Case study for softball coaches and other sports.

[sluggers]

So the coach is basically upset because he gave your daughter an ultimatum, she made a decision based on that ultimatum, and that decision was not the choice that the coach wanted her to make. Do I have that correct?

That is the way it seems to me. I have no idea what the coach was thinking.

DD#1 loved softball, and specifically pitching. DD#1 did give up everything, other than band, to play softball. If the coach had given her the same ultimatum, DD#1 would have said, "OK." DD#3, who was a better all-around athlete than DD#1, liked softball and enjoyed playing it. But, she would never give up other sports to play softball. Perhaps she thought that DD#3 was like DD#1.

In travel ball, teams sometimes don't have a place for a kid who isn't 100% committed. I understand and respect that.

Softball is her first choice and she devotes most of her time to softball, maybe I’m wrong, but I think basketball helps with her conditioning and quickness in softball.

Absolutely correct.

 

[starsnuffer]

In travel ball, teams sometimes don't have a place for a kid who isn't 100% committed. I understand and respect that.

I think this depends on the coach and the organization. Insofar as high school sports go, other sports are absolutely supported and even encouraged. Remember that the goal of a lot of top tier travel organizations (18 gold) is to help the girls get into college. Most colleges won't even look at a girl if she doesn't have a great GPA and a slew of extracurricular accomplishments. If the only extracurricular on the application is "softball", this hurts the girl more then it helps.

Where it can become an issue is with other travel sports that have conflicting schedules. You're right that travel softball takes a huge amount of time and commitment, but other travel sports are no different. If the kid plays travel basketball and travel-softball, you've just taken the nightmare/dream known as travel softball and doubled it.

Generally the hierarchy of priorities for TB softball teams are as follows:

1.) Academics. Grades and academic functions first
2.) TB games/tournaments
3.) HS games/tournaments
4.) TB practice/clinics
5.) HS practice

Somewhere in there life happens, but generally around the other activities mentioned. Most TB organizations even list this hierarchy in their player agreement so there is never any question about if a kid should go to one game or another, ect. On top of this, when it comes to softball specific conflicts, there are clear rules about HS players participating in travel ball until the HS season is over.

To your original point though, I still think this coach was way out of line and that your daughters (either of them) did nothing wrong.

-W

 

[EP Dad]

Funny example. Here is how it worked out where I live. Our "Suzy" pretty much exactly as you portrayed considered herself a volleyball player that played softball. 4 year starter for Varsity softball, did play summer ball at what most would consider a Rec level, great athlete. Senior year had multiple home runs for her team at sections and at state tournament for High School. Picks out a college for academics, walks on DIII softball team and has chance to see the field this year as a freshman. Her HS team mates that graduated with her all four played for the same Club program which arguably at the time was #1 in the state and attended Gold ASA Nationals twice and Oklahoma Hall of Fame ASA tournament once, Independence Day tourney in CO three times, and multiple other college recruiting tournaments. Of those 4, one is not playing, one working to make roster as a walk on at a DII, one is on partial scholarship to DII but redshirted and other is about #3 on depth chart as a catcher at a DIII school. Moral of the story to me is "Don't expect training to overcome athleticism in the long run. Better athletes can put in same work (and sometimes in much less time) to better end results".

Are we saying that it never happens the other way?