Missouri HS softball joining the rest of the country with season change?

[absdad]

I MUCH prefer the fall HS season, but it's a royal PITA when half your team is in KS, and the other half in MO. This is a step in the right direction I think..

MSHSAA schools add 4 activities, 5 track classes, 2 softball seasons - St. Joseph News-Press and FOX 26 KNPN: Varsity Letters



The Missouri State High School Activities Association's member schools approved several landmark measures on its annual ballot, the results of which were released Thursday.

Schools now have two softball seasons to choose from, track and field will add a classification, and the state's governing prep sports body will sanction four new activites. A pair of other moves affect area high school football, as well.

Adding an optional spring softball season passed by the second-slimmest margin on the ballot, 214-205, as schools now can choose to compete in either the fall or the spring. The measure does stipulate "certain restrictions on high schools participating in the spring championship series."

 

[JAD]

I wish GA would move to Spring softball, but it is strictly because of my dream that my DD could play softball AND volleyball in high school, and right now both are Fall sports in GA.

 

[Pdiddy]

I don't think Missouri switching to the spring for HS softball.....I think it's to help the small rural schools to have a state sanctioned state tournament of their own....as it is now, many smaller rurals HS play "exhibition style" spring softball because they have to share their athletes with volleyball in the fall and don't have the opportunity to compete for an offical Missouri State championship....and the language of "certain restrictions on high schools participating in the spring championship series." probably means "sandbagging" by bigger schools will not be allowed....

 

[kenb63]

I imagine some KC area club coaches would like to have their Kansas and Missouri girls on the same schedule.

 

[tjintx]

How would affect travel ball teams that may only play during that time of year and which many girls rely on for recruiting purposes?
In the south most high school coaches frown on girls playing TB during the season even though they know that is where the recruiting takes place.

 

[chinamigarden]

Good players will be recruited during TB season, whenever that season is. The way things are these days a kid is getting recruited at
9th and 10th grade level, its not like a senior is banking on a coach being able to make it to her spring games to see her.

Softball should be a HS spring sport.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Nuts! I like the current fall softball season. It only interferes with fall ball, which isn't the main tb softball season anyway. The Kansas girls' spring schedules are crazy--jumping right from HS ball into tb with basically no time for the team to gel and it's a huge mess for teams with a mix of HS and younger players.

Plus DD's been looking forward to being able to go out for one of the earliest HS sports. She'll get to meet and make friends with older girls right away. And who wants to wait until spring to earn a V or JV letter and get their letter jacket instead of getting it quickly and being able to wear it for the winter of their freshman year?

Just look at this year's miserable early spring weather; it would have created havoc with the schedules. The weather is more consistent in August, September and October and the way daylight savings runs, there's enough daylight in the fall afternoons so that schools can schedule their games to avoid the expense of lighting their fields. The way the darned copper thieves keep hitting parks and gutting their lighting systems, that's a big consideration. In this part of the country, fall softball makes so much more sense IMO.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Nuts! I like the current fall softball season. It only interferes with fall ball, which isn't the main tb softball season anyway.

That is where a HUGE amount of recruiting happens. The coaches are not in their full season and can send or attend people to watch players.

 

[Pdiddy]

Nuts! I like the current fall softball season.

nothing is going to change for large suburban schools currently playing in the fall....including PH South....

 

[kenb63]

Very true Sparky Guy. I might argue that my KS DD got the best and most in-front-of-coachs-time during the fall, when her team was invited to colleges for smaller invitationals, not the huge cattle-calls during the summer when the MO girls were back.