- Aug 20, 2013
- 265
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I'll start off by saying my daughter is 12years old (03' - 2021) with 1 year of eligibility in 12u remaining. She's been playing 14's for the past 6 months. We've recently gone through the experience of searching for the "right" team for my DD and feel lucky to have landed with her current team. Through this process, after speaking with many individuals in the softball world including other parents, DD, many Coaches, etc, One thing stood out to me above all others. This one thing for us, was about the 4th or 5th top priority considering our situation but it was the focus point of just about every person we spoke to. This made me wonder if our perspective on this is different than most others?
The single most talked about thing during our experience which even included some "recruitment" was what they or their team could do for obtaining a College Scholarship. I'll say that my DD has goals to play in college and a scholarship would/will be an awesome accomplishment, but at this stage of the game, it's definitely not what's driving us.
It seems to me that more and more people are getting lost by focusing on the "prize" at the end of the road, rather than enjoying the experiences of getting there. At 12 years old, we still have plenty of time to focus on preparing for college. Things like a fun atmosphere, player development, strong practices, playing a challenging schedule, & Competition are all things that were more important to us than getting my DD a college scholarship.
For me, our family is not in this for the scholarship. (I'd just have her play rec ball and point all the travelling money into a college fund if that was the case). I do this because I love seeing my daughter compete and have fun. I do it because it creates many life lessons and experiences that many children miss out on. I do it, because I did not have the same opportunities that my DD has when I was growing up. As long as she is having fun and competing at a high level, I will do whatever it takes to provide the avenue for her to do so. Sure, a scholarship at the end of the road will be icing on the cake. While she's still young enough to not stress it though, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the cake without the icing. it's sweet enough as it is!
The single most talked about thing during our experience which even included some "recruitment" was what they or their team could do for obtaining a College Scholarship. I'll say that my DD has goals to play in college and a scholarship would/will be an awesome accomplishment, but at this stage of the game, it's definitely not what's driving us.
It seems to me that more and more people are getting lost by focusing on the "prize" at the end of the road, rather than enjoying the experiences of getting there. At 12 years old, we still have plenty of time to focus on preparing for college. Things like a fun atmosphere, player development, strong practices, playing a challenging schedule, & Competition are all things that were more important to us than getting my DD a college scholarship.
For me, our family is not in this for the scholarship. (I'd just have her play rec ball and point all the travelling money into a college fund if that was the case). I do this because I love seeing my daughter compete and have fun. I do it because it creates many life lessons and experiences that many children miss out on. I do it, because I did not have the same opportunities that my DD has when I was growing up. As long as she is having fun and competing at a high level, I will do whatever it takes to provide the avenue for her to do so. Sure, a scholarship at the end of the road will be icing on the cake. While she's still young enough to not stress it though, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the cake without the icing. it's sweet enough as it is!
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