Have a little perspective...

[ez_softball]

I have kept pretty good records over the years on my daughters softball career. Not just the normal stats but a few other things that might help parents that our moving down a similar path. For a little backdrop, my daughter is a Freshman in college, playing ball at a private NAIA school. I'll add a couple other threads about our experiences as I have time but I'll start with this one that talks about players making it to the "big show", you know, college softball.

One of the things I have tracked is the number of players that my daughter played with over the years and how many of those girls have moved on to play college ball. I'll start at 12U because that is when things begin to look a little more like a real game and some parents start thinking about college scholarships. It's important to note that there is overlap with the same players from year to year, for example my daughter is listed every year as a rostered player, HS Varsity Player and as a College Player (NAIA).

Travel Ball:

• 12U Young: 13 Rostered Players/ 5 HS Varsity Players/ 1 College Player (NAIA)
• 12U Old: 12 Rostered Players/ 9 HS Varsity Players/ 1 College Player (NAIA)
• 14U Young: 12 Rostered Players/ 8 HS Varsity Players/ 2 College Players (NAIA, JUCO)
• 14U Old (played on a couple teams): 34 Rostered Players/ 29 HS Varsity Players/ 6 College Players (2 NAIA, 1 JUCO, 1 DII, 2 DI)
• 16U Young: 13 Rostered Players/ 12 HS Varsity Players/ 2 College Players (2 NAIA)
• 18U Young (played on a couple teams & playing up): 26 Rostered Players/ 26 Varsity HS Players/ 8 College Players (3 NAIA, 1 DII, 1DIII, 2 JUCO)
• 18U Old (actually could play another year): 14 Rostered Players/ 14 HS Varsity Players/ 7 College Players (3 DI, 1 NAIA, 3 JUCO)

Now, if I take out the over lap and just use the total actual number of different players, 20% of players made it to some level of college ball. This number will go up the next year with some teammates remain uncommitted that are still attending HS. My educated estimate (looking at actual uncommitted HS players) is that the total percentage will grow from 20% up to 35% when it is all said and done. As of now, this is the percentage of players that made it college ball by age group, 12U= 4.5%, 14U= 15.5%, 16U= 23%, 18U= 39%. Again, the numbers will move up in the next year but 12U and 14U will change very little, as most of the increases will come in the 16U and 18U age groups.

High School Varsity ( 3 years), I am going to list this as a lump some vs. listing individual years like I did for TB:

• All 3 years of HS Varsity: 23 different players/ 6 College Players (1 DI, 3 NAIA, 2 JUCO)

Again, over the next couple years the number of college players will move up some, my guess is that 3-5 more players from my daughters HS teams will end up playing some level of college ball.



OK that's all I have for now... have at it!

 

[FP26]

Interesting topic... Out of curiosity I decided to go back through DD's career, but only reviewed her first and final years of traditional travel ball.

12u - 12 players on roster. 10 of them would go on to play HS varsity. 3 moved on to college ball (1 DII, 2 DIII)
18u - 13 players on roster. All played HS varsity. 8 moved on to college ball (2 DII, 6 DIII). I'm convinced the others could have played at various levels but lost interest.

She also played 23u but that was all active college players.

 

[BT3100]

Good summary. I think it really depends on the travel team DD plays on. Our 12U team wasn't great, but had some great kids. They spilt up after second year 12s but ended up with 6 who are committed to D1 or D2 schools. That team wasn't part of an org that was big or well known.
Last year DD was on a team with 9 seniors of which 7 went onto play D1 and 2 D2.
Depends upon the team. The one stat I like is when DD was 11 she wasn't allowed to pitch because the team had 4 other "Studs" who pitched. Today DD is the only one of that group still playing and will be going D1. There is no crystal ball. It all comes down to who gets their kids the right coaches and the kid working her tail off.

 

[marriard]

Hmmmm...

8U:
First ever travel team: Not great out of the gate - we were young even for 8u, late to the season and were well behind. Record I think was 1-18-2. But we had talent apparently.
11 core roster/HS: 8/College: 3 (D1, NAIA, D3) PLUS a D1 volleyball player, a D1 golfer and a nationally ranked tennis player

14U-A: Won and placed in various national 14U events:
12 core roster/HS: 11; College: 6 (D1, D3, D2, 3 NAIA). One never played again as she decided on theater/singing. By 16U, 4 others decided to just play HS and didn't play travel after 16U.

Last 18U Travel:
13 roster; HS: 13, College: 11- 2 decided not to despite offers. D1(2), D2(4), D3(2), NAIA(3)
What is interesting to note is that 6 of the non-D1 players had D1 offers but decided to not play D1 over a better school/education/location/softball fit.

 

[Orange Socks]

The name of the game is staying power. The longer you keep playing, the odds go up significantly for playing in college...if you want to. Then the odds go the other way once you get into college.

I am not able to keep up with all the kids that my DD played with over the years that went on to college ball. But I know specifically from rec ball, she is 1 of 3 players in her grad year that went on to play college ball.

DD played 3 years of 18U ball.
1st year-3 Seniors (2 D1, 1 Juco)-1 stopped playing after 1st year
2nd year-6 Seniors (3 D1, 2 DII, 1 juco) 2 stopped playing, 1 transferred
3rd year-10 Seniors(1 D1, 1 D2, 6 D3, 1 juco, 1 NAIA) 1 got pregnant!, 1 quit, 1 transferred.

 

[Vertigo]

Starting back in Little League dd is the only one as of right now who will be playing in college. The other one will commit soon.

The team I developed and coached at 13U includes 1 D1 commit, 1 D2 commit, and 2 D3 commits.

14U: 2 D3 players.

18U: 5 D1 players, 2 D2 players, and at least 10 D3 players (this is between 2 different teams).

 

[spleen1015]

All years playing travel....

10u 1st yr - 11 rostered - DD is the only one still playing softball
10u 2nd yr - 11 rostered - 2 varsity players - 1 D1
12u 1st yr - 11 rostered - 4 varsity players - 1 D1, 1 NAIA
12u 2nd yr - 13 rostered - 8 varsity players - 1 D1, 1 DII, 1 D1 Golfer
14u 1st yr - 13 rostered - 8 varsity players - 1 D1, 1 DII, 1 D1 Golfer
14u 2nd yr - 15 rostered - 10 varsity players - 2 D1, 1 NAIA, 2 2022s that haven't committed but will
16u 1st yr - 12 rostered - 12 varsity players - 1 D1, 3 NAIA, 2 2022s that haven't committed but will
16u 2nd yr - 11 rostered - 11 varsity players - 1 D1, 4 NAIA, 2 2022s that haven't committed but will
18u 1st yr - 12 rostered - 12 varsity players - 1 D1, 5 NAIA, 2 2022s that haven't committed but will

As far as HS goes DD has played with 1 DIII, 1 DII, and 4 D1. There are 4 2022s or younger will play in college, most likely DI for 3 of them.

 

[_MIA_]

2 of my friends growing up spent some time in jail..that’s all I got..

 

[BigSkyHi]

2 of my friends growing up spent some time in jail..that’s all I got..

Can't thank you enough for bailing me out LOL

 

[_MIA_]

Can't thank you enough for bailing me out LOL

Yeah this wasn’t the “bailing somebody out” kind of jail...I guess prison would have been a better description