It's softball season!!!

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

DD's freshman HS season is finally over - loss in the state semi finals. While it was great to be on a really, really good team (23-3), and she was happy to contribute (mostly as a pinch runner, 6 total ABs all season, but got in almost all games in some capacity), she's looking forward to finally being able to PLAY some softball.

Her travel team is a mix of girls from our HS and another, who also lost in the other semi final, so we are go for a tournament this weekend.

Final thoughts on HS softball in our state - there is obviously a huge skill variation - the top schools are excellent (and all have at least one thing in common - a dominant pitcher - or two - headed to college). The bottom schools really, really struggle. And there's the big middle, who gets wiped out by the top schools, but who dominate the bottom schools. The season was both short (in time) and long (in grind). There are still politics and weird decisions (true in all sports and all levels).

JV is silly - 9 games, all run rules. It is exceedingly rare for even the top teams to have enough girls to field a good JV team.

Overall, a good experience, but right now, can't wait for summer ball.

 

[Intheboondocks]

My daughters highschool team really put it together in sections this year. They were seeded 8 going in and beat the 3, 4, 5 and 9 seeds, lost to the 1 seed. Considering the make up of the team,4 high schoolers and 13 middle school kids (probably half never played fastpitch before). I was impressed with their grit in a couple of low scoring games. My daughter struggled at the plate all year but had a clutch RBI in a 2-1 win over the 3 seed and caught over 100 innings as an 8th grader.

Next year they will either have to coop or just field a JV team.

First tournament of the summer this weekend! (screaming "let's go" as I run to the minivan)

 

[tim_s]

we open playoffs tomorrow as the 2 seed in C South.....thanks to our "Heal points" system, we are 16-0 and 2nd to the team (that plays in the same conference) that is 15-1, whom we beat 5-1 in our lone meeting

our conference plays unbalanced, and unfortunately one of our double matchups was with a winless team (no one wanted to schedule us as their double.....go figure)

52 straight wins.......we should win our first 2 to get to the regional final against the school that is the 1.......honestly expect to beat them to get to our 3rd state final


we finish up on the 17th, hopefully

 

[Agcy]

DD's freshman HS season is finally over - loss in the state semi finals. While it was great to be on a really, really good team (23-3), and she was happy to contribute (mostly as a pinch runner, 6 total ABs all season, but got in almost all games in some capacity), she's looking forward to finally being able to PLAY some softball.

Her travel team is a mix of girls from our HS and another, who also lost in the other semi final, so we are go for a tournament this weekend.

Final thoughts on HS softball in our state - there is obviously a huge skill variation - the top schools are excellent (and all have at least one thing in common - a dominant pitcher - or two - headed to college). The bottom schools really, really struggle. And there's the big middle, who gets wiped out by the top schools, but who dominate the bottom schools. The season was both short (in time) and long (in grind). There are still politics and weird decisions (true in all sports and all levels).

JV is silly - 9 games, all run rules. It is exceedingly rare for even the top teams to have enough girls to field a good JV team.

Overall, a good experience, but right now, can't wait for summer ball.

Interesting point piqued my curiosity:
- Is it a problem for the sport that HS can't field a JV team? I see it in a couple of programs here and it makes me worry a little for the future of the sport.
- I get that JV is not as intense - but in our medium/small school, it is actually a way for underclassmen to grow into Varsity players. 4 of our Varsity starters were JV last year (none of our HS girls currently play any travel ball). Even the larger schools have F/JV/V rosters that players can progress through. Maybe girls that aren't quite good enough for V are foregoing HS JV ball for travel teams?

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

Interesting point piqued my curiosity:
- Is it a problem for the sport that HS can't field a JV team? I see it in a couple of programs here and it makes me worry a little for the future of the sport.
- I get that JV is not as intense - but in our medium/small school, it is actually a way for underclassmen to grow into Varsity players. 4 of our Varsity starters were JV last year (none of our HS girls currently play any travel ball). Even the larger schools have F/JV/V rosters that players can progress through. Maybe girls that aren't quite good enough for V are foregoing HS JV ball for travel teams?

For us, it wasn't that there weren't JV teams to play, as much as they weren't any good, and that even at the schools with historically and currently excellent varsity, the quality of the JV was poor.

That doesn't invalidate your point, though I guess - not fielding a good JV team is not promising for the future (not as bad as not fielding a team at all, but still not good).

 

[Cougars]

Our school plays in the largest class, so with 1000's of students available, probably skews the data. But only one school we played didn't have a JV team (all sports are really poor at that school). Some schools also have a freshman/JV2 team. That said, the quality of JV teams can really vary. Even some schools that can piece together a decent V, will have a major drop in talent to the JV level.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Interesting point piqued my curiosity:
- Is it a problem for the sport that HS can't field a JV team? I see it in a couple of programs here and it makes me worry a little for the future of the sport.
- I get that JV is not as intense - but in our medium/small school, it is actually a way for underclassmen to grow into Varsity players. 4 of our Varsity starters were JV last year (none of our HS girls currently play any travel ball). Even the larger schools have F/JV/V rosters that players can progress through. Maybe girls that aren't quite good enough for V are foregoing HS JV ball for travel teams?

I find the lack of JV teams disturbing. Even more disturbing though, is the way JV teams are treated/used. Sadly, I don't see many schools who use their JV as a stepping stone. Rather than working with the JV team and building, it is just a secondary team. Good programs will be programs, bad programs will be teams.

Baseball, but a great example of the problem:

A traditionally good private school had a pretty bad season this year. Lots of young players on the varsity team, so there is room for growth. During the varsity game of a double header, they had SEVEN coaches in the dugout, including a guy who pitched up to AAA ball. The second game of the double header was a full JV game. Six of the coaches left and there was only one guy in the dugout. The JV kids were worse than an 8u softball team -- I don't mean their talent, I mean their behavior. The CF was literally picking flowers. The kids wouldn't stay in the dugout. They were screwing around and paying attention to anything that wasn't the baseball game. Do I blame the kids for that? NO. I blame the six coaches who leave and then wonder why the kids coming up to varsity aren't any good.

 

[NJZoo]

We have a regional HS in our town that is a traditional softball power. We know a bunch of girls that were freshman this year so we went to some of the JV games. All of the girls on JV are club girls. The varsity coach will shuttle underclassmen varsity players back and forth to get innings and playing time. He'll also bring some girls up to get spot time with the varsity. He runs a really strong program, but he is a task master. His way or the highway, don't like it, there's the door. The JV team was undefeated and might have played 1 or 2 games decided by single digits.