Travel Ball is Killing Rec Ball

[whack]

I would certainly hope so. It’s absolutely retarded not to evaluate every player that comes to tryouts on the same merits.


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[Medicmerk]

My DD, her mom and I spoke to the Softball coaches at the HS she will go to in the fall. They told us in pretty much obvious words that if a girl does not only play on a travel ball team but on an elite level travel ball team and goes to fielding, hitting, pitching... lessons with known coaches ontop of that, they should probably not even waste everyone's time trying out for softball.
It is a private school though so maybe some of the public schools are more accepting of rec players

This is a public school with a state ranked team and they only look at the TB girls.

 

[J.Galt]

This is a public school with a state ranked team and they only look at the TB girls.

Norco? Gahr? Great Oak? Los Alamitos? Huntington Beach?

 

[Westwind]

How many games per year do rec players play in?

Around here it’s 10-15. Practices are near non-existent. There is no way a rec only player can develop playing that little. Yet their parents seem surprised when a player that spent her summer practicing and playing 50, 60, 90 games plays ahead of their daughter in hs.

DW was on the rec board. There were many conversations about tb stealing rec players. There aren’t any solutions, some players outgrow rec and look for a place where they can play more. Rec just wasn’t/ isn’t equipped to fill the desire to play more.

So the player moves to a local travel team. They start playing better competition and play against teams they regard as “good” a couple times per weekend. The player gets better coaching. The player notices that she is getting much better than she was before. She likes it. The parents of rec players and the rec organizations don’t like it though. “They spend all their time playing softball. It’s three weekends a month!“

The next year, she tries out for a better area travel team. They don’t travel much but the coaching is better. The practices are better. She keeps getting better. It’s fun. She’s proud of how well she is doing. Some of the parents of the team she left won’t like it. And you will remain lifelong friends with some of the others.

Then it happens again. The player wants to see better competition and play against “good” teams “all the time” but that turns out to be good teams half to three quarters of the time. So... the player moves to a regional team and the local tb people are upset and scoff at the player “chasing scholarships”. Then some of the parents from the regional team scoffs at the family when the kid wants to play ALL good competition and moves up to a national team.

So there you have it. These national PGF teams.... They are DESTROYING LOCAL TRAVEL BALL.

We really have to do something about PGF stealing all our Tb players. //snark//

Every player wants something different out of softball. Each players journey will be different than every other player and that’s ok. Find the sweet spot and enjoy the ride.

 

[Medicmerk]

Norco? Gahr? Great Oak? Los Alamitos? Huntington Beach?

#18 La Serna High school. Los Alamitos is coached by the 18 gold coach from the Firecrackers so I’m guessing that it’s not any better at those locations. Sorry to say but this s a real thing

 

[J.Galt]

#18 La Serna High school. Los Alamitos is coached by the 18 gold coach from the Firecrackers so I’m guessing that it’s not any better at those locations. Sorry to say but this s a real thing

Los Al is where my DD would go If she did go to public HS. I know from friends neighbors and TB teammates that park and rec girls aren't even considered really to play there. All that and they still got bounced in the second round of the D1 playoffs.
If you're going to any of the D1 schools in the CIF Southern Section you better have several years of TB experience before 9th grade. Look at the schools that are still alive, even in D2. They're filled with Top 40 nationally ranked players and coached by some of the top TB coaches in Southern California.
Great Oak is coached by Dave Mercado
Gahr has Quarles and Sanchez from Ohana Tigers coaching
Norco has 2 top 20 class of 2019 players and a junior who is top 5 in the 2020 class pitching for them.
And Huntington Beach HS is literally in the heart of Firecrackers and PGF country
In D2, among the teams left, you have Mike Smith and Tim Brashear of Firecrackers coaching at Roosevelt
South Torrance has Heyward from So Cal Athletics coaching them...
These coaches are many of the top TB coaches in the country and they're directing the girls in to the schools they coach at. These aren't schools where a history teacher is coaching the Softball team.
Not sure how other parts of the country do things but in softball crazed Southern California, park and rec is only a viable option through 8u. Once the girls reach 10s the pitchers and catchers have moved on. And by 12s any girl with a clue, and whose parents are willing to step up in dedication, have left park and rec as well.

