High school softball

[Shiloh]

Indiana has a rule that only so many players from one high school (not sure of the exact number) are allowed to play together outside of the season.

Wow. That is nuts.

HS football coaches really don't want club teams forming out of season.

 

[Cannonball]

There is an academic component of this, as well. I don't think it could be argued that playing both HS and TB at the same time would greatly diminish the time allowed for studying. They are, after all, student-athletes until school is out.

My dd was always reading books, doing crossword puzzles, playing educational video games (Math related) ... as we traveled to TB games. I think that serious student-athletes continue to learn regardless of whether the school is in session.

 

[sluggers]

My point is usually when a college coach is looking at what's going on at High School,
they are really interested in their grades.

A college coach's interest in grades is inversely proportional to how far the kid can hit a ball.

 

[ArmWhip]

Nobody is forcing a kid to do anything, except in many cases to choose TB or HS.

How could it not be legal? Really? Because a school is dictating to a kid what they can or cannot do away from school property. Personally, I don't see a difference between a school saying you cannot play HS and TB at the same time and the school saying: she's not allowed to play basketball for her church team during HS softball season. That may sound extreme but, I don't see a difference. If the school can dictate what my kid does in regards to softball, why does it stop there? Why can't they say Sally isn't allowed to play other sports too?

When I coached Little League softball (decades ago) they had just put in a rule saying that you couldn't play or practice with your travel team while you were playing LL. The reason was that when the LL playoffs were going on girls who played on TB teams would often skip LL playoff games because they had a TB tournament, causing LL teams to forfeit playoff games. I'm guessing that the same thing can happen in HS if a player has a conflict. Here in Massachusetts they have a rule which says that if you miss a school ball practice or game because of a TB event you are suspended from play for 2 weeks.

 

[nikkilugi]

Not every state has limits on TB during HS season. Virginia does not. Girls can play for the HS team and play for the TB team and many 14U teams start playing during HS season (freshman year for a lot). The serious TB organizations tend to go dark anyway until HS is over but they don't have to. Last season our season in VA was delayed due to the pandemic. Our HS teams were playing state tournaments into late June. DD's 18U team had TNJ toward the end of June and we played that tournament without our best pitcher and one of our power hitters because they played (and won) the 5A state championship game. There are girls who choose HS over TB.

 

[CrazyNani]

Would love to get your opinion. My DD is in 7th grade and wants to play softball in college. We just found out the high school she plans on attending no longer has softball. Is travel ball enough? How important is playing high school ball to get into a good college?


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Travel ball exists primarily for getting girls into college programs. It's a requirement for my DGD's travel team, that she intend to play in college.

 

[fistafury17]

I agree college scouts look at how athletes compete against similar skilled players in travel ball to better gage talent. Though the player bios on college rosters will list lengthy HS stats then mention played for blah blah travel team. So HS seasons must bear some relevance.

 

[MNDad]

Travel ball exists primarily for getting girls into college programs. It's a requirement for my DGD's travel team, that she intend to play in college.

I think that used to be the case. Now most of the larger travel orgs seem to have 1-2 solid teams at an age level and another 4-5 developmental teams. The prmary purpose today seems to be non parent coaches and better training.

 

[KrisHur]

If high schools cared about the "student" part of student-athlete they'd worry less about what travel teams are doing and more about 6 days a week of HS ball. Every day after school and some weekends too. HS season is the only time my A+ honors student athlete struggles with the balance.

 

[_MIA_]

If high schools cared about the "student" part of student-athlete they'd worry less about what travel teams are doing and more about 6 days a week of HS ball. Every day after school and some weekends too. HS season is the only time my A+ honors student athlete struggles with the balance.

I don't disagree that it can be a struggle at times, but (right or wrong) HS ball has always been this way. It was this way when I played HS baseball and basketball 30 years ago. The only real difference is I didn't have 24/7 access to the equivalent of a 1980's supercomputer to suck up my time..