheerlead, bass fish, or run track to get that opportunity. These kiddos only live once. If our varsity softball team suffers so be it.

In Georgia, HS softball is a fall sport. So it conflicts with volleyball and cross country for girls. So, travel teams try out in August and up until HS season starts. HS season lasts until mid-September (early Oct. if you make it to state). Then travel ball begins practice and you probably play showcases and a few tournaments up until Thanksgiving. Speed and agility training inside (if it's cold) or regular practice outside until early Feb. Then, if it's warm enough, scrimmages/friendlies in Feb. or you may travel for a tournament (we went to FL for President's Day). Come March, it's off to the races with travel ball all the way until Nationals in July. You get about a week or 10 days until tryouts start all over again.

Long story short, no time to do any other sports seriously. If you have an understanding HS coach for basketball or track/field, you might be able to work that out.

NBECoach said:

Any suggestions on how I can make softball more relevant are welcome.

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I thought about this a bit since your questions was how to get interest in softball back up at your school. First thing is to check enrollment because higher numbers help and it is good to know if you are fighting a tide that is rolling out or just a loss/shift of interest.

Either way you need to connect with parents and kids at a younger age. Your losing kids before they even get to you. Studies show about 65-75% of kids drop out of youth sports at or before the age 13, so long before you every see any of them. Your hoping a few motivated parents will get a group of kids to HS on a constant basis but if the focus of those parents turns to another sport you lose them and your program suffers. If your parents are motivated but lack the knowledge to effectively coach the kids then the kids will quit anyway because the game is tedious at a young age.

Asking a couple HS coaches/friends, what has worked locally to some extent are some of the following:

• Show up to youth league events like opening day just to have parents/kids see you, bring a couple energetic girls from current HS team. Talk up the program and fun.

• Host a coaching night at the HS and go over some basic skills, introduce them to a few fun practice activities (we do softball base running relay, ultimate softball or queens).

• Get involved with a local recreation/travel teams with players from your district (suggest 6-8th grade so pre-high school age) especially in that age when girls might want to drop out.

• Host a summer clinic or weekend clinic. If you do a indoor March clinic before your HS season you can raise money for your HS team and awareness of the program. Have anyone trying out for HS team help and it get them volunteer hours (bonus).

• Raise awareness of the positives of playing team sports. Females especially who play team sports tend to be more successful, rise to higher ranking positions and earn more money over their careers than those who did not, particularly if they played HS/College sports.

• Get involved with a local batting cage or similar and give some side lessons.

• Invite youth teams to games, come up with ideas like run the bases with a varsity player. One friend of mine has a youth league night where the varsity teams (home and away) are introduced and walk out with a youth player (who is mentioned). Then big photo in the outfield. I think they play catch with the kids too at some point, she had 200 people for a HS game on a 50 degree evening.

My friends put in work and it has paid off generally because even if they lack numbers some years the quality of players they have on the diamond tend to be solid.

Good luck this season!