How important is High School Ball??

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Exactly! Although the concept of playing for something other than yourself is foreign to a lot of travel ball players and parents.

LOL......we ...they strikes again.....why does it have to be about travel players/parents or HS players/parents.....topic is HS ball and is it important.....been around alot of travel teams and common theme among the majority is team and togetherness.....take it your not into the travel scene or that would be a given fact already known...was thinking about this topic tonight and looked at our Varsity team and the JV team.....I may be wrong but am pretty sure every single player has a summer travel team...and guarantee that everyone of them believe HS ball is important and use the skills they learn over the summer to make their HS team better...should maybe consider switching travel teams if they teach anything other than team and togetherness...

 

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Exactly! Although the concept of playing for something other than yourself is foreign to a lot of travel ball players and parents.

WOW!!!!!!!!! Someones about to open up a whole new stinky can of worms

 

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From Collegesportsscholarships.com:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]You should be aware that college coaches attend National, Regional and State fast pitch tournaments. It is common practice for coaches to "track" players that have contacted them.
College coaches also attend, or in some cases conduct, softball camps and clinics and evaluate players. They also receive recommendations from high school and travel coaches.
Don't make the mistake of concentrating on the top division 1 colleges, many of these big schools usually have a large number of potential recruits from some of the top softball travel teams. The competition is fierce, unless you are a blue chip player you wont receive an offer.

There is nothing wrong with smaller division 1, division 2 or NAIA college. What would you rather have, a partial or full scholarship at a division 2 school or the offer of a walk on at one of the top schools? At the end of the day its your education that's important.​

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TRAVEL TEAMS. Top travel teams usually are made up of the best high school players in each state. College coaches are much more likely to attend these games that a high school game. If you have submitted your resume and your playing on a travel team you can just almost count on being watched.


So....what is that saying? I believe it says that travel ball is preferred and that's where a player will be seen, but school ball does not hurt either. Nowhere on the website does it state that playing for your school is necessary. I have been told by a college coach that HS stats are usually thrown out the window when deciding on a recruit, however good grades and high ACT and/or SAT scores are a must.

Len​

 

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From Collegesportsscholarships.com:

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]You should be aware that college coaches attend National, Regional and State fast pitch tournaments. It is common practice for coaches to "track" players that have contacted them.
College coaches also attend, or in some cases conduct, softball camps and clinics and evaluate players. They also receive recommendations from high school and travel coaches.
Don't make the mistake of concentrating on the top division 1 colleges, many of these big schools usually have a large number of potential recruits from some of the top softball travel teams. The competition is fierce, unless you are a blue chip player you wont receive an offer.

There is nothing wrong with smaller division 1, division 2 or NAIA college. What would you rather have, a partial or full scholarship at a division 2 school or the offer of a walk on at one of the top schools? At the end of the day its your education that's important.​

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TRAVEL TEAMS. Top travel teams usually are made up of the best high school players in each state. College coaches are much more likely to attend these games that a high school game. If you have submitted your resume and your playing on a travel team you can just almost count on being watched.​

So....what is that saying? I believe it says that travel ball is preferred and that's where a player will be seen, but school ball does not hurt either. Nowhere on the website does it state that playing for your school is necessary. I have been told by a college coach that HS stats are usually thrown out the window when deciding on a recruit, however good grades and high ACT and/or SAT scores are a must.​

Len​

Thanks for posting this Len!

 

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dd was recruited by a college coach immediately after a regional semifinal game last year,(yes at a H.S game)she will attend and play at that college.also played travel ball for 9 years.it can happen at H.S. games.

 

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I agree you can get recruited from a h.s. game if your team goes far into the tournament.

 

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That's great your kids are in a strong program, but I think the point to all of this is "CAN" you make it into a college program without playing HS ball. Len did a great job of pointing out that yes you can. I wouldn't even advise a player to forgo HS ball unless there are some extreme reasons; i.e. poor program, illness, and injury. But there is an alternative for those who elect to not participate in a poor program. Believe me I saw this at Valley Forge in Parma Heights. . .

 

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Exactly! Although the concept of playing for something other than yourself is foreign to a lot of travel ball players and parents.

I feel the opposite.
Our Travel Team is close, play for each other as a team and have each others backs. I cannot say the same for our High School.
The coach doesn't allow them to become close and have fun - they are robots.
Our Travel Team has been together for 6 years and they keep coming back and loving it.
The High School team had no seniors last year and 1 this year - that says alot!

I think for someone to get on here and say that travel ball players only play for themselves is rude and ridiculous and proves that they don't get Travel Ball.

If that has been your Travel Ball experience then you are on the wrong team.

 

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been around alot of travel teams and common theme among the majority is team and togetherness.....take it your not into the travel scene or that would be a given fact already known...

