At a crossroad

[radness]

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/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.

@YOCOACH well said and summed up in a respectful way!

In particular like the way you addressed about the system.
imo
Travel ball can be just playing softball, but also 'has in it' a system to reach college coach attention, which is an opportunity if people choose to do it.
That takes a lot of determination by everyone families, players and coaches involved.

We all get to have different paths and should appreciate being able to make our own decisions with the choices available in softball. Diversity of teams and goals is a good thing.
I'm appreciative of.

Now hope to see more posts about the positive benefits and the reward of joy that people receive from playing fastpitch softball.
Let's remember that people involve themselves in softball because we want to!

 

[CrazyNani]

Exactly! Those are the things she did commit to. Plus, sent the e-mails, worked on her profile, attached the videos. She played in all the tournaments and attended every practice for 9 hours a week. It was the COACH who announced, “If you don’t want to play in college, you don’t belong on this team”. I’m not arguing with you. Thanks for your thoughtful response.

 

[PitchMum]

"But show me one team at a showcase, where every girl ended up playing in college, at any level. "

My daughter's travel ball team did, class of 2020. Every single one of those girls received offers at City of Lights tournament, and went on to play college ball. Majority were JC's, with a few NAIA's. They played local in-state tourneys year round, and then focused on a specific list of about 3 showcase tourneys each year. A lot of the girls attended the corresponding camps at these tourneys in order to meet coaches in person.

I think parents, coaches, and players just need to be realistic in their expectations. Spending tons of money at 14U showcase tournaments doesn't make an awful lot of sense unless the girls are just top notch superstars that are already being scouted, just my opinion. When going to a showcase, choose wisely as they are expensive. Research the colleges attending, and have your DD send emails prior to the date inviting coaches to watch and include the schedule if you can. It's a complete waste if you just show up and hope that someone walks by and notices the team. Consider the JC's as well as the larger programs, the JC's will often have a lot more money to work with.

 

[Shiloh]

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

Yep. 100%.
And dismayed by the costs as well.

There are lots of teams where every player goes on to play in college. Lots.

But plenty of teams also that are more focused on local competition, where very few go on to play in college.
OP needs to find one of those.

All good.

 

[YoungBuck]

As others have said... find a new team.

 

[YoungBuck]

I know of young ladies that played, won conference and national championships, and don't think anything less of their accomplishments because it wasn't division one.

 

[nikkilugi]

On DD’s team last year every 2021 girl went on to play college ball. For 2022 her team has just one girl not committed but she is very close in her process. My DD is a 2023 and is committed along with one other 23. Yes - we are a team that travels - as I stated before we picked her team because of their emphasis on recruiting and their history of having a majority of their players go on to play at the college level. I also said before there absolutely are TB that don’t have that emphasis and who play locally and regionally. There really is no need to attack the system - there are teams for everyone.

 

[Rolling Hard]

What about the coach/org. that is dragging his mediocre at best team every month to D1/P5 $howcases only to get blown out every game. Thats not fun. Review the results of some of the showcases and you will see teams that had no business being there. Gave up 56 runs and scored 2. IMO, the coach has a responsibility to choose appropriate and realistic schedule for their team in order put their players in front of colleges that match their skill level. And the parents also have a responsibility to choose wisely.

 

[Eric F]

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.

It is very common for students - not just student-athletes - to enter college not knowing what they want to study (aka "undeclared").

14yos cannot commit to play for a specific college. However, 14yos who love the game, who have been playing the game since they were single-digit-age, who have made the game a major part of their life, may feel strongly that they want to keep playing for as long as they are able to. There's nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of upsides to being a dedicated athlete. Those feelings may change in the years ahead, and that's okay, too.

It's not at all disingenuous to say academics come first. "Academics" is not just law or medicine. That said, there are some academic tracks that are so demanding that college athletics are possibly not on the table for those students, and a choice would have to be made about be made about their direction.

 

[nikkilugi]

What about the coach/org. that is dragging his mediocre at best team every month to D1/P5 $howcases only to get blown out every game. Thats not fun. Review the results of some of the showcases and you will see teams that had no business being there. Gave up 56 runs and scored 2. IMO, the coach has a responsibility to choose appropriate and realistic schedule for their team in order put their players in front of colleges that match their skill level. And the parents also have a responsibility to choose wisely.

No it's not fun. Ultimately though it is a families responsibility to get with the team that will best fit the goals and talent level of the girls playing. Believe it or not a lot of parents want their kids to go compete in CO at IDT/Sparkler,Fireworks & in Huntington Beach even if their kids aren't that great because they get to brag - "we were here" thinking others won't look up their record. Coaches ultimately are at the mercy of parents/players. If nobody is happy they will leave and there are LOTS of reasons why people (parents) aren't happy. We are losing at least one after fall because family felt like she wasn't "getting seen".

Like I have said ad nauseam in this post - there IS a team for every girl. There are so many letter orgs out there that there is also a tournament for every team. Families need to do that research to know what team will fit their goal. Find a team with like minded parents and players. They are out there but you gotta work to find the fit.