- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
- 48
Thanks so much for all this great counsel, everyone.
Having to hit the reset button is a bit challenging for me, because her expression of her goal forces me to rethink not only about how to prepare her for college, but also about how to manage her softball "career". She's a strong student in average classes, so she'll definitely need to move towards a more rigorous curriculum. One thing that's clear is that I cannot sit back and hope the schools get her ready. I think I do a fair job, but also know that I'm falling short. I think she's in a pretty good softball situation as an average player getting plenty of innings on a strong team. She's been putting in a lot of work on her own outside of practice, a commitment she hasn't really made for much of the past year or so. But now, I can no longer look at this ride as just expensive fun. She needs to stay on a team that I know will get exposure as opposed to having fun simply getting her ready for HS ball. I'm not saying she'll make the team when she's of age, but the current players on the 18G team in her org are all going to play in college and most are headed to big schools, including 7 that are going PAC-12. Ga Tech, Fresno St, UCSD, Boston College, UC Davis, and CSU Northridge are also represented. Just looking ahead and thinking out loud, a pipeline like that likely means increased competition for prospective slots on that 18G team as the girls get older.
After reading all the posts, I did begin looking into camps last night and the overnight UCLA camp should work for our schedule, but one of the tricky parts about managing this is that attending camp will mean having to miss a team practice when they're trying to peak for Nationals and need all their parts in place.
When I think about her strengths, I believe time management is something she's very good with, so I see her as the type of student might be well-equipped to handle her courses around the practice and game schedule. But I also know that to this point in school, she's never faced any truly strong academic challenges. I'm going to encourage her to start looking at more schools.
UC Berkeley (Cal) and UCLA are part of the 9 University of California (UC) undergraduate campuses. Acceptance rate for applicants at Cal is 18% and UCLA 20%. If you are in the top 9% of high school students in the state, you are automatically accepted to one of the 9 campuses but not necessarily your UC choice.
As you know, those two schools are highly selective for admissions to its freshman class. For example, for incoming freshman the average weighted GPA at Cal is 4.39 (obviously AP and Honors classes give the student the ability to get better than a 4.0). I don't know what the average freshman GPA is for the student-athlete who enters the softball program but I would think its well north of 3.5?
Some things to consider:
- She needs to take every AP/Honors class available to her.
- She needs to start thinking about what classes she will take in high school since she is preparing for them now. For example, she realistically needs 4 year highest math, 3 years laboratory sciences, 3 years foreign language, etc.
- She needs to find the best travel ball team in her area and be a starter. Many travel teams are already attending 14U college showcases.
- This summer or next (at the latest) attend the softball camps where she can meet and be seen by the coaches. For example, at UCLA in addition to the regular junior softball camps, they have the Academy and ID camps with advanced instruction and competitive games where they are certainly evaluating potential recruits. When my DD was 9YO, she did one of the overnight softball camps and had a great time, got to see the campus, coached by the UCLA players and coaching staff. I would think it would be a must for any serious recruit to attend one of the advanced clinics.
- She should have some other options if she wants to play softball in college. For example, UC Davis and UC San Diego have softball programs, albeit, they won't be going to the WCWS.
- Each school's softball program will only have 4 or 5 freshman openings 100's of players are trying out for these few coveted spots. She needs to the best of the best.
Lastly, she should talk with some college graduates who played softball in college to make sure she knows what the program entails and how great a commitment it is to be a student-athlete.
Good luck.
Having to hit the reset button is a bit challenging for me, because her expression of her goal forces me to rethink not only about how to prepare her for college, but also about how to manage her softball "career". She's a strong student in average classes, so she'll definitely need to move towards a more rigorous curriculum. One thing that's clear is that I cannot sit back and hope the schools get her ready. I think I do a fair job, but also know that I'm falling short. I think she's in a pretty good softball situation as an average player getting plenty of innings on a strong team. She's been putting in a lot of work on her own outside of practice, a commitment she hasn't really made for much of the past year or so. But now, I can no longer look at this ride as just expensive fun. She needs to stay on a team that I know will get exposure as opposed to having fun simply getting her ready for HS ball. I'm not saying she'll make the team when she's of age, but the current players on the 18G team in her org are all going to play in college and most are headed to big schools, including 7 that are going PAC-12. Ga Tech, Fresno St, UCSD, Boston College, UC Davis, and CSU Northridge are also represented. Just looking ahead and thinking out loud, a pipeline like that likely means increased competition for prospective slots on that 18G team as the girls get older.
After reading all the posts, I did begin looking into camps last night and the overnight UCLA camp should work for our schedule, but one of the tricky parts about managing this is that attending camp will mean having to miss a team practice when they're trying to peak for Nationals and need all their parts in place.
When I think about her strengths, I believe time management is something she's very good with, so I see her as the type of student might be well-equipped to handle her courses around the practice and game schedule. But I also know that to this point in school, she's never faced any truly strong academic challenges. I'm going to encourage her to start looking at more schools.