High School Softball ,No Thanks I'll pass

[Classof2020]

Youth sport has become ridiculously competitive over the years. Kids used to just go outside and play pick up games with their friends. Now youngsters are competing for spots and driving two hours to merely get the chance to play in a few games. Wouldn’t kids be better off getting 500 repetitions in their front yard with their friends? Youth sport has become obsessed with getting kids to the next level with the sole goal of eventually showing them off to college recruiters. The key to attaining this goal is repetition. Good coach, or bad coach in high school, she still gets the reps. She should play.

I agree that youth sports has gotten competitive. But let's be serious about the rest of this post. How many kids actually live in a neighborhood where they can go outside and have the room and kids to play a pick-up game with? This is not the experience of almost any kids that I know.

Depending on your HS you may or may not be getting decent reps. When you can't throw all your pitches because the catcher can't stop your drop or curve ball. When you are not hitting off as good of pitching and aren't really being challenged. When the coach isn't actually coaching you correctly because they don't know almost anything about your sport other than squish the bug and throw strikes then are reps really reps? I don't know if you know how bad some of our HS situations are? or maybe you didn't play A level TB?

 

[Easton33]

Youth sports competitive? Uh..... I have to agree with Herm.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...=Lwm6lGcpgovDzfYb-dROLw&bvm=bv.51773540,d.b2I

 

[SCDad]

I have to ask, are you a HS coach and your dd just wasn't good enough to get to the next level? So in your little narrow minded world, there is something wrong with helping your dd to excel in a sport she loves? I think HS softball is a great experience, but it isn't at the same level with TB. This is the problem in this country now and your tought process, we have to have an equal playing field, so as not to hurt the ones that don't want to work hard and make something out of themselves. Thats what I have got out of your post.

We play in a high density travel ball area, and for the best high school in the state. My opinions are skewed because scouts are everywhere, at our high school games and at many of the big local tourney's.

So for us, the determining factor in getting a scholarship is mostly ... how good your player is. Little else as politics, daddy-ball, how good your HS team is, or how good the travel team is ... matters as much as her skill-set & mind-set (it all matters, albeit less). The scouts know who my DD is wherever she plays. We have interest, and have not decided. Plus she is still in play, and specific talk here is not in our best interest.

For those in areas who do not see scouts, are doing everything in their power to get their kids noticed. Some of these methods are questionable, in my opinion. The reality of it is, if you get your player in front of scouts, which is a big IF for many (not us) ... it still comes down to body size, athleticism, speed, power, weight?, as the college scouts know who they want just by looking at their body. Then by watching them play.

I just think parents spend too much time and effort bitchin, complaining, yelling at their kids. When at the end of the day, the vast majority of the time, your DD is either good enough, or not good enough. The college scouts are good at what they do. Many of the underhanded ways competing parents utilize to prop up their player is for naught, and only affects what people think of the character of the family.

One perfect example of where HS can help is as follows. A player who after her sophomore year was looking at few, maybe D2 offers. In her junior HS year, she figured it out, started going deep early and often, ended up the year with the most HR's in the state. Is now a signed D1 player. She earned it, but received the spotlight in HS. HS has newspaper coverage, stats are posted, though some say college coaches don't follow HS ball, she is an example of otherwise.

I choose to soak in the atmosphere of softball. High School, Travel, it does not matter. Because after my DD is done playing, it is what I will have to remember. Eventually, I hope, she will become a happy wife, and mother, and have fond memories of her childhood. She won't be playing in the olympics, or the college world series.

If this is a little narrow minded world, then I am happy with it, and proud of how my DD acts, honored she has enabled me to watch the fruits of years of work. In reality, I have already watched the majority of her ballgames in the past since the age of 4, than I will see in the future. Happy to participate in 4 significant championship seasons in that time. By this I mean, when the entire season is over, all the games played, and our team is on top. Once you experience even one of these season, you learn how to get there, what is required, and removing all negativity is tops on the list !!

The next Travel Tourney is in 2 weeks. Yeah.

PS ... our HS team IS as good, or better, than most all the travel teams in our area. I can think of only two (2) local Gold Travel teams who are hands down better for talent. Since we cannot play them (some girls play for both, though not my DD) I guess we will never really know for sure!!

