Player Shortages

[Coachmom]

FYI: Showcasing is now done at 16u. I see that point above and I see lots of arguing elsewhere about not allowing commits into some of the 18u tourneys, but the college coaches are looking younger, even at 14u. Even DIII are not necessarily waiting either!

Used to be you could field an 18u with several 16s and get looked at, but no longer seems to be (in my limited purview out in softball boondocks).

The 18u players have already committed. And going younger helps get the coach around before those pesky recruiting rules, too.

FYI Showcasing in Southern California is still "mostly" at 18U. (not all)
Just go to the link provided and look at the number of 16U teams compared to 18U teams attending the January Surf City Showcase.

16U Division

16U Division

18U Division

18U - 18Gold Divisions

I saw most of the recruiters at the main fields of the 18U division.

Recruiters

Just sayin.

 

[Coachmom]

What is the name of the elite team in your area?

I cannot name one team in SoCal that just "plays regular ball" at 18U or Gold level. In fact the only "regular" ball that we play are ASA Nationals qualifiers and tournament followed by Premier Tournament. Every thing else is showcases.

But maybe Florida is way ahead of us in the recruiting process.
Take care.

PS.. I would hardly call the Surf City Winter Showcase my "personal Backyard showcase" as evidenced by the actual list of attendees in the 18U division ranging from Washington State all the way to New Jersey.

 

[starsnuffer]

All the 18Gold teams in norcal are the same way, it's all either ASA qualifiers or showcase tournaments (most of those showcases are in SoCal or Colorado anyway).

-W

 

[Coachmom]

Can you point out where I said that college coaches wait until players are seniors?

What I said is MY DD skipped the 16U division. 16U is a weak division here because most of the good players move directly to 18U.
My kid went straight from 14U to 18Gold team where she got recruited this year as a high school junior to play for a Division 1 school.

You said recruiting is now done at 16U level, I simply disagreed with that statement. SOME recruiting is done at 16U most is still done at 18U (which still includes many high school freshman, sophs, and juniors,).

 

[Sparky Guy]

You said recruiting is now done at 16U level, I simply disagreed with that statement. SOME recruiting is done at 16U most is still done at 18U (which still includes many high school freshman, sophs, and juniors,).

You have it exactly backwards. The MAJORITY of the recruiting is done at the 16U level. There is a huge "Be the first to get to the stud athletes." push by the college coaches right now. They can't initiate contact with the players, but they can certainly go and watch the athletes in action. The early verbal race has been in full swing across the country for several years now. Coaches look at 16U and Gold for the younger kids who are studs. They are spending their scholarship dollars up to 3 years in advance.

 

[starsnuffer]

Around here most of the stronger 15-16 year olds play 18gold and do showcases. The college commits play 18u.

-W

 

[Coachmom]

Around here the majority of "stud athletes" skip 16u and move directly to 18u.
There is perhaps a handful of quality 16 u programs here, OC Batbusters and corona angels at the top of a very short list. Other than that 16u is weak.

 

[rowdy]

1. Too many girls have a bad experience playing ball because a coach thinks the name of the game is winning. For a coach the name of the game is making sure you don't drive girls out of the game.
2. Too many coaches don't develop players so they lose interest in the game or look for something they do well. A coach is a teacher first but too many coaches have problems with communicating with young women.
3. Too many coaches want to play all the time when the kids are younger so when they do get a little older the want to havee free time to do the things they missed out on while they were growing up. Remember that softball is suppose to be fun, if it isn't then they are not going to continue playing.

I am not blaming coaches as much as I am making coaches responsible for the outcomes. We play a lot of games and I am guilty of some of the things I mentioned above. The difference is I have identified what to keep and what to throw away and now after a decade of coaching I have a team that has fun and can win too. I see a lot of coaches on the travel curcuit that need to quit and get away from these girls because they are pushing them away from the greatest game on earth.

 

[rowdy]

Around here the majority of "stud athletes" skip 16u and move directly to 18u.
There is perhaps a handful of quality 16 u programs here, OC Batbusters and corona angels at the top of a very short list. Other than that 16u is weak.

I think you have it backwards. The 18U is weak so they pirate the 16U players. It's like High School ball, if you see a bunch of underclass players you say whoa they must be good players, but the reality is the school has a weak program. Good programs don't have too many great young players that beat out the great experienced players.

 

[CoachKevin]

Well right now I have 9 registered players... Not good. I have 1 potential that I haven't seen yet as she is playing BB, but because of the team she was on I am confident that she can play. Here is the twist; In our area there are at least 10 teams in our age group looking for 1-3 players. Makes for fielding a team difficult to say the least. I believe in addition to the numerous teams that have started up, our team is at that age (second year 14U) where the girls are finding other things to do.