Being the best you can be

[starsnuffer]

Almost all of the girls I'm familiar with in 18 gold programs out here in California the last few years who received scholarships to D1 schools had 4.0 or higher GPA's. Most had 4.3's. Public school isn't hard, getting a 4.0 in public school is like pitching a perfect game in rec ball.

I'm not disagreeing with Ray, and I honestly think he is correct. I am simply saying that the best softball players are competitors in all things in life, not just softball, and they don't settle for less then perfect.

-W

 

[sluggers]

Just to be clear:

If you want to "be the best you can be", put that effort into what you are going to do *AFTER* softball, not softball.

Your education is about 10000 is much more important than softball. I had two kids play college sports. They had a lot of fun. At 22 YOA, it was over, and they had to rely on their education. What you are going to do *after softball* is your goal. Softball might be a fun way to get there, but it is not the destination.

Determine what you want to do with your life, find a college that will help you get there, and THEN think about softball.

Don't put softball first--as much as I love the game, it shouldn't be the focus of your life.

 

[RedBirdDad]

Almost all of the girls I'm familiar with in 18 gold programs out here in California the last few years who received scholarships to D1 schools had 4.0 or higher GPA's. Most had 4.3's. Public school isn't hard, getting a 4.0 in public school is like pitching a perfect game in rec ball.

I'm not disagreeing with Ray, and I honestly think he is correct. I am simply saying that the best softball players are competitors in all things in life, not just softball, and they don't settle for less then perfect.

-W

Wow, apparently everything in California is inflated. Here in Wisconsin our HS GPAs don't go above 4.0 (straight A's).

 

[Phoenix1]

Have a good attitude, concentrate well and listen to your heart.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Redbirddad, Are you certain of that? Because in IL. the weighted AP classes, can easily put a student above 4.0. How does WI. weigh their AP classes?

 

[starsnuffer]

Even though official transcripts generally use unweighted GPA's, most kids and recruiters use the weighted GPA. Let's face it, getting a 4.0 in general ed classes in public school (non AP) is like getting a medal for using the bathroom without peeing on the seat.

-W

 

[RedBirdDad]

Redbirddad, Are you certain of that? Because in IL. the weighted AP classes, can easily put a student above 4.0. How does WI. weigh their AP classes?

My oldest DD just graduated HS this year so I'm pretty familiar with that. She is almost a sophomore in college already due to all of the AP classes, was in the top 10% of her class, and got a full tuition academic sholarship , but at least in our school, no one can get above a 4.0. She came up just short because of a gym grade. LOL. My youngest DD just finished her freshman year and the same gym teacher blew her 4.0 as well (she got dinged for missing gym class while travelling to varsity SB games and the teacher wouldn't let her count the games as physical activity *sigh*)

Perhaps this is up to the individual school districts. I totally agree that it's not fair to give the same weight to basic math that you do to Calculus II. Apparently colleges understand the difference in approaches.

 

[maebe90]

I think every player will have a different experience, by in my dd's case the first thing she was asked when she attended ASU camp was "What is your GPA and class rank? Next was, "What was your SAT score?". I tell parents who ask me about my dd's recruiting experience that grades are the most important thing, but I just noticed that a player coming to ASU from Cali has a 2.8 GPA, so who knows what is most important? I realize now that the school had no more athletic money to offer, so they were hoping she would qualify for academic money which she did.

Once she was at ASU her success came from putting in tons of extra time in the cages because as their past hitting coach told us the day my dd verballed was, "If she can hit, we'll find a place for her to play".

So I guess my advice would be work on hitting and keep your grades up.

 

[rowdy]

Have your family move to Florida, Texas or Califormia. If they won't then maybe you can find a relative to live with in the south where they play year round. I say this somewhat tongue in cheek but if you are already at the top of your group in NE you may not find anyone who will push you to the next level.