Need Advice/Should DD continue playing softball

[Jojo]

You say she started Pitching lessons at 13.
I suppose you both were aware at the time that she would be noticeably behind other pitchers her age since she started so late.
I don't think I would expect her to pitch varsity her freshman/Soph yr even she's been pitching since age 9.
Now by Jr/Sr that is going to be determined by a lot variables. How hard is she working at it, how fast is she progressing and the talent of the other pitchers available.
It could be hopeless if the talent pool is what you say it is.
I have seen it work out before--I've know parents to move to a new school where their kids could pitch, and those kids did get scholarships to a local D1 school.

I know several kids that didn't pitch on their high school team and still got a pitching scholarship.

And if she goes to a school as a non pitcher---
A player on my DD's travel team was picked up by a school to play 3rd base, that was where she played on our team. After her visit, she told them she was also a pitcher, and they were pleasantly surprised. They liked the idea of getting a 3rd baseman who could also pitch if they ever needed her to.

 

[obbay]

Last year we had no freshman team so all the Freshman were on the JV team. There was one girl who was a good pitcher who rode the pine all season. This year she told her father that she would tell the new coach that she is an outfielder, because she wants to play more than she wants to pitch.

does your DD have to pitch? i'd encourage playing other positions.

My youngest DD is 10 and a good pitcher. I am making sure she doesn't get pigeonholed as a "Pitcher". Though in our town, it seems that if you say you're a pitcher everyone loves you. fortunately she has good skills so she will be ok at other positions. When AZ won the WCWS, she wanted to be Taryne Mowatt . Now she wants to be Danielle Lowry. I'm trying to temper her expectations. (She liked Kristin Schnake too!)

 

[mudbug]

Theres only really one reason to spend $$ on pitching or hitting lessons, and that is you want to get DD a scholarship, and cant get acceptable instruction from coaches without paying.

Less than half of travel ball players will play some kind of college ball. Much fewer will get scholarships. Does that mean the rest shouldnt play, or shouldnt try? Of course not. But when a lot of money is involved, there may come a time to decide where to spend it , and where not to. For instance, if a girl is 16, and not looking like a college quality pitcher for even D3 or NAIA, its probably time to stop spending the $$ on lessons,unless you just have the money and want to give her the maximum benefit you can for HS.

I think she can enjoy playing, etc as long as she wants. The vast majority of HS players and travel ball players have no future in sports after HS, and that applies to ALL sports, boys and girls. That doesnt mean they shouldnt enjoy it to the fullest, they should. Depending on where you are, you might even find very good instruction for pitching, etc without paying for it too.

No shame in not making varsity, its not necessarily a sign of individual weakness, but can be a sign of the strength of competition at some schools. I know one school that had over 20 travel players try out. .

 

[sluggers]

jojo: He said they are from a "small southern community"--so, they aren't from the West Coast or Arizona.

She is 15 YOA. She isn't going to suddenly going to grow six inches and gain a ton of muscle.

I don't know what the big deal is--boys quit sports all the time and it isn't a big drama. A boy figures out that he isn't as good as the top players and never will be (or doesn't care if he is), he then adjusts his goals and moves on with his life.

 

[Jojo]

jojo: He said they are from a "small southern community"--so, they aren't from the West Coast or Arizona. She is 15 YOA. She isn't going to suddenly going to grow six inches and gain a ton of muscle.

I'm not sure I understand what your saying?
You do not have to be a stud to play.

 

[rbihbp]

OK now this is getting more difficult but I appreciate all the replies. It really gets me thinking about this whole fastpitch thing. When I say we are from a small southern community I guess what I am really saying is there are a lot of politics involved. For instance, the assistant varsity coach has 2 daughters on the varsity team and neither one of them even tried out for the team. Their skill level is not that high and that is where I will leave it. Who knows they may be reading this. To me, the reason for going through all this practice, lessons, travel ball, etc... is to get a scholarship. Sure, it's fun to my dd but to me I want to get a return on my investment. When she started pitching at 13, we analyzed her strengths and weaknesses after discussing whether or not she really wanted to continue softball. She did so with her being a lefty, a big strong girl we settled on pitching. We knew it would take some time to develop. Making the varsity team is everything to a high school athlete. She dearly wants to since the pitching is so strong it's not happening along with the daddy ball that goes on. On the travel team the coach has 4 pitchers and during the parent meeting last weekend he made the statement that each game he would pitch 2 pitchers. Said he did not care if he had a dominate pitcher or not but wanted to keep the batters off balance. My dd being a left was the main reason she even made the team because this is what we wanted.

 

[Ade's Dad]

If you are looking for a return on investments, at her age, you probably should be looking at investing in her hitting. Strong hitters can find a place on any team.

 

[sluggers]

To me, the reason for going through all this practice, lessons, travel ball, etc... is to get a scholarship.

That is a pretty poor reason. There is no pot of gold at the end of the softball rainbow.

 

[andyh64000]

That is a pretty poor reason. There is no pot of gold at the end of the softball rainbow.

That is absolutely true:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html

from the article...

"The paradox has caught the attention of Myles Brand, the president of the N.C.A.A.

“The youth sports culture is overly aggressive, and while the opportunity for an athletic scholarship is not trivial, it’s easy for the opportunity to be overexaggerated by parents and advisers,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview. “That can skew behavior and, based on the numbers, lead to unrealistic expectations.”

Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.

“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.” The math of athletic scholarships is complicated and widely misunderstood.

In 2003-4, N.C.A.A. institutions gave athletic scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the 6.4 million athletes playing those sports in high school four years earlier. Despite the considerable attention paid to sports, the select group of athletes barely registers statistically among the 5.3 million students at N.C.A.A. colleges and universities.

Scholarships are typically split and distributed to a handful, or even, say, 20, athletes because most institutions do not fully finance the so-called nonrevenue sports like soccer, baseball, golf, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, swimming, and track and field. Colleges offering these sports often pay for only five or six full scholarships, which are often sliced up to cover an entire team. Some sports have one or two full scholarships, or none at all. "

 

[mudbug]

I think what is often meant, is that they would like something back from all the money spent playing softball if possible. No one does it just for a scholarship, its great fun and quality time spent with your kid. Getting a little help with college tuition is a nice payback though if it works out that way.

Travel ball has been often described as payiing more than a college education costs, to get a scholarship for a college education. Theres a lot of truth to that. But the memories are priceless.

Ive often heard band is one of the best ways to get a scholarship. Too geeky for many though.