What college coaches want....

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Ability is the #1 factor, otherwise college softball teams would be full Chess,Math and Science club presidents even if they never played an inning of softball. The difference between 2 very good players abilities would be slight and subjective, their grades and test scores are not. Hedge your bets, make your DD more appealing to colleges push grades, join clubs, show them your a well rounded, well balanced individual that can Hit and Hit and Hit. You will have no problem playing college ball.

Right on , if you can hit that yellow ball coming across the plate 5 out of ten times you will be playing somewhere in college , The name of the game is to win a lot of people don't like that statement but its true, because winning brings more people to the college to look at going there which brings more money for the university and so on, I do believe in good grades and and after softball is over hopefully the good grades that you achieved will make your life better because unfortunately softball doesn't last forever, Keep on hitting.

 

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Finch, exactly correct. If your dd can get half the money back with her grades she is much more marketable.
I am not saying if you are a great player with a 2.0 you are not going to get an offer. Talent is number one.

What I am say is, if you are a great player and you have great grades you are twice as likely to get the offer over the 2.0 student. A coach can get you for 1/2 scholarship (out of her budget). And isn't it great when you can do that and still be on the chess, math and science club.

 

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Number of scholarships
DI offer up to 12 scholarships per team
DII offer up to7.2, scholarships per team
NAIA offer up to 10 scholarships per team

Looking at a number of schools rosters it seems most teams carry around 18 players.
Do the Math there is enough money to give every girl a full ride. That means a number of girls are getting partial scholarships. Schools can pick and choose who they want and you can bet grades are very important. No school wants to give girl money and have her become academically ineligible, or get kicked out of school. Better yet if a girl has good grades and they can earn academic money it is a benefit to a program because it gives them flexibility to recruit more players or spread the money around better.
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These numbers could be a little different in reality. Some schools are not fully funded even at the D1 level. Because D1 can have that many dosent mean they do. WSU here in the dayton area just became fully funded not so long ago. UD here still isnt fully funded and dosent offer a ton of scholership money for softball.

After going thru the recruiting process last year for D1 what we discovered is that Pitchers, catchers and thunder sticks get the lions share of most colleges schollie money. The rest is divied up as needed mixed with academic monies to offset the drain on the softball program.


Tim

 

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Good grades alone won't get you into DI softball program as everyone stated but it does open doors for smart athlete. My oldest daughter who does not play softball but she is extremely smart. Currently she is in 6year med-school and getting an MBA did not get into Harvard after an interview. But, my second daughter would of been accepted to Harvard because she is an athlete, they both have similar grades and test scores.

So, I can't emphasize enough to study , study and study. Also, hit, hit and hit. Speed fortunately helps, then opportunity will knock on your door. Dream big.:yahoo:

 

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One thing I haven't noticed, or maybe I missed it. Academic money cannot not be taken away if for some reason the athlete decides not to play or can't continue to play. Maintaining grades and playing at any level is NOT easy. One thing no one can every take away from a student is their mind and their education (they may feel they are losing their minds while trying to balance both). Just my opinion, that should be first and foremost!

 

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Tim knows of what he speaks. Full athletic rides are NOT predominant across D1 teams. If a family is spending a ton of money on travel ball, camps, lessons, etc., it usually should be with the expectation that the return is not going to be a full athletic scholarship at a Division 1 school. Even among those elite athletes who can play Division 1 ball, the onion continues to be sliced and the slicing usually doesn't yield a full ride.

Ramcoach raises an issue that I've spoken to several times on this board. Academic aid isn't automatically taken away if your player decides that there is more to life than softball or that softball is the love of her life but she just can't handle being a semi-professional athlete while trying to get decent grades. That's why I particularly encourage families to check out Division 3 possibilities. While Division 3 schools can't offer athletic money, you would be naive to believe that a financial aid office looking at comparable candidates wouldn't give a bit more money to the athlete who could add a lot to the stature of the athletic endeavors at the school.

On this, I know of what I speak. Our daughter left her Division 3 softball program in the middle of her sophomore year. She had a sweet financial aid package and I fought through my tears at never seeing her again in the circle with the knowledge that she was making this decision because she had expanded her horizons at college and with the further knowledge that we would still be writing a ridiculously small check each year.

If your kid has both athletic and academic chops, go ahead and pursue the Division 1's and 2's. But also explore Division 3 and the advantages it offers, not the least of which is a small population with an extremely favorable faculty to student ratio. Some kids do so much better in that environment.