- Dec 11, 2010
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MS Softball seems to be a hit-and-miss thing in Illinois ... I never knew schools that didn’t have it until I became an umpire. It seems like there are three reasons for schools in Central/Western Illinois to not have teams: 1) numbers; 2) Little League (not travel ball, but LL specifically); 3) volleyball.
Middle school softball seems to be a mostly central Illinois phenomenon of the state from what I can see.
Softball competes with volleyball in my area. It seems like volleyball never stops. Our hs volleyball team seems to be absolutely mediocre no matter how many months of the year they spend preparing. In my hs’s case, it seems that the disproportionate amount of time spent on vb seems to contribute to the mediocrity of our girls sports across the board.
Now some random thoughts......
Players need down time- physical and mental. The discipline to take time off is counter intuitive to the disciplined approach players and parents think they need to prepare for college.
College softball coaches completely talk out of both sides of their mouth about this issue. They love to spout off about value of three sport athletes until the player is their commit. They love to talk about how repetitive use injuries are minimized by playing other sports until the player is their commit. They love to talk about the value of rest...... some mean it, some don’t...... yet some of them absolutely run kids into the ground with hundreds of thousands of tired reps and 11:00 p.m. team meetings on the road when the players are already dead tired. Think I’m kidding? There are plenty of photos of players on Twitter. Pick a P5 team. Go find some pictures from fall season. Then go find the same players in late May. Look at the bags under their eyes. Their faces are smiling for the camera but they look tired. Some coaches are better than others. Some schedules are rougher than others. Some regions can host tournaments in March and players can sleep in their own beds. Some have to travel all February and March.
Want to know what your prospective college coach really thinks about this? Look at how they use their players in conference play, particularly pitchers. Get into their website. Look at historical stats. Look at who played. Look at who they rode like a government mule for a year or two or three before the player had problems with injuries. Think those coaches are looking out for your kid? Be real about this. Make sure both you and your kid are paying attention to their bodies.
Patrick Murphy could possibly have won one more game last summer. Who knows after that. He didn’t pitch a player that had issues with repetitive use injury. At least publicly, he took a tough position on this. Behind the scenes maybe he isn’t the white knight but it was a step in the right direction. I tip my hat to him for showing some concern publicly for the long term health of his player.
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