Eye opening experience

[BuckeyeGuy]

I went to HS with Todd Marinovich for his frosh/soph years, played football on those teams. It appears to be pretty normal that the kids with elevated skill levels get elevated coaching attention, at least from my perspective. The rest of us (IOW the non-starting offensive players and the entire defense) were afterthoughts. Todd's dad would prowl the sidelines at practice and literally chew out the coaches if he thought they weren't using Todd correctly, or not protecting him enough. Us mere mortals could only shake our heads.

Not directly SB related, but definitely HS sports related. There is nothing new under the sun.

 

[MNDad]

I think what you’re experiencing is normal. HS ball is a totally different dynamic and coaches have a different agenda from travel ball. You’ve got a few dedicated softball players, but for most it’s a second sport or just a way to get a letter. Coaches don’t have kids long enough to do any substantial training. Many treat HS ball as a small part of the full high school experience and have a preference for older players, especially seniors. The view on freshman is that their time will come. Some JV teams are used for development, most are not.

HS ball is what it is. It’s not as competitive as travel, but it can still be a great experience. Just ignore the politics and make the most of it. Kids can learn a lot about dealing with adversity and they have a chance to become leaders.

As for getting a late start and playing at the D1 level, I’d have to disagree. Girls CAN start playing at HS age and do extensive off season training and eventually become a serviceable member of a HS varsity team. However, a girl starting at this age has no chance of playing college ball at a high level. D1 schools are recruiting as young as junior high and most are done now with their 2015 and 2016 classes. If girls aren’t playing high level club ball and attending college camps during their freshman and sophomore years it’s very unlikely they’ll play D1. As I said above, there’s still plenty of good reasons to play HS ball though.

 

[BobInMadison]

Some D1 schools recruit later than others. I will agree with you about the top D1 schools, at least as far as scholarship players.

The big name D1 schools generally have their kids sign in the fall, the earliest day possible. However, some of the smaller D1 schools are still signing girls in the second semester. One local pitcher signed with Northern Illinois fairly late in the year.

And, some schools have pretty big rosters. I would not be surprised if an occasional walk-on made a D1 team. Wisconsin will sometimes have talented, and FAST, young freshmen as pinch runners, and some of them develop their talent to where they are valuable players by the time they are upperclassmen.



Consider the following experiment, and there are certainly SB coaches on this forum who could pull of their part...

Suppose one sets up a 14 U TB team, and selects a number of girls who are 8th grade track stars, and have excellent hand-eye coordination. Make the roster really large, since a number of girls might drop out of SB during HS, or need to be replaced by more experienced SB players.

Let's suppose the coaches on the team include an excellent hitting coach, and excellent fielding coach, and an excellent sprint coach. In fact, you could have the sprint coach recruit the best young sprinters in the area for the team.

Of course the pitchers and probably catchers would need to be more experienced, preferably fast runners as well.

Run the team for a few years, at least through 16U, possibly 18U for their senior year.

I would think that if any of the track stars had the raw talent to be top-notch hitters and fielders, they would have an excellent shot at making a D1 school. Maybe not Arizona or Hawaii, but maybe UW Green Bay or Northern Illinois (to use two examples of smaller D1 schools close to me).

I don't know what to call the team. The Island of Misfit Track Stars?

 

[MNDad]

By “high level” I was referring to perennial top 20 or schools from major conferences such as the ones mentioned. “High level” should include mid majors and even lower level D1 and upper level D2 so I shouldn’t have made such a blanket statement as “no chance”. Colleges do hold walk on tryouts and find girls as pinch runners or with excellent grades to boost the team GPA. “Little chance” would have been more appropriate.

Lots of travel teams take 7th and 8th grade girls with potential, but with average softball skills and turn them into stars. Travel ball doesn’t start in my area until 14U and all the girls on DD’s old team came from rec ball with varying skills. The coaches had them start from scratch and re-learn everything and now most of that team will be playing college softball next year. A girl starting out in 9th or 10th grade though, even if she does develop the skills will have already missed her window as far as recruiting and my point was that a girl starting so late would have an uphill battle.

 

[BobInMadison]

OK, with the clarifications, we agree.

