Are you really prepared to play college softball?

[Jdaddy]

Even DD’s D3 is 6am workouts, 3pm practice 3 days a week. “Practice” is no coaching, but girls are working every day. Her grades are really good, 10 hrs of required study hall each week. She’s adjusting well but sore in the mornings, haha! Completing summer workouts made a big difference I believe. 2 have quit and one has been indefinitely suspended.

 

[Josh Greer]

After following my daughter's journey (she went the volleyball route), my biggest issue for college bound athletes is not the athletic side of the process. Rather, it is handling the collegiate academic role while being a full time athlete. Most of these kids are usually leaving high school at the top, relative to their teammates, only to be placed on a team with people just like them, but at a higher level. What they may or may not realize, is that the same thing will happen academically. Doing both will most definitely be a chore.

 

[MNDad]

Thank you for the response! IDK if my DD will ever be in that boat or not, since we're trying to get a full ride based on combination of athletic and academic scholarship. Obviously everyone's journey and "ride" are different.

First of all I wish your daughter the best of luck. The rest of what I’m going to say is meant to provide a different perspective.

When going after athletic or academic scholarships it’s best to think of it as a bonus for the hard work. The odds of her getting a full ride are extremely low. My daughter pitched and never had a full ride. They stopped doing percentages, but she roughly went from 75% freshman year to about 95% senior year. That’s combining academic and athletic money. This isn’t to brag, but I want to give you an idea what the reality is of pitchers and full rides. She was Big 12 Academic all conference, pitcher of the week a couple times and 3rd team all region as a senior. Not a star by any means, but had a decent career and was a key contributor.

You know all about the odds of making it on a college team. That’s only half the struggle. The freshman all come in as stars on their travel team and all of a sudden they’re basically on the practice squad. Most freshman never see the field. That gets discouraging and a lot of them quit. Others can’t handle the workload or time management and quit or get dropped due to grades.

The only things that keep the kids going are supportive families and loving softball and the school. If they’re playing for the scholarship the majority won’t have that love and they’ll never make it. You will find kids where a full ride was the goal and things worked out. I would guess that about .0001% of the girls that try.

I really do hope your DD lands a great scholarship at her dream school. I think she’ll be a lot happier looking at the perfect fit over who will give her the most money.

 

[justanotherguy]

First of all I wish your daughter the best of luck. The rest of what I’m going to say is meant to provide a different perspective.

When going after athletic or academic scholarships ...

Thanks for the reply and I do agree. The "goal" is 100% between the two, but there's no saying she'll get that. She should get a good academic side as she's a straight A honors/AP student. Of course her #1 school is literally a 10 minute drive down the road so she won't need to live on campus. That's half the cost. I know there might be stipulations about that being on the softball team, but it's something to see if it's possible. I'd think that would be a good selling point, no room and board. In the end, if she doesn't get some decent offers we'll just go the route my son has. 2 years community college with zero debt, then finish the bachelors with whatever school will give her the best academic money.

 

[_MIA_]

I had loans coming out of college..it wasn't a death sentence...

 

[murphdog]

DD is at a D3 so academic money only. She gets a good chunk of that in scholarship money. She’s living off campus this year in an apartment with 3 other girls and it’s significantly less than living in the dorms.
Would I like more of it paid, sure, who wouldn’t. But more than that I want her at a school she loves. It’s a bonus that she was one of the few freshmen to start last year.

 

[Cannonball]

As I have posted before, we were fortunate and the dd was able to combine athletic and academic monies so we didn't pay much at all. Most of you know that she played for a powerful D-II. The OP makes a lot of sense in the post. I'd guess that most players aren't as well prepared as they thought that they would be to play collegiate ball and get the grades. My dd was fortunate in that freshmen were limited in the number of hours they could take that first semester to help them adjust. They also had mandatory study hall where times were kept and sent to the HC. One dare not miss study hall! From there, the HC could determine which players could take more hours and not have mandatory study hall. Most kept these restrictions that first year. The explanation was that road trips are what takes most players down. Heck, they were gone weeks at a time. BTW, if your dd doesn't take care of the provided tutor many schools offer, ... wow! My dd got to know the tutors at her school and they had all of this knowledge about professors, homework, ... and were such an asset.

Per the physical side, there are so many things to mention here that I simply can't. My dd cried a lot. She hurt a lot and she was in tremendous physical shape when she reported. If your dd does not know their way around the weight room, they might be in serious trouble. The same can be said about plyos. The easy part was the on the field field stuff. I guess that says so much about being prepared.

 

[MNDad]

Thanks for the reply and I do agree. The "goal" is 100% between the two, but there's no saying she'll get that. She should get a good academic side as she's a straight A honors/AP student. Of course her #1 school is literally a 10 minute drive down the road so she won't need to live on campus. That's half the cost. I know there might be stipulations about that being on the softball team, but it's something to see if it's possible. I'd think that would be a good selling point, no room and board. In the end, if she doesn't get some decent offers we'll just go the route my son has. 2 years community college with zero debt, then finish the bachelors with whatever school will give her the best academic money.

Living at home her freshman year likely won’t be an option. After that she’d probably be able to. I guess the question would be would she want to? Part of preparing the kids for the real world is getting out from under our roofs.

I was on a Facebook thread for parents at DD’s school. Its similar to this with parents seeking advice or sharing experiences. I liked it for the comedy. There was a big thread about the cafeteria not being opened for breakfast and lunch for kids returning from break early. Many seemed to think their kids were incapable of finding food for themselves for a day. Another was a Mom was distraught over where her son could find a haircut in a town of 35k people. Not just looking for a good place. Her concern was he couldn’t get it cut! Not saying you’re like this. I just found it funny how I’ll prepared some kids are for the real world. You’ll see a lot of similar issues of softball players not being ready.

Back on topic, has she taken her ACT and SAT yet? That’ll give you an idea how much academic money you can expect. Living nearby would be an asset. That way coach doesn’t have to worry about her getting homesick and leaving school. Happens more than you think.

You’re right n a good spot of having a couple more years to get her ready.

 

[justanotherguy]

Nope hasn't done the ACT/SAT yet. She's taking honors math 3 this semester to basically be fresh on math, then will be taking it sometime later in winter. I plan on finding some of those boot camp type courses for her to go to.

 

[Orange Socks]

Nope hasn't done the ACT/SAT yet. She's taking honors math 3 this semester to basically be fresh on math, then will be taking it sometime later in winter. I plan on finding some of those boot camp type courses for her to go to.

I would have her take those tests immediately. You need to see a base line to see where she stands so she can set goals. This will also help you determine how much academic aid could be available. I cannot stress this enough. Every college coach I talk to asks about scores. Does not matter what division they coach. Many kids think their kids are High Academic until those scores come back. I have a kid on my 18U team that is really interested in a local D3 program in which the coach really likes this reciprocally BUT her ACT score is 8 pts away from being a realistic recruit. To add: I would spend the money on a reputable private test prep tutor instead of those boot camp, test masters type of one day deals. I totally wasted my money on those. The real progress is going private and you should consider it an investment that will yield big returns.