 

[nanotech14]

SCdad, that is great, but just remember, you can type anything on the Internet. Also a significant championship is only to who finds it significant. I don't hate HS softball, I'm a AC for a HS team, but still find TB better and yes, I have only found a few coaches in HS ball in my area that know anything about softball. The HC of the HS team that I'm a AC for only does it for extra vacation money. No open gyms, no extra anything.

 

[SCDad]

SCdad, that is great, but just remember, you can type anything on the Internet. Also a significant championship is only to who finds it significant. I don't hate HS softball, I'm a AC for a HS team, but still find TB better and yes, I have only found a few coaches in HS ball in my area that know anything about softball. The HC of the HS team that I'm a AC for only does it for extra vacation money. No open gyms, no extra anything.

If you read all my posts carefully, and do some research, you can find out whether or not this is made up. And probably with a little more research figure out exactly who I am, and my DD is. What is the fun of that. After winning the state championship last year, it is all published, and public information.

Our HS coach is top shelf. I can think of a half dozen HS coaches in our area who are the same. Around here it is not uncommon to have a teacher as the payed figurehead as coach, only to have an experienced, non-payed, assistant coach who pulls all the strings.

And your comment "championship only significant to who thinks is significant" demonstrates to me you don't really get it. Winning a championship is the most wonderful experience in the whole game. Learning how the "magic" is made, being part of it, doing everything in your power to feel that magic again, is the absolute best. Whether others think it is significant does not matter, because if you keep doing it, because you know how, eventually it becomes significant. I laughed at local experts who doubted us early (ranked 9th preseason by experts), said we could not do it, when many of these same players have been doing it for years, but nobody noticed when they were young, it was not significant then.

It became significant, this time, for a lot of players on our team.

 

[obbay]

I remember this coming up before. I am in the camp that MY high school team isn't worth it for anyone who is passionate about softball.
DD1 rode the bench her senior year and is now happily playing DIII ball. HS coach named 5 captains for a 12 player roster because he didn't like the two that the team voted in ( or more accurately, their parents don't buy his BS and he needed to get more friendly faces in the booster club ) There are 6 girls returning and all but one were named a captain.
My regret is that I didn't push DD into track and Field and let her continue with tournament and rec ball. Raven Chavaunne did not play softball in HS and ran track.

DD 2 is in 8th grade and we have been developing a tournament team with players from her class. Maybe that team will be decent despite the imbecile coach ( who is not a teacher but a friend of the AD)

 

[SoftballMom2]

"I choose to soak in the atmosphere of softball. High School, Travel, it does not matter. Because after my DD is done playing, it is what I will have to remember. Eventually, I hope, she will become a happy wife, and mother, and have fond memories of her childhood. She won't be playing in the olympics, or the college world series."
If this is a little narrow minded world, then I am happy with it, and proud of how my DD acts, honored she has enabled me to watch the fruits of years of work. In reality, I have already watched the majority of her ballgames in the past since the age of 4, than I will see in the future. Happy to participate in 4 significant championship seasons in that time. By this I mean, when the entire season is over, all the games played, and our team is on top. Once you experience even one of these season, you learn how to get there, what is required, and removing all negativity is tops on the list !!

Thank you!!!!! I love watching my DD play (and my sons play their sports) and know it will all be over too soon. My hubby and I always s say, the cream will rise to the top, when a player is THAT good they will succeed, they will be the ones the coach HAS to play despite daddy ball and will be the ones in D1 or D2 sports...the ones who aren't as good, despite mommy and daddy trying to their best,will fade away. The politics and other daddy ball issues are huge here but we sit back and enjoy watching our kids. If they are good enough and put in the work and WANT it, they will go where they are meant to be. If not, its all good, because they will still end up where they are meant to be. We just pray they become responsible, caring, well adjusted young adults. Because in the end, THAT is what matters.

The high school my DD will go to is pretty big-about 3000 kids and they usually have a very good softball team at least for those of us not in California They have won the state championship several times and frequently have 5-6 kids going to D1 schools each year. Most girls are playing travel to become good enough to make the high school team.Its pretty competitive and a lot of good players don't make the team because their is so much talent around and they cant all be on the team.The younger girls look up to the high school players and are looking forward to one day representing THEIR school.