 

[marriard]

As for getting a late start and playing at the D1 level, I’d have to disagree. Girls CAN start playing at HS age and do extensive off season training and eventually become a serviceable member of a HS varsity team. However, a girl starting at this age has no chance of playing college ball at a high level. D1 schools are recruiting as young as junior high and most are done now with their 2015 and 2016 classes. If girls aren’t playing high level club ball and attending college camps during their freshman and sophomore years it’s very unlikely they’ll play D1. As I said above, there’s still plenty of good reasons to play HS ball though.

Recruiting/signing/verbals and so forth are totally different things...

By “high level” I was referring to perennial top 20 or schools from major conferences such as the ones mentioned. “High level” should include mid majors and even lower level D1 and upper level D2 so I shouldn’t have made such a blanket statement as “no chance”. Colleges do hold walk on tryouts and find girls as pinch runners or with excellent grades to boost the team GPA. “Little chance” would have been more appropriate.

True... up to a point...

Colleges don't own any player until they sign - and players can't sign a LOI until they are basically seniors and scholarship details (if any) comes with that normally. Or so the rules go. Until that NLI/LOI is signed - NOTHING - is official.

Up to that point, there is only verbal agreement which is not binding. Yes, a lot of D1 have lots of oral agreements out there and in a lot off cases many of them come through, but as we have found - there are lots of top programs in all divisions recruiting sometimes right up to the start of the semester. We have had many players locally sign with top 20 programs as seniors in the summer before college on a great deal of athletic money... Why... because when your little prodigy is a freshman, she is 4 years away from college and:

- She may never get any better so the oral offer is withdrawn (or as her parents will say "She decided that XXX school was a better fit")
- She gets injured. Colleges aren't taking injured incoming freshman, so no offer for you until you are healthy. And prove you can stay that way
- The offer you get is not attractive. Yes you got an offer from top D1 school but it turns out is for 10% of tuition. Some people don't see that coming. Again her parents will say "She decided that XXX school was a better fit"
- Players quit. ALL the time. Maybe the D1 scholarship was her parents dream, but not hers.
- Elite athletes change sports...
- Player decides she wants to be a --insert career here-- and D3 school offers THE program in that... and softball.
- The coaches change. And since nothing is binding, the previous coaches oral offers mean nothing.
- Players get injured or leave programs. That HS freshman isn't helping college coaches team this year and when your SS blew her knee, her backup transferred and 2 other players decided to just stop playing... Guess what - you need a THIS year senior (or a JUCO transfer).
- D1 doesn't mean 'good'. The bottom of D1 would have trouble with some HS teams (see almost any team in the Southwestern Athletic Conference) while the top of D2 and D3 would likely do very well in a mid-upper D1 conference.
- Softball isn't even close to football. You BETTER have your grades or you are NOT playing or even attending the school

 

[riseball]

By “high level” I was referring to perennial top 20 or schools from major conferences such as the ones mentioned. “High level” should include mid majors and even lower level D1... A girl starting out in 9th or 10th grade though, even if she does develop the skills will have already missed her window as far as recruiting and my point was that a girl starting so late would have an uphill battle.

Not sure who you are getting this misinformation but it is way off. Lower level D1's are anything but "high level" and some are downright painful to watch. We place an average of 5 players per year into the college ranks at all levels of play and the recruiting window is certainly not missed after 10th grade. In fact it is just getting into full swing.

 

[sluggers]

Lots of travel teams take 7th and 8th grade girls with potential, but with average softball skills and turn them into stars.

Well, yes and no...

The "inconvenient truth" is that the parents turn the girls into stars by doing lots and lots of one-on-one practicing.

 

[MNDad]

I was trying not to be elitist that only certain schools would be considered "high level" when any girl that plays D1 has worked her tail off to get there. I think we all agree the the top DII and DIII schiools can compete with mid and lower D1.

Yes, I know recruited, verballed and signed are totally different. You can add recieving a form letter invite to a camp is different than being recruited too.

Things will happen with injuries, grades, kids not performing etc, but still girls that haven't verbally committed by junior year face an uphill battle.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Lots of travel teams take 7th and 8th grade girls with potential, but with average softball skills and turn them into stars.

If you changed it to, Lots of travel teams take 7 and 8 year old girls with potential, but with average softball skills and turn them into stars.
That's more the norm.