At a crossroad

[_MIA_]

Supposedly ???? I see she could have played all most anywhere.

She read stories to my sons at some event and that was said about her

 

[Rolling Hard]

So, it’s not okay to not know if you want to play softball in college before you might even know what your major might be or how demanding that will be. Again, my point. Why expect 14yr olds to commit to softball before they even know what their major will be. Yet, on the other hand, the truly disingenuous will say, academics come first. Wonder how many pre-med or pre-law softball players there are? I bet there are a lot of Sports Physiology, Kinesiology and Sports Management majors though, considering how many softball players go into private coaching after college.

Private coaching? Unless they are very good at communicating and marketing themselves (which requires excellent social skills) how much money can they realistically earn with one of these degrees? There are only so many high paying coaching jobs. Not saying life is all about money. Just think if they have to play back student loans. Not everybody gets a full ride. Wonder how many D1 players are living at home for financial reasons after graduating. Wonder if there is a study that compares Student Athletes vs Students.

 

[_MIA_]

Wonder if there is a study that compares Student Athletes vs Students.

I want to say I have read that they do better post college but that is for all sports across all divisions..

 

[radness]

Div1 graduation rate trends 90%,
includes D2 ,D3 #'s

College athletes continue to graduate at record highs - NCAA.org

Division I student-athletes continue to graduate at their highest rate in the 20 years the data has been tracked, according to the latest Graduation Success Rate

www.ncaa.org

Athletes graduation
Comparing to a 'quick' google search to the national average.

College Graduation Statistics [2023]: Total Graduates per Year

Find college graduation statistics, including the annual number of college graduates by state, degree, discipline, and demographics.

educationdata.org

 

[jsoftballcoach]

So, it’s not okay to not know if you want to play softball in college before you might even know what your major might be or how demanding that will be. Again, my point. Why expect 14yr olds to commit to softball before they even know what their major will be. Yet, on the other hand, the truly disingenuous will say, academics come first. Wonder how many pre-med or pre-law softball players there are? I bet there are a lot of Sports Physiology, Kinesiology and Sports Management majors though, considering how many softball players go into private coaching after college.

There are a lot of high academic kids that play, it opens doors in recruiting. My DD has a 4.5+ GPA and is ranked top 5 in her high school class. She is a D1 commit.

There were several very good players who committed to ivy league schools on her teams also, so it’s pretty common to be a very good student.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ang2bmd]

Why is anyone surprised that someone that loves sports so much they are willing to work hard enough and be talented enough to compete at the very highest level want their careers to continue to involve sports in areas like coaching, athletic training, personal training, sports management etc it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to me. Also many of these health science and kinesiology degrees are actually pre professional tracks qualifying kids to apply to PT and PA type programs. Of course I want my kid to make a living but I also want her to be happy. I live with an ex college athlete that got one of those fancy engineering degrees because it was going to make him so much money who has hated pretty much every single second of it since graduation. He would have been much happier with less money in a sports related profession. Its a balance. We need all sorts of people to make the world work. We can't all be stem people. Don't be degree and career snobs

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[_MIA_]

She read stories to my sons at some event and that was said about her

Lyons Named CoSIDA Academic All-American - University of Oklahoma

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma softball rising senior Grace Lyons was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team, the organization announced...

soonersports.com

 

[YOCOACH]

So, it’s not okay to not know if you want to play softball in college before you might even know what your major might be or how demanding that will be. Again, my point. Why expect 14yr olds to commit to softball before they even know what their major will be. Yet, on the other hand, the truly disingenuous will say, academics come first. Wonder how many pre-med or pre-law softball players there are? I bet there are a lot of Sports Physiology, Kinesiology and Sports Management majors though, considering how many softball players go into private coaching after college.

So all of this started because of the question about this? There have been numerous threads on here posted about the topic. There's even a thread about which colleges work around more demanding majors such as nursing , engineering, pre-med majors, etc. Whatever major she chooses she can play at the collegiate level as long as she skilled enough. The truth is, many major interests of study are more demanding than others. You know it, I know it and everyone else on this site knows it. Why should that determine whether a player wants to continue on their journey to play at the collegiate level or not? My DD changed what her career choice would be 7 times before she was a HS Senior and a final time no less than 3 months before gradation. Regardless, she knew she wanted to continue to play in college. You know what happened? We kept changing her college list to fit her needs and she contacted the coaches. Yes we scrambled but after that final change, she found her perfect fit. One where she started as a Freshman, got some AS money because it wasn't all spent yet for her graduation year's class, we could afford it if she had her AS money canceled for whatever reason such as a career ending injury and she just graduated this semester. BTW, it was a D2 and her major was early childhood special developmental education.

