Where do D1 softball players come from?

[Maxx]

Power 5 rosters broken down by state.

http://fastpitchanalytics.com/2015/...-of-the-power-five-conferences-ncaa-softball/

 

[coachjwb]

Data from states with more than 20 copied and pasted here ... interesting ... California's numbers are amazing ...

CA 270
TX 113
FL 61
IL 60
GA 50
AZ 43
NJ 32
OK 31
AL 27
IN 25
OH 25
VA 23
KS 21
NC 21
PA 21
WA 20

 

[Fairman]

If you look at D1 players per Million population which negates the advantage that big states have over little states, CA checks in at 6.96 D1 players per million. OK @ 8.16 D1 players per million and KS @ 7.24 D1 players per million would be better models to follow. AL with 5.63 D1 players per million and GA at 5.00 D1 players per million lead the remainder of the listed states. OH has only 2.16 D1 players per million but leaves PA into dust with 1.64 D1 players per million.

I tried to include my chart but just not sure its coming in.....

 

[Fairman]

Maybe this worked.......

.....My is that little!

 

[coachjwb]

Definitely a better way to look at it ... also keep in mind that these are only the 5 "power" conferences and that there are I believe 5 other D1 conferences plus the independents.

 

[WalkOffHR]

Amigo, dey come from D 2 parents.

 

[Fairman]

I suspect that both PA and OH do quite well with the shear number of players when you include more than just a few elite D1 conferences. The number of D3, D2, branch campus, community colleges and NAIA, schools along with the 'other' D1 schools provide our dd's many more opportunities than the western, mid-western and southern states could dream of.

For the I(c)SST ( a regional tournament) we maintain contact with over 120 college coaches within 2-3 hours driving time of Indiana PA. Those colleges have over 2,000 collegiate softball players of which some 500 have to be replaced each and every year. When you do a similar study of rosters of 'local' colleges in all but the elite schools you will find the vast majority of those players are from PA and OH year in and year out.

Its great when one of our dd's gets to play for an elite program but don't discount the importance when 2,000 of them get to play close enough to home that you can go to the games.


BTW: PA has 192 Colleges and Universities with more than 750,000 students some of which play softball.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

If you look at D1 players per Million population which negates the advantage that big states have over little states, CA checks in at 6.96 D1 players per million. OK @ 8.16 D1 players per million and KS @ 7.24 D1 players per million would be better models to follow. AL with 5.63 D1 players per million and GA at 5.00 D1 players per million lead the remainder of the listed states. OH has only 2.16 D1 players per million but leaves PA into dust with 1.64 D1 players per million.

Your method gives a big advantage to smaller states with multiple schools - i.e. OK (3.8 mil /2 schools). It certainly helps others too - AL (4.8/2), KS (2.9/1), NC (9.7/2) and GA (9.9/2). OTOH, CA only has 3 Power 5 schools and only 1 in SoCal...

Most of the CA players come from a handful of counties that aren't the largest ones in the state. Orange County has a population of 3.1 million and had 21 2015's go to Power 5 schools this year alone.

 

[Strohbro]

Here are the D1 conferences:

http://www.goldfastpitch.com/#!divison-i/c93d

 

[spartansd]

That it is interesting.

I will also say the there are 40 D1 softball programs in the Ohio/Ind/Michigan/Chicago area. And many are stocking their rosters with Midwest players.

So while it is cool to get into a power 5 conference. There are lots of options out there. And I think that many players either get missed because they do not know how to get marketed or they decide that they want to play softball for 4 years and choose a place that they will be successful or have a more guaranteed opportunity to play.

If you play top level D1 power conference sports (in any sport), it is a place of constant challenges and pushing yourself. Many see that or decide that is not for them.

Additionally we have conditioned them to make that decision. Few parents or players play on a team where getting on the field requires you to compete for that playing time. Rosters of 11 or 12 hardly promote competition for playing time. But rosters of 18-24 with 4-6 new high level players showing up every year demand that you compete just to get an at bat. That pressure to perform is real and is often not something a player wants to be face.

Anyway, it is obvious that being in a warm weather State makes a difference. Nothing new.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

The warm weather advantage has shrunk as players in cold weather areas are now working out year-round. Here are the other keys I see for developing lots of major D1 players:

- Metropolitan area(s) with sufficient population density to provide enough athletes for local high-level competition.

- Good rec leagues to draw athletes to sport and develop them for next level.

- Ample good-to-great private instruction.

- Large number of good TB teams to develop players for elite teams.

- Elite TB orgs run by successful Premier/Gold coaches with very successful coaches for the younger teams too. They regularly contend for national titles and know how to get their players recruited.