S-o-c-c-er is killing us

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Member

• Jun 6, 2008

• #21

Statman Ray said:

sucker is one of the sports you can play without being too athletic, this is why it pulls many younger boys and girls early...when i started my crew of 10u back about 5 years ago, many of those kids knew nothing about baseball, much less softball....AND sucker, unlike softball can be played on wet fields and even indoors (thanks to futsol and indoor fields)

softball needs to do a better job recruiting at the rec level, maybe as young as 8 (doesn't t-ball offer sign-ups at 5?) ?.....why don't community rec programs send flyers home at neighborhood elementary schools, or offer clinics?...if you are a six year old girl, of course you are gonna play sucker because all the "boys" play t-ball, coach pitch and there IS no softball team until 10u....i guess my little statgirl will be playing with the boys until she's eligible for 10u travel....

softball needs to do a better job to market itself

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Our organazation has a slowpitch leauge, to teach them the basics at a young age 6-9-year olds. if they want to play s-o-c-c-e-r thats fine to! any kind of sport is good as long as there happy and having fun! how many overweight s-o-c-c-e-r players do you see?

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #22

panthers,
at least that's a start...i don't know if the kids, or that the parents think it's intimidating to face a pitch (i mean, kid-pitch doesn't even start until about 8 years old???) but softball has to start doing better at getting the younger girls to play....

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #23

Okay Statman, I can agree with you at the entry level. I have coach my DD's team from u-8 to present u-14. She started softball at the player pitch level at rec and boy, was it bad. In 2 years we won 2 games. Terrible coaching and not to be mean, we got the left overs in our league. She hated the sport and wanted to quit. Now our soccer team was the team to beat. I could alway tell she was a softball player, and I begged her to give it another try, we even took up pithcing cuz there was none. That year she was asked to play for her travel team and ended up on the loaded rec team. Now, softball is #1. I'm glad, but she still likes her other sports. Both games have their highs and lows. I think softball is more of a thinking game, and soccer is more athletics.

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #24

flash,
after having my own sucker team for the last 3 years with my inner-city kids, i gave soccer its props, and that's how i got my girls interested in something sports related...man, we had one girl in the entire school who could play softball, but we had many athletic girls...soccer was an easy fix...volleyball is like that too, but god forbid we lose our DD's to THAT sport!

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #25

Our local rec program has T-Ball for 5-6 yr. olds / coach pitch Softball for 8U / and the girls start pitching to each other in 10U. I don't mind the girls playing soccer, just play it in season. I think that's the Fall. We offer a Fall League for the girls that don't play Soccer or Volleyball - no demands to play Fastpitch only. Why can't Soccer extend the same courtesy?

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #26

Volleyball is the evil sport. I've seen to many injuries to that one. My daughter wanted to play, instant "NO!!". That's all I need, 2-3 months of no pitching due to a broken arm.

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #27

My dd plays school bb during the fall. We had a lot of scheduling problems because she is on a travel team that practiced at least once a week in the fall and winter, we were in a fall league and played an indor winter league. So far you have all said that this is seasonal. In our case softball is year round. (and I love that it is) however, basketball is a fall sport. We had to give up one of her 2 pitching lessons per week, and missed some batting practice for basketball practices and basketball games.

I guess what I am saying... All sports, if you go beyond the rec level, are no longer seasonal. We will always have to juggle softball with some other sport because beyond the rec level softball is no longer seasonal, it is year round. IMHO

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #28

Statman Ray said:

panthers,
at least that's a start...i don't know if the kids, or that the parents think it's intimidating to face a pitch (i mean, kid-pitch doesn't even start until about 8 years old???) but softball has to start doing better at getting the younger girls to play....

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Let the kids play what sport they choose and support them in it, Ive seen alot of parents (dads) push thier dd into softball and it just becomes a diasater. as far as getting softball players at a early age, its up to that community to organize it. I hate to say, but s-o-c-c-e-r is way more organized than youth softball, its probally grown 500% in the last ten years, with no end in sight. good luck !

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #29

PANTHER85 you are right about the organization when dd played soccer you could go to the tourney web page and the schedule was there weeks in advance, hell in softball your lucky to know your first game time in advance of game day.

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #30

In Pickerington where I used to reside and coach we had many girls playing softball at young ages, but the older they got and the more skills involved the more that went to.....socc**. I think many communities around Columbus have good programs for getting them at a young age but some just go another direction..........maybe because it isn't easy and that frustrates many a young person.

 

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• Jun 6, 2008

• #31

? Statman, Ive read alot of your replys and have alot of respect for you. You seem to know alot about softball in general, I think its up to parents like us to keep youth girls softball growing, some communities have a great program, some dont, I live in a community where it is pretty good, we have some issues with some things, but overall its ok, I have 2 dd's- one plays softball and one plays s-o-c-c-e-r and ?I enjoy both sports. , one thing for sure I have not heard of a s-o-c-c-e-r forum as good as the o.f.c, thx for you replys!!!! ? ?

 

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Member

• Jun 7, 2008

• #32

Don't get me wrong, I would choose a good softball game over a s-occer game any day, but s-occer IS the most popular sport in the world, right? I like s-occer, I like playing it, but I'm all about doing things all at once, and not continuously, so I prefer fielding a ground ball to dribbling a s-occer ball.
I believe the difference is in the kind of athlete the girl wants to be. And in many ways, softball requires much more tricky skills and abilities than s-occer. So...the ones that prefer s-occer will show it even when exposed to both sports.
There's my opinion.

p.s. Why can't I just type out the word?

 

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• Jun 7, 2008

• #33

you can -----SUCCER or SUCKER or maybe SUKKER "Kick It Suzy Kick It" Run kick Run kick Run Kick Could we just let Europe keep it as their own ? MD

 

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• Jun 8, 2008

• #34

panthers,

according to some ref friends i knew back when my DD wa splaying alot, the Ohio South Soccer website used to have a soccer forum, but they took it down because it just became a place where parents talked trash and belittled players/parents of other teams...I'm glad ofc isn't that kind of place..at least softball philes know where to keep all the talk--on the field.

 

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• Jun 8, 2008

• #35

PANTHER85 said:

? Statman, Ive read alot of your replys and have alot of respect for you. You seem to know alot about softball in general....

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Statman, is this your other screen name????? :-? :-?

 

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• Jun 9, 2008

• #36

it makes up for all the disrespect from you and my DD! :

 

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• Jun 9, 2008

• #37

TheRinger said:

[quote author=PANTHER85 link=1212693518/25#30 date=1212796738] ? Statman, Ive read alot of your replys and have alot of respect for you. You seem to know alot about softball in general....

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Statman, is this your other screen name????? :-? :-?
[/quote]
NO, I am notheast ,oh( akron, ohio) I like the guy!!

 

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Member

• Jun 9, 2008

• #38

All I have to say is that from my experience, the softball coaches have been much more understanding than the soccer coaches. My daughter has played both travel softball and soccer for several years and we do our best to balance between the two. Last week I had to sign a registration paper for travel soccer saying that in the event of ANY conflicts, that soccer would take precedence. We had girls on our softball team last year missing games for soccer practices. They should pass a law assigning sports to their own season and letting the kids play as many sports as possible. The atheletes are the atheletes and we shouldn't force them to pick one sport when they are 8, 10 or 12 years old.