- Sep 9, 2019
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I'm sorry but we dont allow them to miss tournaments. Maybe fall or winter but summer...you belong to the team
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I'm sorry but we dont allow them to miss tournaments. Maybe fall or winter but summer...you belong to the team
Summer you still have conflicts especially for 14U and up, but mainly 16U/18U ACT/SAT, summer camps, college visits and other crazy scholastic things that go along with college preparatory stuff. Will have to deal with graduated Seniors who fade away. Believe it or not, some college coaches tell their future players that they don't have to play summer ball and are ok if the parents don't want to spend money on travel. Me. I disagree.
you cannot simply declare that, regular life steps in. Proms, graduations, SATs/ACTs, college visits, senior trip are all going to take precedence for 99% of families over any tournament. unless the player is drawing a salary, they do not belong to anybody.
I'm sorry also. As they age up, you're going to find out that your players have other priorities that they place ahead of TB tournaments. Usually those are the same players that, as it turns out, really don't want to play at the college level even if they don't realize it at the time. Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer...It doesn't matter which season it is. They simply don't care about the consequences.
Years ago I had an extremely talented player at the 14U level. She was a 2 sport player. She swam competitively during Winter also. and again, was extremely talented at that if not more so She pretty much missed Summer tournaments because she was too hungover to play the early morning games and didn't care if she didn't play the afternoon games. She may have or may not have shown up on Sunday (assuming she was there on Saturday) depending upon whether she went out and drank with her friends the night before or not.
By the end of the year, she had quit SB entirely to "concentrate on her swimming." She did end up getting a Swimming AS to college. That was, until the coach saw her Social Media posts about all the partying she did. Then it was withdrawn.
Before anyone asks...no I didn't tell her parents nor did the HC. We felt that it wasn't our circus or our monkey. If her parents didn't know what was going on, then it wasn't our place to inform them. If you feel differently about the situation and encounter something similar, feel free to tell the parents and see how well that works out for you.
The point is, this was a 14U player that chose partying over TB. What about the players that want to go to Prom? Homecoming? College Camps? Individual Showcases? My DD traveled to the Netherlands to play against other National teams and Olympic players/ teams 2 years ago. Would you penalize her for that? What about her Grandma's 80th birthday party? The list goes on and on. To make a blanket statement like that is simply being naive.
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Right, and parents hear from colleges that they want to see things on the athlete's resume other than softball. OK, how are they supposed to do that if they are literally occupied every weekend? My DD desperately wants to be a CIT this summer at the summer camp she's attended for years, but it's a 3-week session and you know how much a HC would like his primary catcher missing 3 weeks and possibly three tournaments. So, summer will likely wind up being all softball, all the time again. It's hard to be well-rounded when a sport is so demanding of a kid's time.
- Sep 9, 2019
- 131
- 43
Again I said summer. These expectations are clear and the events you mention are either scheduled around the tournament play days or during school year. Once again the expectation is very clear, you are on the team with the goal of college ball. Do not accept if you cannot commit. I would never sign a player that is not committed to the goal.
There are numerous Individual showcases throughout Summer as well as College camps if for no other reason than getting possible recruits to look at during no-contact periods and the 14U player example I was talking about happened during Summer. My mothers 80th Birthday party was a weekend in the middle of July. We had a huge family reunion during that weekend to celebrate...and it was out of town. Again. The blanket statement you made is being naive unless you are a top 20 nationally ranked TB team that their entire goal is to market their players exclusively to the top 25 major D1 colleges and I'm not saying it's outside the realm of possibilities but I doubt you are. If you are, then you and I must know an awful lot of the same people and if not me, then EricF since his DD's team is in the top 20 nationally ranked teams in the country for several years now.
ETA: My DD made it just fine to playing at the next level in college without your type of coach and teams like yours. I'm sure many others will also.
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- Jul 16, 2018
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That's why you have 16-18 kids on an 18U roster. If no one ever missed because they were "committed" you would only need 12 players.
Orange Socks, you and I see eye to eye on most things. I don't know if you're just being contrary to the post or to the turn this thread has taken. However, there's "committed" to a team in all different facets of the game as you well know.
Some girls are committed to the team, and softball in general, to the exclusion of everything else. These players are usually, but not exclusively, committed to playing for the top major D1 colleges. Even then, the girls will make commitments outside of the SB TB team.
What would you say to a pitcher that committed to play with the Junior Olympic team for 6 weeks over the Summer and went to Africa to play in a tournament? It happened with a girl from my area years ago.
I can name several more instances if pressed. The point is, a blanket statement like that which was made is unrealistic; especially in today's society.
Many girls want to play at the next level; just not to the detriment of family functions and being able to have a minimal social life. Many of these same girls also go on to play college ball.
Let's be honest, most of the recruiting done nowadays, since most Athletic departments' funding decimation and the loss of college scouts, is due to personal marketing. The majority of a showcase teams' duty is to play showcases where the players' coaches will hopefully be once the coaches themselves have been contacted and the players have expressed interest in their program. It now becomes the players' responsibility to be there. If for whatever reason they prioritize some other function over being at said showcase, then it's on them. Most assuredly, something will come up at one time or another whether it's a death in the family or something else that they feel the need to participate in other than SB.
It doesn't mean that they aren't "comittted" to the team or playing at the next level. JMHO
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