travel ball regrets

[YOCOACH]

yes i will try my hardest! do we live in the same state? and could i play travel after hs season or is that not possible because travel would be fun.

I live in NE Ohio. As far as TB and HS goes, I think it was Shiloh that mentioned in another thread about a lot of states that won't let you play both at the same time. Ohio happens to be one of those. Travel Ball in Ohio starts their new season around the beginning of August after tryouts for the teams. We will practice, play Fall tournaments and leagues through the end of October then move to an indoor facility for indoor practices through Winter. For the HS age girls, they will practice indoors until the HS season starts around the 3rd week of February. Once HS ball starts, they're only allowed to practice and play with their HS team. Once the HS season is over around the 3rd week of May (for most teams in the state) the players will return to their TB teams to practice. Usually, the last weekend of May starts the Summer TB tournament season and they will practice and play tourneys through the 3rd or so weekend of July. At the end of July, tryouts are held by most teams and the cycle starts all over again. So, long answer to your question is yes you can play after HS ball is done but I would start looking for a TB team now if I were you. The sooner you get on a team, the sooner you can start practicing with them, get to know your new TB teammates, learn their defenses, defensive plays, offense work, etc,. etc.

As for playing other sports, my DD tried them all at some time or another but nothing stuck like Softball and she only played a season or so of the others before quitting. Once she started playing TB at 11 YO, she wanted to focus solely on SB (her decision not ours) and being the best.

 

[Schmick's Gloves]

Many HS teams are lucky to have 1 TB player.

Others are 80% of team.

Few HS softball teams are alike, there is very wide disparity.

The common theme....you need 1 decent travel ball pitcher to be competitive. You cant take any girl and make her a good pitcher. Not every team has that.

Not sure where that's at but that certainly isn't the case here.
Here the girls who do not play on a the premiere travel teams will never sniff Varsity.
Last year was my kids freshman year. 3 freshmen made Varsity including my kid, the other 2 were a catcher from a premiere Firecracker team and a Rabbit from one of the premiere Corona Angels teams. The JV team is all travel ball girls too and even the Frosh team (9th and 10th graders) is 50/50 travel ball girls but mostly girls from the Tshirt startups.
And her HS is mid pack or probably in the lower half of the league as her school is the only school of the 6 in the league who isn't coached by a premiere travel coach.


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[livingontheroad]

All depends on location. Even in high travel ball areas...theres districts with teams with no TB players, no real coaches. They are....pathetic.

 

[BT3100]

In eastern PA we have 30 teams in our district. The district is made up of all 6A teams. 6A is the group of the largest schools in the state in terms of enrollment. The top 12 or 13 have pitchers who are going to play college ball with the top 5 or 6 going D1. Those top 12 teams consistently make it to district finals and half to states. The bottom 10 lack the amount of travel players that the top 10 feild. So it absolutely depends on the school. Our HS has a long standing legacy of competitive softball. 1 through 9 will come from top travel teams in the area. The school just down the road has 3 travel players on the roster. Need to try out for your team, give it all you got and trust the process!

 

[whiporee]

I’ve been very very regretful these past months for not playing travel when i had the chance. I’m ready to do this. I have a team and i think they need players. my sister played about a year and a half ago so my mom knows what it’s like. My uncle hits with me and hs is going to teach me a lot. last question did your daughter play any other sports? I feel really un athletic compared to my cousins and siblings and i get mad at myself because i could’ve been if i made the right choices. but i try my best not to think about it and just think about the future.

My daughter swims, but she's not good at it. She routinely finishes near the bottom in her events, but for a small swim team like ours every finish helps the total, so while she's not winning ribbons, her efforts to help the team. But she's not quick with her legs -- she played some club volleyball, but she wasn't good enough to get any real playing time. She's not fat but she's solid with a long torso and shortish legs, so she's never been any kind of runner.

She and I had to have this conversation after her ACT scores came back REALLY bad: that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, about your future is defined by things you've done or not done at your age. You've got plenty of time to become more athletic if you want to; your athletic future is up to you. One of my favorite quotes is "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours." Getting mad at yourself for what you haven't done does nothing to help you get where you want to go, but assuming and acting like you missed your window by not playing travel sooner means you've missed your window.

You haven't. All of us here promise you, you haven't missed your window. What you didn't do doesn't matter. What you do next does.