Many players know that they want to play at the college level at the 10U age. Many are not so sure even at 18U. But what's the harm in keeping those opportunities open if the possibility exists that she may? As I said before, for a majority of TB players, traipsing all over the country playing the top showcases looking for a P5 Major D1 AS is folly. Why don't you advise your DGD to find a team that's a better fit for her aspirations whether it's college only or college and playing ball both? Whether it's trying for a Major D1 or just playing for a Mid-major D1 down to a D3. BTW, there are several D3 teams that could compete with the major D1's as well as some NAIA's. Truly, the right college fit with academics is the most important thing and if your DGD wants to play at the next level, is skilled enough to do so even with a demanding major, there are plenty of colleges out their to choose from. Again, why try to limit her to college only? Especially if she decide she wants to continue her softball journey at a future date. Why would you want to close those doors of opportunity and lock them before they're even opened? Makes absolutely zero sense to me.

 

[CrazyNani]

So all of this started because of the question about this? There have been numerous threads on here posted about the topic. There's even a thread about which colleges work around more demanding majors such as nursing , engineering, pre-med majors, etc. Whatever major she chooses she can play at the collegiate level as long as she skilled enough. The truth is, many major interests of study are more demanding than others. You know it, I know it and everyone else on this site knows it. Why should that determine whether a player wants to continue on their journey to play at the collegiate level or not? My DD changed what her career choice would be 7 times before she was a HS Senior and a final time no less than 3 months before gradation. Regardless, she knew she wanted to continue to play in college. You know what happened? We kept changing her college list to fit her needs and she contacted the coaches. Yes we scrambled but after that final change, she found her perfect fit. One where she started as a Freshman, got some AS money because it wasn't all spent yet for her graduation year's class, we could afford it if she had her AS money canceled for whatever reason such as a career ending injury and she just graduated this semester. BTW, it was a D2 and her major was early childhood special developmental education.

Many players know that they want to play at the college level at the 10U age. Many are not so sure even at 18U. But what's the harm in keeping those opportunities open if the possibility exists that she may? As I said before, for a majority of TB players, traipsing all over the country playing the top showcases looking for a P% Major D1 AS is folly. Why don't you advise your DGD to find a team that's a better fit for her aspirations whether it's college only or college and playing ball both? Whether it's trying for a Major D1 or just playing for a Mid-major D1 down to a D3. BTW, there are several D3 teams that could compete with the major D1's as well as some NAIA's. Truly, the right college fit with academics is the most important thing and if your DGD wants to play at the next level, is skilled enough to do so even with a demanding major, there are plenty of colleges out their to choose from. Again, why try to limit her to college only? Especially if she decide she wants to continue her softball journey at a future date. Why would you want to close those doors of opportunity and lock them before they're even opened? Makes absolutely zero sense to me.

The gist of this was the coach's insistence on her making that commitment "now".

 

[YOCOACH]

The gist of this was the coach's insistence on her making that commitment "now".

Explain to me how emailing college coaches is a "commitment" to playing at the college level? Do you really think college coaches fully expect every single player that emails them to show up at their doorstep and come play for them when the time finally arrives? You can't be that naive. The only commitment made there is the time it takes to do it in order to keep her options open should she choose to play at the next level.

How does anything else you've mentioned such as playing college showcase tournaments mean it's a commitment? It doesn't. In most showcases, with the exception of the truly big ones such as the Sparkler and IDT as examples, I would venture to say that roughly 25 to a full 50% (if not more) of the players aren't there to get seen or recruited. They are there to play softball and compete. They are there to honor their "commitment" to their team and teammates. They are there not only for their love of the game but to have fun playing it. Basically, everything you've complained about and mentioned means nothing as far as a "commitment" goes in any meaningful sense of the word except that your DGD may not fulfill hers to the team she joined to play with this year. (This is in no way meant to be judgemental just an observation.)

From your comments throughout this entire thread, it's painfully obvious, at least to me, that your DGD picked the wrong team IMO and you are trying to blame the system for the poor decision versus saying, 'Oops, she made a mistake.' The next thing you should be asking is, 'How do we go about finding the right team and fit for my DGD?' Answer...ask alot of pertinent questions which should have happened before accepting the offer from her current team. What those questions are will be determined by your DGD's individual wants, needs, current long term goals (which will change over time) and circumstances. If you need some help with those, use the search engine to look up past threads, which again are numerous on here since this topic has been discussed ad nauseum as well.