Small colleges - MPH

[MNDad]

This thread is depressing. You were supposed to tell me no way, your radar is broke. Either that or that we witnessed an anomaly.

I'm not sure why that would be depressing. Chances are several of the girls you watched are capable of throwing fastballs in the 60 mph range. You're just not going to see a lot of fastballs at that level.

 

[abbygale]

No, what I said is in black and white. Specifically, if a kid doesn't throw 70 they don't deserve to play.





Hopefully, that humor came thru. Lol

 

[SoAZDad]

So how about a side view?

[video]https://youtu.be/n1CEtPl6gvY[/video]

Now I'm speechless.

 

[MNDad]

Nope...not an anomaly. In fact you probably saw some very reasonable pitching for the conference. There is some great softball and some, well, awful softball played in colleges. That is to be expected - there are 1700+ college teams. It is not hard to be a pitcher and pitch in college if that is what you want to do - it is however hard to be good enough to pitch on a good softball team.

Figure you need 4 pitchers per team - that is minimally 6,800 pitchers who actually get innings. Probably closer to 9000-10,000 actual pitchers on teams.

Now think about the pool that players are pulled from. The best you see on TV at the power conferences, the next level down is between mid-major D1 and top D2 and D3 programs. Add in top NAIA schools and some top pitchers who need to go to Junior College for whatever reason and there goes the top group of talent that people think can REALLY pitch.

Now add player who don't stick with it in college or decide not to continue to play in college and the pool gets smaller and smaller. I can name 6 girls who currently attend the University of Florida who are D1 talent pitchers but fit in one of those two categories and are not on the team. And that is just girls I know at that one school. College rosters are very heavily made up of freshman and sophomores.

The pool is small. You want to attend SSW Dinky State who went 3-45 last year and you can pitch - well they will be thrilled to have you.

My DD used to go to a Pitching Coach who says every girl who has stayed with him through end of high school was offered a spot in college. Talk to him privately and he will tell you that some of these girls were not all that talented, but pitchers are in massive demand in mid-low programs. Last year he placed all 6 of his seniors and they all had 10+ offers from all sorts of colleges. One girl had 16 D3 offers. He told me he thinks he could have placed 20 girls easily if he had them.

I don’t think it was your intent, but the I found the comment about SSW Dinky State a little condescending. DD will attend a school with a less than stellar softball program and I’m sure there’s people who view it similarly to SSW Dinky State. She loves the school, the coaches, the facilities and the city and the community is VERY supportive of female athletics. For her it's the perfect fit. It’s not SSW Dinky State, but I know people that think it is either because their daughters are at more softball prestigious schools or to undermine her accomplishments.

I think you’re spot on about a spot for anyone to play in college. They still need to bust their butts though and playing college softball is a huge accomplishment at any level.

 

[JAD]

I have one that throws around 54mph. She had a lot of small schools wanting her but all outside TX. So she chose the one she liked best and was closest. Weird too, because of all my seniors this is the one that never took pitching serious and she's the only one that pursued it after high school.

I imagine the competition is tough in CA, TX, FL and GA.

 

[JAD]

I don’t think it was your intent, but the I found the comment about SSW Dinky State a little condescending. DD will attend a school with a less than stellar softball program and I’m sure there’s people who view it similarly to SSW Dinky State. She loves the school, the coaches, the facilities and the city and the community is VERY supportive of female athletics. For her it's the perfect fit. It’s not SSW Dinky State, but I know people that think it is either because their daughters are at more softball prestigious schools or to undermine her accomplishments.

I think you’re spot on about a spot for anyone to play in college. They still need to bust their butts though and playing college softball is a huge accomplishment at any level.

After college their softball careers are OVER, so my recommendation is to go somewhere to get an education! A 4-year degree from SSW Dinky State is better than attended "Big Time University" but never graduated.....after working for a couple of years the school their degree is from matters less than their work experience, but a college degree is still a college degree!

 

[riseball]

After college their softball careers are OVER, so my recommendation is to go somewhere to get an education! A 4-year degree from SSW Dinky State is better than attended "Big Time University" but never graduated.....after working for a couple of years the school their degree is from matters less than their work experience, but a college degree is still a college degree!

I would also add that a degree AND the experience of being a college athlete is much better than just having the degree. Playing softball in college is much more than getting a discount on costs. The experience is very valuable in the real world and lasts a lifetime.

 

[marriard]

I don’t think it was your intent, but the I found the comment about SSW Dinky State a little condescending. DD will attend a school with a less than stellar softball program and I’m sure there’s people who view it similarly to SSW Dinky State. She loves the school, the coaches, the facilities and the city and the community is VERY supportive of female athletics. For her it's the perfect fit. It’s not SSW Dinky State, but I know people that think it is either because their daughters are at more softball prestigious schools or to undermine her accomplishments.

I think you’re spot on about a spot for anyone to play in college. They still need to bust their butts though and playing college softball is a huge accomplishment at any level.

It wasn't meant to be condescending - it was just meant to point out that there is a lot of small schools with less than stellar programs softball teams. The quality of the school or the specialty program or a variety of other reasons you why you may go there is completely independent of that. My DD has some specialist interests and is very likely to end up at a similar school if she continues down that path as she gets older.

 

[Sweet Lou]

I would also add that a degree AND the experience of being a college athlete is much better than just having the degree. Playing softball in college is much more than getting a discount on costs. The experience is very valuable in the real world and lasts a lifetime.

For some this is very true. For others, not so much. There are plenty of student athletes who are much more about the athlete portion of school than the student part.

But you are absolutely right. If you can balance the two, all the better!

 

[spleen1015]

Sweet! DD gets to 61+ and she's guaranteed D1!