The other thing I had to tell her, though, and I'll tell you the same thing. There is no pixie dust. You have to do the work. The only way you can become a good softball player -- and you can -- is by making it as big a priority as your schedule allows. Practice hitting as much as you can. Practice sprinting as much as you can. If you're given the choice between hitting off the tee and watching The Office or Tik Tok videos, you have to choose hitting six times out of seven. There are videos here and videos everywhere that can teach you skills. There are plenty of places that will give you drills to work on. Getting better is in your grasp, but you've got to reach for it.

Good luck and get busy. You can do it, but you gotta do it.

 

[Mia]

My daughter swims, but she's not good at it. She routinely finishes near the bottom in her events, but for a small swim team like outs every finish helps the team total, so while she's not winning ribbons, her efforts to help the team. But she's not quick with her legs -- she played some club volleyball, but she wasn't good enough to get any real playing time. She's not fat but she's solid with a long torso and shortish legs, so she's never been any kind of runner.

The other thing -- and she and I had to have this conversation after her ACT scores came back REALLY bad -- that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, about your future is defined by things you've done or not done at your age. You've got plenty of time to become more athletic if you want to; your athletic future is in your hands. One of my favorite quotes is "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours." Getting mad at yourself for what you haven't done does nothing to help you get where you want to do, and thinking you missed your window by not playing travel sooner means you've missed your window.

You haven't. All of us here promise you, you haven't missed your window. What you didn't do doesn't matter. What you do next does.

The other thing I had to tell her, though, and I'll tell you the same thing. There is no pixie dust. You have to do the work. The only way you can become a good softball player -- and you can -- is by making it as big a priority as your schedule allows. Practice hitting as much as you can. Practice sprinting as much as you can. If you're given the choice between hitting off the tee and watching The Office or Tik Tok videos, you have to choose hitting. There are videos here and videos everywhere that can teach you skills. There are plenty of places that will give you drills to work on. Getting better is in your grasp, but you've got to reach for it.

Good luck and get busy. You can do it, but you gotta do it.

i will an thank you for telling me about your DD!!

 

[tim_s]

central maine, class C high school here.....our HS has under 300 total Ss

our varsity team this year will have almost all starters currently playing travel.....we will be one of the best class C rosters in the state i believe......3 starters from my team (newly split up, all of my girls went to big programs now).....one freshman pitcher just moved to a new PC and is hitting 58-61 (on a legit gun) in her work sessions.....if she can come in at 55-60 with live batters, that will probably put her tops in our league in terms of velocity.....we will have 3 girls (my DD #1 among them) that will probably be battling for conference player of the year with each other; there's a few others in the league at their level, but it's very, very few........southern maine has lineups that are like ours, all travel ball, but the farther north you go, the less that happens, although we have seen new teams coming out of the woodwork, but to be honest, few of them are really legit......softball is in a weird place in central maine, we just got lucky with a pocket of girls who got serious...most central maine class C schools are lucky to have a couple TB players, and few of them approach the caliber of our big 3

 

[Schmick's Gloves]

central maine, class C high school here.....our HS has under 300 total Ss

our varsity team this year will have almost all starters currently playing travel.....we will be one of the best class C rosters in the state i believe......3 starters from my team (newly split up, all of my girls went to big programs now).....one freshman pitcher just moved to a new PC and is hitting 58-61 (on a legit gun) in her work sessions.....if she can come in at 55-60 with live batters, that will probably put her tops in our league in terms of velocity.....we will have 3 girls (my DD #1 among them) that will probably be battling for conference player of the year with each other; there's a few others in the league at their level, but it's very, very few........southern maine has lineups that are like ours, all travel ball, but the farther north you go, the less that happens, although we have seen new teams coming out of the woodwork, but to be honest, few of them are really legit......softball is in a weird place in central maine, we just got lucky with a pocket of girls who got serious...most central maine class C schools are lucky to have a couple TB players, and few of them approach the caliber of our big 3

Must be nice, my kid gets to play Norco 3 times a year in league, they're usually the #1 team in the nation, send 2-3 girls to Power 5 schools every season and their #1 pitcher the last couple years threw close to 70 MPH. If you looked up softball factory in the dictionary it would read, "See Norco High School"

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[texasheat]

Must be nice, my kid gets to play Norco 3 times a year in league, they're usually the #1 team in the nation, send 2-3 girls to Power 5 schools every season and their #1 pitcher the last couple years threw close to 70 MPH. If you looked up softball factory in the dictionary it would read, "See Norco High School"

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70? Who was it?

 

[Schmick's Gloves]

70? Who was it?

Sarah something, season was canceled before the first league game vs them so I never got to see her pitch live. Corona Angel (her org.) parents on the kid's team said she threw 67-69. She's off to some Pac 9 school now so I'll probably never get to see her throw live

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