"HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!!

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

In my original thread I stated, "Travel Ball and High School Ball is a 2 way street". More accurately I should have stated they certainly can compliment each other as timac suggested. In absolutely no way was I busting on TRAVEL BALL. As the replies started piling up, it's obvious a few people are down on High School ball and any possible positive impact it may have had on there daughters ultimate success. ALSO NOTE all their daughters played High School ball. Remember when you're daughters enter "College Ball", they'll be competing in they're school league, (ALL the teams won't be perfect), and you'll have issues with coaches you have NO control over because they don't coach the all knowing travel ball teams in the summer. You'll find some of those College coaches may not be as cutting edge as your travel coach. THE MAIN reason college coaches go to BIG tournaments is so they can evaluate many quality players in one location, Oh yeah and they're a little busy in the Spring also. Have college coaches actually stated to people on this site that they saw there daughter at one or 2 BIg tournaments for a few fleeting moments and that's why they chose them for their team? I find that amazing, and the best thing we can do is abolish High School ball so we can start the TRAVEL Ball season early since the college coaches have absoluely no interest in what there high school accomplishments were.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Hilliarddad good post: All these posts seem to be from parents and a few coaches. What we forget is the DD is not going to be making a living playing softball! She needs to handle LIFE and she is going to get many different bosses. Playing softball is not about us, its what prepares the person for handling what life throws at us, good and bad. One of the lessons I learned at college was how to deal with different people from all walks of life, sports helped me in that respect. My oldest wouldn't trade the fun she had traveling or high school. Both are different, but it made her a better person and she decided not to play in college. Yes dad was hurt, but her education came first.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Excellent post, Thunder. The issues always start and high school gets a bad name from the bad coaches out there, and unfortunately there are way too many of them in HS ball. After having coached travel ball myself, I am now a high school coach who is fortunate to be assisting a head coach who also had a daughter that played competitive travel ball. We have a very strong appreciation of what travel balls gives the girls who play it, and in fact we try to help our girls find opportunities with travel organizations because we know it will make them better players. We also don't have an issue if a girl has to miss a practice here or there to go to pitching or hitting lesson because we know these coaches are the experts and can give them a lot more individual attention.

Bigtrain and others are absolutely right that college coaches are extremely skeptical of and in most cases could care less about HS stats, and my own daughter understands that any opportunity for her to play in college is much more dependent on who and how she plays travel ball. She also gets very frustrated internally when a lot of her HS teammates just don't work hard or care. Despite all of that, I know that she looks most forward to the HS season when she is with more of her friends, can wear the school colors and yes sometimes even get her name or picture in the local newspaper. Also similar to what Thunder said, my daughter who is in her junior year has taken on a leadership role this year with the HS team and what a great life-learning experience that is!

Travel ball is a great learning experience as well, and its what will provide the best opportunities for girls to play in college if she goes that direction, but HS ball is an experience that my daughter and I will always treasure.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

DD's a freshman and is trully enjoying the open gyms. ?;D ?Most of the upper classmen are treating her great for they remember being freshman themselves ?;D ?lots of suggestions going both ways guess we're just lucky to have her surrounded by good young ladies on both teams ;D

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Have to add a vote to the player understanding and enjoying the need for both. My DD is a freshman and chose HS open gyms over travel practcies due to HS being comeptitve for evetual try-outs and wonderful travel coaches understanding - their philosphy was that as long as she was practicing they understood her need to get exposded to the HS team and enjoy thatexperience - they already know what she can do (both HS and travel progams are very comeptitve)- also a plug for the HS coach (who is also a travel coach of a different older team) understanding missing open gym for a travel team tournament - from reading these posts severla coaches both HS and travel need to understand they have the same goal and work better together- we all love the sport- putting the girls in the middle doesn't do anyone any good

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

When it comes to college coaches not having any interest in hs ball. I will believe that they are not overly concerned about a players hs statistics, however the hs situation can give a very good insight on how a player will handle the work load required to practice, play games, and complete classroom assignments. This is similar to the rigors of college. I'm sure this is noticed by people evaluating a young persons ability to play in college.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Timac4 most recent post is so true as a colleges and the coach will look at:
GPA
SAT
Coarse load and weighted subjects

I'm a firm believer in the competition of travel ball, but when it gets down to it, your
high school is involved in more than just the diamond.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

I wish I could relate to this topic more favorably but at this point, DD is turning her back on H.S. ball due to the fact that the school does not value Softball and the coach appears to make decisions based on his relationship with parents versus basing them on softball skills. In addition he does not spend the time communicating with the players in an effective way.

On the flip side, her travel coach is all about making his players better and promoting them to colleges. If a player is struggling, he knows when to sit the player so the team does not struggle, but he makes a point of communicating with the girls affected on what they need to work on and how he wants them to work at it. Once he feels the player is ready he gets them back in there with the confidence that they need to keep getting better.

My DD goes to a large OCC school and plays for one of the better known travel programs.

 

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This thread makes no sense to me lol, its all subjective, its sort of like posting you should be a Republican because....

Different goals, different communities, different AD's, different expierences....shapes everybodies view on the subject.

