Alright, perhaps nobody is too much of a generalization. There are a handful of schools here, Norco, Los Alamitos, Gahr, Great Oak, Huntington Beach, Grand Terrace and a few private schools that care about HS ball. All of those schools are coached by travel ball coaches.
For all of the students at the 400+ other high schools in the section the high school season is just a break from travel ball and a chance to play with a few classmates. Come May they're set to go back to their teams and prepare for Colorado and then PGF.
That's just the way it is. Unless you're at one of the tiny handfull of schools that emphasizes the sport and hires actual coaches to run the program you're stuck with a clueless teacher who is taking the 2k a year stipend to coach an athletic team in between grading tests and will play the kids whose parents volunteer the most.
I realize that California is a big state, and is a hotbed for softball talent. But this board is represented by the entire country (and some international folks). The popularity of high school ball varies from region to region, and sometimes within regions. I have mentioned before that DD's high school experience was not great, but that was because she was the only travel ball player on a team playing against stacked high schools. As a 7th/8th grader she was looking forward to the high school team, but it wasn't quite what she thought it would be. Meanwhile, good friends of ours were just eliminated in the state semi-finals, and had a great time. A few players that played on the travel ball team I coached won a state title and are still talking about it a few years later. It's a great experience for some, but not for all.
Added -- there are also several travel teams in our area whose entire purpose is to prepare the players for high school ball, not college ball. Not every player even wants to play in college. Some are simply focused on their high school experience and will say goodbye to softball once they graduate.