 

[obbay]

when a player is THAT good they will succeed, they will be the ones the coach HAS to play despite daddy ball and will be the ones in D1 or D2 sports...the ones who aren't as good, despite mommy and daddy trying to their best,will fade away

I wish that we're true and I'm sure it is in some places, but not in mine. This falls into the "life isn't fair" category. If a player can hit well, they can always play right? Wrong.

Understand that some HS programs suck and some are good.

Those that are good are fortunate, but for those of us who are saddled with crap, don't say that we should suck it up and support the team. There is psychological damage that can occur when a kid is doing everything right but gets no chance. You enjoy watching your kids games, and I'm sure you'd enjoy it just as much watching your kid sit on the bench while lesser athletes play in front of him/her. In our case I've heard the head coach's incompetence verified by other coaches in the league.

For those of you with good HS programs I say go for it and enjoy it as long as you can!
For those of you who don't have decent HS programs, do something else. Play tournament and/or rec ball if you can. Run track, throw the Javelin, play tennis- it's all good!

 

[RubberBiscuit]

So we have confirmed that HS can be WAY different experiences based on where you live and what size of HS you belong to and if you are on the states winning team or not.

But I will still submit that SCdad your experience with HS is a 1% experience. I bet ya most others will identify with HS being a lesser team/coaching talent scene. It almost sounds like the upper fringe of CA HS softball has evolved to more of a TB domain. Congrats for being in the right sb state and in the right sb school district. I am truly envious of that potentially top-tier caliber environment your DD appears to have year round.

Here in my little sb state if a big D1 HS team (largest schools) has even majority TB players on the squad it's a "loaded" team. But even then you have half the team that is rec players. So with this sport being pitching dominated you have this weird altered state of reality where a hs pitcher can just have a fastball and hit the outside corner and she is recognized as an All-State pitcher, as long as she is on a winning team. Then at the same time you can have an amazing college-D1 talented pitcher on another team that will get zero recognition because she is on a losing rec team that get's beat by the short game (just putting the ball in play). I being a sports purest can not tolerate local newspapers and other state organizations elevating the value of players fictitiously like this while seldom recognizing true talent. If I were a college scout looking for true talent in the hs scene, the LAST place I would go is to the newspapers or the other state-run media outlets and the ONLY place to recognize TRUE UNFILTERED talent is to wait and see what these girls do when they get to TB.

Just calling this to your attention as to what I believe the majority of the nation has to deal with when their DD is not on the best HS team in southern CA.......

 

[SCDad]

I wish that we're true and I'm sure it is in some places, but not in mine. This falls into the "life isn't fair" category. If a player can hit well, they can always play right? Wrong.

Understand that some HS programs suck and some are good.

Those that are good are fortunate, but for those of us who are saddled with crap, don't say that we should suck it up and support the team. There is psychological damage that can occur when a kid is doing everything right but gets no chance. You enjoy watching your kids games, and I'm sure you'd enjoy it just as much watching your kid sit on the bench while lesser athletes play in front of him/her. In our case I've heard the head coach's incompetence verified by other coaches in the league.

For those of you with good HS programs I say go for it and enjoy it as long as you can!
For those of you who don't have decent HS programs, do something else. Play tournament and/or rec ball if you can. Run track, throw the Javelin, play tennis- it's all good!

I understand your pain, have felt it in travel, and just changed teams.

The hardest thing to do in life is to sit the bench, sometimes unfairly, and try to be happy. It devastated my DD and family when we went through it. But after going through it, and passed it, we gained a different perspective in time, the next season.

In high school, many times sitting the bench as a sophomore, or freshman, is a requirement in order to be a regular member when a junior and senior. The ones who leave the first time they see the bench for a full season, lose out on possibly a positive experience later on. It is by design.

The high school game is still about the juniors and seniors. Always has been, always will. Common to have a less talented senior playing ahead of a rising freshman. Just how it is, and quite frankly, after we took our season on the bench and are now a regular, how it should be.

Now, we would not want some hot shot freshman to take our place, for the youngsters will get their turn in a year or two.