When high school activities collide with Showcasing

[CoachKevin]

Remember as a coach you have to work for the entire team. What if a handful of girls want to attend(and are good enough) schools in Arizona and New Mexico, but your team is based out of Oregon? As a coach you have to get the girls in front of those coaches. If there is a big showcase in November/December in AZ that will have 4-5 of the targeted schools at it then you owe it to the girls to play in it. After all, they are playing in the showcases around Oregon for the other girls to be able to get their exposure.

As to priority. I will always believe that the game that you dream of playing in college takes priority. If that is softball then so be it. If not, then maybe a showcase softball team isn't the right fit.

Your talking 1 Showcase Tournament... in this example then yes I would discuss with the BB Coach.... but 3?

 

[Orange Socks]

Update: I just got back from meeting with the coach, and I thought it went pretty good. Turns out the major conflict will be the Ronald McDonald Make up tourney which just so happens to be the same weekend as my DD's theater arts play (she has 3 lines..sheesh). The perfect storm. She understands the issue since she played bball in college, was a recruiter and played in Europe. So she gets it. We had a good conversation regarding recruiting and what to do and what not to do. I felt as though I was ahead of her on that topic...Thanks to DFP!!! DD's first love is Softball and she has decided that she will not play BBall next year unfortunately. I was she would quit theater arts instead. That is a year round mess of haphazardness and group hugs. The parents are pretty bizarre too.

 

[InsidePitch]

This is a pervasive myth.

I tend to defer to those here with more years experience but in this case I have heard it from more than a couple of college coaches that they like kids to have some other sports interests. First it was my lying eyes and now my lying ears?

My understanding was playing other sports develops different muscles and abilities. Plus the letter jacket is more impressive with the extra patches.

AS to the OP, it sounds the tourneys are more than run of the mill and I'm glad DD's season ends the day before BB tryouts.

 

[slingnit]

As bad as this may sound, if they decide that college softball will be in their future then at some point sacrifices will need to be made. This isn't 100% but sports are so specialized it is hard for most kids to excel in multiple sports. The time spent for just one sport is year round, practices are long and often and games 3 out of every 4 weekends for many competitive teams. Throw in school and other activities that families find most important and your 14 yr old kid is putting enough time to fill 2 full time jobs. After freshman year my dd decided all other sports and activities were out the door and all energy was directed toward softball. Prior she played Bball and ran track, she was competitive but they were not getting her to college. It was her decision based on the potential she showed in softball. A little soul searching is required because these are big decisions to make.

 

[riseball]

I tend to defer to those here with more years experience but in this case I have heard it from more than a couple of college coaches that they like kids to have some other sports interests. First it was my lying eyes and now my lying ears?

My understanding was playing other sports develops different muscles and abilities. Plus the letter jacket is more impressive with the extra patches.

AS to the OP, it sounds the tourneys are more than run of the mill and I'm glad DD's season ends the day before BB tryouts.

So we have gone from muti-sport athlete to other sport interests. I guess that is what worked for my DD since she played only softball but had a high level of interest in the NHL and MLB. I have years of invoices from the cable company to prove it. Understand that a letter jacket does not make you an athlete, it shows you were a participant. Colleges look for athletes with specific skills. How they get there, the coaches could care less. In any given HS you may have dozens of muti-sport participants but only a handful of muti-sport athletes. Those truly gifted athletes will get recruited regardless of the number of pins on their letter jacket. If someones DD is a true multi-sport athlete, congratulations. If not, then I hope they use any time away from their primary sport very wisely.

 

[chinamigarden]

So we have gone from muti-sport athlete to other sport interests. I guess that is what worked for my DD since she played only softball but had a high level of interest in the NHL and MLB. I have years of invoices from the cable company to prove it. Understand that a letter jacket does not make you an athlete, it shows you were a participant. Colleges look for athletes with specific skills. How they get there, the coaches could care less. In any given HS you may have dozens of muti-sport participants but only a handful of muti-sport athletes. Those truly gifted athletes will get recruited regardless of the number of pins on their letter jacket. If someones DD is a true multi-sport athlete, congratulations. If not, then I hope they use any time away from their primary sport very wisely.

I think you are seeing this through the eyes of a pitcher and not a field player. I think that the skill of pitching is so specialized that unless she is an absolute monster at the plate no coach is going to recruit a pitcher and make her an outfielder, her skill set is frankly not very athletic. She just needs to be able to repeat a specific motion as efficiently as possible. And honestly some pitchers are like Michael Jackson (they wear one glove for no particular reason) so its not likely she is going to be converted to play somewhere else for defensive purposes.

But when a college coach is looking at 6 girls all of who play SS and he knows he has room on the roster to bring 3 of them on and he intends to convert one of them to catcher and another to Centerfield. The college coach is going to have to decide which of these 6 girls will be the most coachable and able to do something else. One way is to identify who has played and been coached in other methods and with different expectations. Those 6 girls have always been the star of their softball team, all batted 1-4 all have started just about every meaningful game in their SB career. But once they get to college they might have to be on the bench, they might bat 8th, or start out their college life as a pinch runner. They will be just a teammate and not the star, who has the ability to do that? Maybe the one who has played multiple sports has that experience.

So no its not always about athleticism, sometimes its about the ability to learn other things and the experience of being a grinder and not always the star.

 

[JAD]

Unfortunately now that high level sports have become year round commitments, playing more than one is almost impossible after 12U unless the coaches are willing to make it work. Good luck!

 

[Sparky Guy]

I agree let her decide what is important to her. IMO the TB Coach doesn't think very much. I understand it's a "Showcase" but why not just go dark during the HS year? We encourage the girls to do other things/sports in HS. We will hold "Open Gyms" starting next month but it's not mandatory, encouraged, but not mandatory. I will always believe that the "in-season" sport takes priority.

There are three parts to the softball season when in HS IF a player is serious about wanting to play in college.

The first part is tryouts and the fall season. This is when a LOT of the recruiting is done. The colleges are out of season and the college coaches make it a priority to see players who've contacted them. Depending on where you're located the recruiting season can extend through the winter in warm weather states.

The second part is the HS season. The travel teams are dark during that time. The college coaches are in the middle of their season.

The third part is the summer where there are combination of showcase and national qualifying tournaments taking place. The schedules will vary depending on team priorities.

If a coach takes a HS aged team and goes dark with it during the top recruiting period in the fall he will not be left with too many players. For many of the serious players softball has become a yearlong commitment with maybe a little down time in the middle of winter. In a lot of areas of the country it's not about keeping up with the Joneses. It's being the Joneses.

 

[sbmom19]

I tend to defer to those here with more years experience but in this case I have heard it from more than a couple of college coaches that they like kids to have some other sports interests. First it was my lying eyes and now my lying ears?

My understanding was playing other sports develops different muscles and abilities. Plus the letter jacket is more impressive with the extra patches.

AS to the OP, it sounds the tourneys are more than run of the mill and I'm glad DD's season ends the day before BB tryouts.

My DD had a few college coaches that were interested in her beg her to stop playing basketball. They said that they lose so many potential players to blown ACLs in basketball and volleyball. They told her that since she is a catcher, they want to keep her knees as healthy as possible. That was a big contributing factor for why she didn't play basketball this year...

 

[InsidePitch]

Athlete - a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill. The bar doesn't seem to be too high.

I enjoy watching DD play BB because it's up close and I can see the big smiles from playing. I will breath a sigh of relief when she "WALKS" away from it.