I personally don't care if my DD plays College softball, really I could care less. If she were to get a accepted to MIT and also get a softball scholarship to a small college she would be going to MIT and her softball career would be over.

She plays softball because she loves it, and the most important season to us is the one that we are playing now.

That all being said I can see somebodies elses point of view like ADG's. If his DD's high school doesn't care about softball why should they? Or Bigtrain ( I do enjoy reading your posts about your slammers team, I personally can never find fault with somebody working hard) Who has sent 3 kids who played D1 sports in college on scholarships has found a formula that has worked for him and he tries to pass it along to others who have the same goal as he does.

Lastly, I think its wonderful that we are having this conversation about girls sports. I graduated in 1988 and girls high school sports were not really relavant at that time. My wife was a good athlete I went to all of her basketball games her senior year, her team was ranked #4 ( D1) in the state she was the starting point gaurd and her sister a Jr was the starting shooting gaurd, her parents came to 1 game, Ironically enough it was parents night lol. So seeing all these parents so excited and into their DD's sports is nothing but a good thing to me. Good luck to all in the upcoming High school and travel season. Time goes by fast enough enjoy your DD's while you can

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

As a player, I look at HS ball and travel ball completely differently. In reality, they really cannot be compared because they are so different.

Travel ball developed my true passion for the game, and also gave me life-long friendships I truly cherish, while HS ball enriched friendships I already had. I think both are good experiences, and though at times HS ball made me crazy, I just had to remember that travel ball and HS ball are different crayons from the same box. Both are worthwhile if you know what to expect and keep a fair perspective.

As a freshman in college (getting VERY excited to start my first season as a Muskie), I look back on both HS and travel ball fondly, but I do think that travel ball has better prepared me for college ball. Firstly, I was recruited in the summer from my travel season. (This is more convenient for college coaches because HS season is the same time as their busy season.) Also, I don't think I would have been prepared for the competition that softball at this level offers unless I had played travel ball. It's important to be surrounded by optimal players so that you can bring yourself to the highest level of your ability.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

It is hard to imagine that a large OCC School would not value softball. Doesn't the larger OCC'S have 500-600 girls ? Seems there would be plenty of athletes to compete for positions.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

High school ball gets a lot of bad press around "politics". I just refuse to believe that MOST coaches won't put on the field who they believe to be their 9 best players and try to win every game they can. I do believe that SOME high school coaches aren't that qualified and aren't a good judge of who their 9 best players are and may also be influenced by others who are biased. I also believe that SOME coaches/schools have policies like not bringing up freshmen and sophomores that will prevent them putting the 9 best players out there. But I also believe that SOME (MOST?) of the parents who complain about HS athletic politics are just whining/using that for an excuse, and that maybe their kids just aren't one of the best players. I suppose I will hear back several horror stories but I just don't believe there's any more politics in HS softball than there is anywhere else.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Sundial, We are in a D1 district. And the amount of talent at our H.S. is crazy. Girls that play travel from the Phoenix, Stingrays,Blaze and Lasers. Our coach doesn't have a clueon what to do, hasn't had a winning season in several years because of the politics. Their have been several girls just not play H.S. ball at all because of the coaching that is offered. So the amount of kids to choose from doesn't mean anything.

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

Coachjwb you sound like a H.S. coach.

 

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coachjwb - this topic has been literally beat to death this year and in many years past. It doesn't change from year to year. Uber has a good point. It all depends on what school you attend. Every coach, AD and school is different. My DD started and played nearly every game in high school. An effort to make equal playing time, especially for seniors, pretty much decided the outcome of most games. The coach decided that the "high school experience" was more important than a winning season. We knew that going in, so we weren't really surprised at the outcome. My DD just took it in stride, and moved on. And no, she didn't attend North Canton Hoover.

 

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All I want to know is did either side yell "INCOMING" before this thread was launched. ;D

I will duck this one. For me it is now past tense. Good stimulation while reading though.

Elliott.

 

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sammy--the coach actually went with an "experience" over winning in high school and still holds their job? Yes, winning isn't everything, until you start losing.....You'd figure a varsity coach would go all out to win every game, when they look for a job in the future, you know someone is looking at winning percentages....while it's not the first factor of landing a varsity job, I'm sure it's in the top 5..you can't evaluate "experience"

 

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Re: "HIGH SCHOOL", more important than emphasized!

some people would like to play high school softball along with travel ball but they couldn't because high school coach didn't want his high school players to play travel ball and taught all the wrong macanics so they just played travel ball because it is better.

 

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Yes, Brute, I have been a high school coach for 3 years now, after coaching travel softball and baseball for 12 years. I know there are horror stories out there about really poor high school coaches but after having met quite a few HS coaches over the past several years, I feel like this is the exception vs. the rule. What will always be the rule is that there will be a lot of parents who believe their kids should be playing more and will blame it on politics ... high school and travel ball.

 

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yes delcruz - went with "experience", or more like seniority. Has been like this for over twenty years, so obviously the right people are pleased. Not even a district title in that time either. There has been some very good talent pass through the ranks in that time too. But that's ok - you just have to understand the program and it's goals. Things must be that way for a reason, but it sure baffles me!