Personal Observation of D3 Softball

[JayW]

It makes sense that women should choose colleges based on academic and social fit as primary factors considering the lack of professional opportunities other than coaching or broadcasting.

 

[marriard]

Yes! We played a few Wisconsin teams and they had very good players!

Those Wisconsin teams had some absolute monsters - big, hard hitting girls with some really hard throwing pitchers.

 

[Orange Socks]

Yes. Lewis & Clark.

https://www.niche.com/colleges/lewis--and--clark-college/

 

[Shiloh]

So glad Vertigo started this thread.

This is also my DD's first year playing in college, at a D3. And I agree 100% - the level of play is much higher than I expected. Like every team would be a solid club from SoCal or the Midwest or the East Coast.

Which got me to thinking - who exactly plays D3?

So far, being brutally honest, I've come up with
- players who chose academics over higher level softball
- players who want to stay close to home
- players whose families could not afford or chose not to play high level TB, but who have a ton of talent
- players who opted out of D1/D2
- players who have one really great skill, but are mediocre or below average on other skills
- players who are long on skills but short on speed/athleticism
- players with a physical disadvantage, such as height

Any others?

 

[Lobster Birch]

Yes. Lewis & Clark.

I was going to venture Lewis & Clark. Beautiful campus.

A couple of girls my oldest DD played with play there. Good players for sure.

 

[RichK]

Feeling like its no surprise the top of D3 is good; the long-tail of travel these days is pretty good too. That said, jump to the top of D1 (and the top of travel for that matter) and it's a pretty big leap, IMO. And both of those things are GOOD things, the long tail AND the cream of the crop.

 

[Northball]

So glad Vertigo started this thread.

This is also my DD's first year playing in college, at a D3. And I agree 100% - the level of play is much higher than I expected. Like every team would be a solid club from SoCal or the Midwest or the East Coast.

Which got me to thinking - who exactly plays D3?

So far, being brutally honest, I've come up with
- players who chose academics over higher level softball
- players who want to stay close to home
- players whose families could not afford or chose not to play high level TB, but who have a ton of talent
- players who opted out of D1/D2
- players who have one really great skill, but are mediocre or below average on other skills
- players who are long on skills but short on speed/athleticism
- players with a physical disadvantage, such as height

Any others?

Maybe this is what you meant about choosing academics; players who don't want to commit so much of their time to softball.
...And staying close to home: players who don't want to spend more than a couple hours at a time on a bus.

 

[Lobster Birch]

Feeling like its no surprise the top of D3 is good; the long-tail of travel these days is pretty good too. That said, jump to the top of D1 (and the top of travel for that matter) and it's a pretty big leap, IMO. And both of those things are GOOD things, the long tail AND the cream of the crop.

It’s a pretty big leap from the top of D1 to the bottom of D1, or even the middle.

 

[Tatonka]

Marriard, I wonder if you had any of our games!

I wondered that while we were there! *Marriard do you use yellow lenses in your sunglasses? ;-)

 

[Westwind]

Just looked at the schedule! There were a bunch of “local to me“ teams down there. Some really good players.

I don’t think this one is on the list: there is a local kid that probably could have played at any level she wanted. She went to a D3 because she wanted to play both softball and volleyball.

She was there last weekend!