The softball world outside of SoCal

[jofus13]

A few things...

We have the same argument periodically here in WV about private schools, more in football than any other sport. They only take enough kids to stay just below the lowest (single A) classification, and have big advantages over the public schools, in that they aren't restricted by the same boundaries. In WV, if you transfer to a different public school out of your area, you have to sit a year in athletics.

As for middle school, a few schools in my area have started having softball teams in just the last few years, hopefully it will keep growing.

To show one way SoCal is different from some areas....this is this last week of our HS regular season (which is only a little over a month long), our sectionals start next week. We have a doubleheader tonight, and the temperature right now is about 49, with winds close to 20 mph. By the time our second game tonight is over, the temperature is going to be around 35. And WV isn't that far north, I'm sure there are going to be games in colder weather in the NE tonight....

Like someone above mentioned, we have at least 4 months when you are lucky to get any chance to get outside to work on anything (this year was much worse than usual, too).

 

[amanda_cake]

I'm glad we don't have to play against private schools, I'm afraid that we'd be doomed.

 

[Rambler34]

I am suprised there isn't more talk about the south as well. Here in central Al fastpitch is huge. We start at 6u and go from there including MS and HS. Travel starts at 8u and is very competitve. My HS has won back to back state titles and is working toward a third. They played in one of the premiere HS tourny's in California earlier this year and after losing there first game came back and won 4 straight. The loss out there ended a 50 plus game winning streak for them. This team probably has 6 DI players starting and only one is a senior who has already signed with an SEC school. The core group of girls finished 5th at the USA/ASA nation tourny last year in Sioux Falls. The Birmingham area alone has 7 or 8 schools that could play with them on any given day and the fans and parents talk trash constantly online.

It suprised me last year in my DD's first year of 6u how competitive it was and how good some of the girls would be. I figured it would be just them having fun and all stars might consist of one small tourny. I was wrong. Even the 6's played 4 tournaments in June with the last being the state. We won one warm up and the north area championship before finishing 5th the final weekend.

 

[amanda_cake]

6u All-Stars? We rarely, rarely see 8U All Star tourneys around here! What is really hard to find, however, is 16U tourneys for All Stars because the majority of those girls are into TB. Unfortunately, the group we have could easily beat up some TB teams. Why they don't put us in TB tourneys I don't know!

 

[John T]

I live in WI at the western tip of Lake Superior(Not quite the artic circle but close) and our girls play High School ball (9th grade-12th grade) and once school is out(June 11th) they move into a Baseball/Softball organization run by a group of volunteers. The program runs until mid July and competitive softball is done for the year (We do run a fall-ball but it is more like a clinic).
Superior does not have Middle School softball but the SYO (Our org.) does get going in April, weather permitting, and we do have access to the HS and MS gyms. We run 10U, 12U, 14U and 16U (After school is out). This year is one of the earliest springs on record and we have been outside for over a month but there have been years where we are stuck inside until May. The HS teams can miss 5-10 games in these years and it really hampers the players.
HS ball is so limited by the WIAA (State rear. for High Schools) as far as games played, coaches contact with players in off season (They just passed a rule allowing the HS coaches to have 2 weeks of contact with his/her players in the off season) etc.
This is what we have to work with and we do the best we can.
GREAT THREAD
John T.

 

[jazz10NE]

Here in Nebraska we have Fall HS ball.

No Middle school SB but I would like to see that change.

From April - July and some teams even Sep-Oct travel/select is your source, tryouts are end of July early August for the fall/next year. We have a good spread of ASA - A - B - C and a few Gold levels. Some teams are playing both ASA and USSSA and now even NAFA has started coming in.

Tournaments in April & May have limited numbers but when you hit late May through June we see more. For our Softball Association in our town of 5,000 we currently have 7 teams from 8U - 18U and are hosting a Fathers Day tourney of about 45 teams.

 

[KAT]

All of our schools here are in our WIAA association which is our state athletic association. they are divided up like so. They are public and private entities. Every two years they reclassify the schools based on enrollement. You can opt up you cannot opt down. Only the high schools enrollments are included.


Classification Enrollment Ranges Number of Schools
1B 0-92 62
2B 93-207 62
1A 208-512 65
2A 513-1085 64
3A 1086-1303 67
4A 1304+ 66

 

[AZball]

I moved from San Diego County to Mohave County (NW Arizona) and didnt know that their was Jr High softball programs or "B" travel teams cause in SD all the "B" teams are rec. all-stars

 

[amanda_cake]

HS ball is so limited by the WIAA (State rear. for High Schools) as far as games played, coaches contact with players in off season (They just passed a rule allowing the HS coaches to have 2 weeks of contact with his/her players in the off season) etc.

Glad you brought this up! How much contact are your coaches allowed to have in your state? There is no limit on contact as far as I know, but she can not start coaching until a certain date (February something). We have "optional" conditioning. According to the rules, they can not hold it against you if you do not come... but I KNOW they do hold it against you. For our conditioning, our coach is not supposed to actually touch a ball. She can't correct any one's throwing or swing, she can't actually coach. All she does is supervise while the seniors lead.

Here in Nebraska we have Fall HS ball.

What other states have HS ball in the fall? I know that Georgia is one of them.