DD's org made all 14's that aged up start emailing coaches. As a sophomore DD now has about 10 coaches that could recognize her and another 10 that know her name. Now is the time to get started. In fact you are a bit late.
Is moving up to 18U a mistake?
- Thread starter icnu01
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Sounds exactly like my daughter except she plays 2nd, 1st and one of the relief pitchers. She is good, has the grades in honor classes with high GPA, plays tennis also, many extra activities in the community and a good mentor to others. She is letting all the other characteristics carry her to college with softball being a bonus. She has decided her career path and is going to the schools that offer her the academic classes not the athletics. She is actually only interested in 3 colleges. If they offer her to play great, if not still great because she is going after her dream even with out softball. That did not mean stop TB or playing show cases or striving to be the best. It kind of put the priorities of her future in focus.
To be honest, unless she is playing for one of the top TB teams, it doesn't matter.
The recruiting process is:
1) You write the coach, tell them about your DD.
2) Provide a video
3) Ask the coach to come watch a game.
The odds of a coach going by a game and saying, "She is for me!" are pretty low.
The recruiting process is:
1) You write the coach, tell them about your DD.
2) Provide a video
3) Ask the coach to come watch a game.
The odds of a coach going by a game and saying, "She is for me!" are pretty low.
- Dec 7, 2011
- 2,368
- 38
This was our experience too. In fact I would group most D1's do not do 18U. In fact-fact, there were many-many tourneys I was at through the midwest (Iowa across to Ohio - I will characterize those) where the talent at 18U could have been easily beaten by the 16U teams. I concluded that the 18U squad is filled up with true 18U-ers still looking to land a slot somewhere (the less-than-studs) and the true 18U studs were already signed and not on the expensive TB-A scene (in general).
In the Northeast, the best 14-15-16 year old players play 18U. 16U here is for girls who are unable to cut it at the 18U level. I recognize that this is not the case in other parts of the country. It's tough to find competitive 16U tournaments/showcases at all here.
- Oct 22, 2009
- 1,779
- 0
For my DD, her assistant high school coach actually wrote to the college coach(we didn't know it at the time).
She sent a scout to one of the scouting tournaments.
Scout returned, said, "She's great!".
Coach sent a second scout to another tournament.
Scout returned, said, "She's great!".
Not until she had 2 confirmed okay's did the coach actually want to see her herself, and start a dialogue.
By then, school had started and all my DD had was high school games going on, so the coach flew out and watched her high school game.
My DD went to another tryout and received an offer to play on a 16U "A" ball team. They seem to have a good history We both liked the way the coach coached. I'm sure this team could also beat the other 2 18U teams. It's more money but I'm sure I'll be calling back tonight accepting their position.
- Jan 25, 2011
- 2,280
- 38
You must live on the coast. The 16u teams in my neck of the Northeast are really good and could beat a lot of 18u teams.
If your recruiting strategy is based on going to all the right showcases and hoping the coach of DreamU will come by and "notice" that your daughter is the perfect fit for their program and the answer to all their softball prayers, then yes play 16U. However, if your recruiting strategy is sound and based on what actually works it will make no difference.
Similar threads
