Win/Lose

[jsoftballcoach]

Good players are able to get on good teams. Good teams win their share of games. While college coaches don't care about how many trophies a kid has, being a significant contributor on a team that plays at a high level will help demonstrate that someone can play high level college ball.

Doing well in a high level tournament, such as a PGF Nationals, is something worth mentioning in an email, but "college exposure" (showcase) tournaments for 14U are of dubious value. D1 coaches can't engage prospects until the fall of their HS junior year, and the rest fill out their rosters later from who remains.

It all depends on goals and ability. If your kid is potentially D1 material, get them on a team that regularly plays the best possible competition. If not, get them on a decent team that can win some games. That may not get them recruited, but it will be easier to watch. I do know several kids from not-so-great local teams who went on to play JUCO and NAIA ball.

This is right on, the only thing I can add is that the better teams get the better fields which tend to get more attention from the college coaches.


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[Strike2]

This is right on, the only thing I can add is that the better teams get the better fields which tend to get more attention from the college coaches.


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That's true, but the fastest way to get attention from at least one college coach I know is to get her interested in an email a player sends them. If she's interested, she'll find the player regardless of what field they're on.

 

[mmeece]

Heard a lot of people said no college coach care what’s your daughter trophies at 12 years old. This age is more about learning and fundamental.

Then here’s come 13u . They start with a lot of college exposure tournaments . I also heard no coach care if you win or lose .

So does winning necessary? Or should never focus on winning the whole entire years to play? kind of confused..

There are VERY few 14u and lower aged girls getting ANY interest from college coaches at a "showcase". Winning is always better than losing, but doesn't change recruiting much on an individual level. However, coaches do have a tendency to recruit winning teams, championship games, gold brackets, "power pools", etc harder than random games, but most recruiting is going to start on an individual level with emails, camps, etc.

 

[Chad504boy]

Learning the game, Developing fundamentals, all those nice things coaches like to talk about SHOULD translate to winning against competitively matched teams.

 

[jsoftballcoach]

That's true, but the fastest way to get attention from at least one college coach I know is to get her interested in an email a player sends them. If she's interested, she'll find the player regardless of what field they're on.

Agreed, but this should be a given. Communication from the player should start at 14U.


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[canyonjoe]

While it's important to develop the skills to play, learning how to play is the biggest thing you can learn at a young age. The ability to sense what is going to happen is what makes great players. If you have a team that knows how to play they'll win plenty of games.

 

[BrianTx01]

Agreed, but this should be a given. Communication from the player should start at 14U.


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The hard part is even knowing what schools and majors they are interested in. With that in mind...I would love to know what people put in these first letters. From my understanding you shouldn't expect a reply but most likely they will read it.

 

[Gambler Bob]

I follow some of the best 13U teams in the country on Social Media and Gamechanger..I don't see any of them playing
showcase tournaments. Are teams really playing showcases at 13U??

My daughter's team played in two Showcases last fall. The first tournament there were a few coaches from various D1 schools that watched a few innings of each game that they played. The college coaches would grab the player profile sheets and then record notes in their note books. There were no interactions between the college coaches and the travel ball coaches. This was a 13u team. There was not a ton of coaches watching the team play, maybe 2-3 coaches per game.

The 2nd tournament was an indoor tournament. There were more coaches watching these games than at the first tournament. I would say 7-8 D1 coaches were watching these games. We were playing an older team within the same organization my daughter plays for. It would be likely that most of the coaches watching this game were there to see the older team play more than they were there to see the 13u team play.

For the most part you are correct. Very few 13u teams get any benefit out of playing Showcases.

Fair enough. I do see a lot of the kids on these teams attending various P5 camps already. If you have the money to burn I guess there is no harm. While on an 08 team, DD is still only in 6th grade..not going to start worrying about any of this for a while lol.

Your thoughts on this are 100% correct IMO. No need to rush this part of your daughters softball experience. My daughter is in 8th grade. She has not been to any P5 camps, or any other kind of college camp. She may attend a couple Big Ten camps that are local to our house our house this summer.

 

[jsoftballcoach]

The hard part is even knowing what schools and majors they are interested in. With that in mind...I would love to know what people put in these first letters. From my understanding you shouldn't expect a reply but most likely they will read it.

You are correct, the college coaches are not allowed to interact with players until September 1 of their junior year in HS. We didn’t worry about majors, just schools trying to get on their radar.

I dug up one of DDs first emails to college coaches:


Hi Coach _____, my name is _____, and I’m a pitcher for _________. _______ is one of my top choices in schools, and I hope that you will have the time to come and watch me pitch. Attached is my season schedule and profile, as I get updates on new events I will forward them to you.

Thank you,
________ _________


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