 

[Eric F]

My DD, her mom and I spoke to the Softball coaches at the HS she will go to in the fall. They told us in pretty much obvious words that if a girl does not only play on a travel ball team but on an elite level travel ball team and goes to fielding, hitting, pitching... lessons with known coaches ontop of that, they should probably not even waste everyone's time trying out for softball.
It is a private school though so maybe some of the public schools are more accepting of rec players

I know the school you're talking about. A former player on my DD's 14U TB team goes there. She's a decent ballplayer, but not among the top players on our team. She made the JV team at that HS. Another friend's DD is a catcher (14yo stud). She made the Varsity team as a freshman, but hated the environment, and moved to another school after the first semester.

For public HS, they are pretty much stuck with being able to only draw from the population of students they have. If that population has good depth of TB talent, they can build a strong team. If they don't, they won't. My DD's HS has very few TB players, and the Varsity team was composed of TB, rec, and HS-only players. It was a rough year, as has been the school's history, and is expected to continue that way. A majority of the TB talent in the school's area goes to private schools, or figures out how to go to a stronger softball school out of the district.

 

[Medicmerk]

I know the school you're talking about. A former player on my DD's 14U TB team goes there. She's a decent ballplayer, but not among the top players on our team. She made the JV team at that HS. Another friend's DD is a catcher (14yo stud). She made the Varsity team as a freshman, but hated the environment, and moved to another school after the first semester.

For public HS, they are pretty much stuck with being able to only draw from the population of students they have. If that population has good depth of TB talent, they can build a strong team. If they don't, they won't. My DD's HS has very few TB players, and the Varsity team was composed of TB, rec, and HS-only players. It was a rough year, as has been the school's history, and is expected to continue that way. A majority of the TB talent in the school's area goes to private schools, or figures out how to go to a stronger softball school out of the district.

Are you talking about La Serna in Whittier. That’s our school or Whittier Christian , St Paul perhaps for private. La Serna just won the league finals.

 

[_MIA_]

My DD, her mom and I spoke to the Softball coaches at the HS she will go to in the fall. They told us in pretty much obvious words that if a girl does not only play on a travel ball team but on an elite level travel ball team and goes to fielding, hitting, pitching... lessons with known coaches ontop of that, they should probably not even waste everyone's time trying out for softball.
It is a private school though so maybe some of the public schools are more accepting of rec players

Bolded is funny..so if a kid is playing SS and batting third for the Firecrackers but doesn't go to hitting and fielding lessons they won't take them.. I am sure, even nowadays, while few and far between some of those types of kids exist, especially if their parents know what they are doing from an instructional standpoint.

 

[J.Galt]

Bolded is funny..so if a kid is playing SS and batting third for the Firecrackers but doesn't go to hitting and fielding lessons they won't take them.. I am sure, even nowadays, while few and far between some of those types of kids exist, especially if their parents know what they are doing from an instructional standpoint.

There's a thousand Firecracker teams and they range from barely better than park and rec to Tonys hand picked studs. But if you think that the girls on the top 12 and 14u teams are not going to a hitting coach and fielding classes every month you'd be mistaken. Many of the top HS teams have coaches giving fielding classes starting with 12u and even 10s in some cases weekly. It's how they pick the girls to come to their schools. And the area is filled with indoor facilities like STC, EM Speed, 714 Fastpitch, Softball Workshop, Firecracker facility, Corona Angels facility.... loaded with lessons from former college and pro softball players charging 20-45 bucks for 30 minute lessons Mon-Fri til 10 pm.
Do you think every girl on Norco HS's team grew up in Norco? No way, the district will allow any student to choose which of the 5 High schools a student wants to go to in 8th grade. By that time the coaches at Norco, Santiago, Roosevelt.... have hand selected which incoming players they want from the fielding classes, hitting lessons and travel ball teams they've been involved in.
It's business, every parent there knows how to instruct their child, but the fine tuning and networking that comes with hitting and fielding coaches is going to prepare the girls that much more.