I believe that HS softball has received a bad rap from parents who are frustrated that their dd is not doing better. (That ought to get the emails burning through the lines.)
Let me explain.
HS softball occurs in this area in the spring or better know as the late winter. We workout in gym for a month and then go outside in awful conditions to get the games played. These conditions would cancel any tournament that was crazy enough to attempt to schedule games. but we play the HS games. I get my players for 2 to 3 hours, 5 to 6 days a week for practice. Now granted most of that time is in a gym but we fully utilize hitting stations, live pitching, machine pitching, tee work, etc.... . We work on fielding, catch-throw-catch drills, etc... We work on individual skills, team skills, team building, confidence building etc...during the run up to games. This practice period lasts about 3 weeks and we'll have about 40 hours of contact time. I have a paid assistant and 3 volunteer coaches that have extensive experience in both HS and TB, all have played competitive baseball/softball and have extensive coaching resumes. Most importantly they care about the kids and love coaching.
Doing that time what is TB doing? Almost nothing, maybe working out a couple times a week but there are no tournaments in the region to attend, they have been in gyms since October with the same 12 kids and the same two coaches. What are the college coaches doing? they are getting their team ready for their season with practices every day since early January. Their games begin with their Spring Break trip and continue right through our entire game schedule. When they don't have practices, they have games with away trips and weekend double headers. The college coaches can not possibly attend any games to watch players in this period at either High School of Travel Ball games.
I do have to train all the kids that show up. Some have had no experience with any form of competition, let along game experience. Some need to be taught to throw and catch much like your old 10U team. A very few have travel ball experience and even fewer have experience with an A level tournament team. Unlike TB we can not recruit out of the District and must take all comers. Most are weak and we attempt to teach the players that show up and raise their game. I play the best nine and then play next years starters. We play some weak teams and we are sometimes are the weak team but no one can jump, we have to stick it out, buckle down and figure it out.
Your all-star Travel Ball Player during this HS season can get in the cage and work on her swing or perfect that breaking ball if only for the upcoming Travel Ball season. A true all-star will use the opportunity that HS ball presents to shine at the summer tournaments AND the HS season. It won't hurt her in the least that she has pitched 140 innings, recorded 180 strikeouts w/30 walks and an ERA under 2.00. or she has hit .550 with and on-base percentage of .723 or a slugging percentage of 1.250 during the HS season. It is certainly a bonus that she lead her team kicking and screaming to the finals in the State Tournamnet. Your all-star TB player will be the backbone of that HS team.
Surprise it just doesn't happen very often. So let's blame the coach, the program or the very existence of HS ball for your dd's lack of success. That is far easier than asking your dd why she wasted the practice and game opportunities that where handed to her on a silver platter. No coach is going to bench a kid that gives them the best chance for success. I will bench a girl that has a bad attitude and won't work at getting better, a kid that is just going through the motions will not get on my field. Just because a kid can afford the Travel Ball fees doesn't make her a great player, sure it helps that she has another 40 games/year under belt but then why is she batting .225 with 4 fielding errors?
High School ball fills a very valid place in softball year. Don't waste it.
