Showcase or B team

You're above my pay grade on this but my $0.02 will echo the herd above -

If she's looking to play in college get her on the best team you can where she'll get some circle time.

If she's not looking to play in college, have her play on the team she wants. If it's the B team with her friends, great let her enjoy her summer. If it's the showcase team to see if she has the passion to push herself, that's good too.

I think the choice is probably going to come down to what your daughter wants on this.

Don't let your DD get all caught up in the whole "friends" thing. Too many girls do it. It's part of their social development. She will make new friends on another team. Also, moving to another team where players have to compete for playing time is a good thing. If she wants to play ball in college at any level she will be competing for playing time. Most college rosters are 18+ large.

The other thing that comes into play for your DD. Are the girls on the current team driven to play in college? If not, she needs to be with like-minded teammates. You've received a lot of good advice here. Take it all in have her make a choice.

There comes a time in a driven player's career when they have have to make their decisions based on what's best for their personal softball advancement. Your DD is at that juncture in her career.

Have her read these posts and see what she says. It's good for her to know she is not the first girl to be in this situation and she won't be the last.

Good luck to your DD.

Showcase teams should be rotating their pitchers in each game since coaches typically only watch one game. In elimination pitchers will go longer and rotate as needed. I haven't come across many showcase teams that don't have 3 solid pitchers, all of which could be considered a #1. On a side note, I personally don't like to label the pitchers 1, 2, 3. Normally each have different strengths and can keep teams off balance if rotated correctly.

I would recommend the showcase team as it will push her to get better. If she plays D1/D2, then she will be competing with other pitchers so better to get used to it now. Best of luck!

Our showcase team has 3 pitchers and they all pitch pretty equally. If there is a coach there too see a particular player that player will play. If she's serious about playing in college she really needs to be playing in more than one showcase this summer.

For those that have not followed Crystal's DD she has been working her tail off with lots of help (a little from this board) and improved a lot.

I think the biggest thing she has to figure out is what is her goal is it playing DI college softball or does she have other ideas. She could play JUCO or CC in North Carolina and still be playing against All district and All state HS level players while spending little on college or still living at home...just depends on her goals.

If it is DI softball then you need to have a heart to heart with the showcase coach and let him know that if this team is about winning games and pitching the #1 pitcher 70% of the time you will pass. If this is truly a showcase team where pitching will be distributed minimum 25% of innings [and that is still not enough but with 3 pitchers what you could expect] and if you have contacted a college coach and they are in the stands he will guarantee your DD is "showcased" then you are in. Also I would find out the status of the pitchers on the team are the freshman/sophomore phenoms are they seniors with scholarships already? this might tell you what to expect as much as what the coach says.

Some of the others might chime in hopefully [MENTION=10413]riseball[/MENTION] or others and have more insight in all honesty she is probably to late for a P5 conf spot as a pitcher but there should be a few teams in the smaller conferences looking...the other factor of course is her grades could she get into a really small but academically great DIII school?

Also I think it is telling that your "B" team is close to on par with a "showcase" team... your DD is on a "B" team with an "A" pitcher

If the main criteria is a P5 school, it’s never too late. You can always find one looking for more pitching. If it’s a particular conference or team, it’s a different issue. There are a ton of advantages to P5 schools, but P5 doesn’t equal great softball programs. There’s plenty of mid majors and even some D2’s that can compete with the lower P5’s. This is still very high level softball and takes a ton of commitment to be successful.