...and guarantee that everyone of them believe HS ball is important and use the skills they learn over the summer to make their HS team better...

Very familiar with the travel scene and have been involved with extremely close teams and parents. There is nothing better. We actually went to travel ball to prepare the girls for high school ball, not college scholarships.

I was probably too brief. The question was do you have to play high school ball to be noticed by scouts. Which is really asking if it is okay to quit high school ball if you want to play in college. Every year, along with numerous posts about how horrible high school ball and high school coaches are, we have numerous posts about how it is okay to switch teams mid-season in travel ball. And MANY people get on here and say that it is okay to bail on your travel ball teammates because you have to do what is right for your daughter.

So once again, we have a parent of a kid who plays travel ball who does not like the way high school ball is going, so they want to have their daughter quit. Sound familiar? It does to me. Shortly, we will have our semi-annual posts about how travel ball isn't working out for somebody and they want to quit or move on to another team because they don't like what is going on. Never mind the damage to their current team or the situation it will leave their current teammates in.

Finally, you mentioned the common theme among the MAJORITY of travel teams is team and togetherness and I could not agree more. I said "a lot", not most or all. My comment was about the minority of players and parents, chasing college scholarships, who do only worry about themselves. We all know they are out there.

 

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Like everything in life, you (and your DD) have choices. You can choose to sag your jeans, belch loudly in restaurants, not wear deodorant - even get a big swastika tatoo in the middle of your forehead! There sure are lots of freedoms in the USA!

None of these (to my knowledge) are illegal, by any means. But unfortunately, whether fair or not, others form opinions of us based on our actions. Part of becoming an adult is to make decisions about what actions will hinder or help us in our personal goals in life.

Even though our DD's high school team was not a top level state ranked team, she played for other reasons than just winning. During her college recruiting process, her college coach would regularly ask how her high school season was going. Thinking back, the question was not so much about HOW things were going, but more about "How DD was dealing with adversity". I don't remember the coach ever asking what the scores were, who won, etc.

For a college bound player, no - it's really not necessary to play high school ball FROM A SKILLS PERSPECTIVE. But it's MORE than that. Very few, if any, kids develop college level skills playing high school softball. Anyone who thinks a kid will develop college level skills during a short, rainy Ohio softball season is tremendously misguided!

What kids DO learn is to deal with adversity, possibly dictator-like personalities, and seemingly impossible situations. Tough? You betcha! But for our family, it was a simple decision if DD really wanted to play college ball.

 

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WOW!!!!!!!!! Someones about to open up a whole new stinky can of worms

I got your can of worms right here Tim! :lmao:

Let's do this: Instead of travel ball players playing for their HS, let's just all start playing tournaments in April instead of waiting until June. The rec players can play softball for their school, increasing the number of games they get to play in a season. I see this as a win-win situation. The travel players and their parents will not get bored or complain of the sub-par play of HS ball. Parents of rec players, and the rec players themselves, will be elated over the ability to play for their school. The travel player would get to play more quality games in a year. The tournaments in April and May can be deemed warm-ups for recruiting purposes since colleges are still playing in April and May. That way, travel players should be at their peak when June rolls around and college coaches start recruiting.

Let the worms start slithering!
Len

 

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IMO, there is something cool about watching your daughter represent the school she attends. For some - it may not always be about wins/losses but the experience of playing as a unit. Girls have the innate ability to form quick bonds and learn to protect each other on the field.

The school ball season (for most) is short but the experience and recognition will last a long time.

 

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Just wanted to share a special experience that you will probably never get from travel ball.

Our high school coach recently won his 400th career game. My daughter is currently on the team. My wife was a member of his first team here back in 1985. Last night after our game we had a dinner in the coaches honor and there were pictures of his first team with my wife and current pictures. It was quite an enjoyable experience for me watching the coach, my wife, and daughter share this experience together.

I enjoy travel ball and hope that someday it leads my daughter to where she wants to go, but I cannot imagine anything in travel ball matching the lasting memories that were formed last night.
I guess my point is that travel ball is probably more important for college exposure and training purposes, but in the end I want my daughter to have great memories about softball and she got one yesterday.

 

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I got your can of worms right here Tim! :lmao:

Let's do this: Instead of travel ball players playing for their HS, let's just all start playing tournaments in April instead of waiting until June. The rec players can play softball for their school, increasing the number of games they get to play in a season. I see this as a win-win situation. The travel players and their parents will not get bored or complain of the sub-par play of HS ball. Parents of rec players, and the rec players themselves, will be elated over the ability to play for their school. The travel player would get to play more quality games in a year. The tournaments in April and May can be deemed warm-ups for recruiting purposes since colleges are still playing in April and May. That way, travel players should be at their peak when June rolls around and college coaches start recruiting.

Let the worms start slithering!
Len

What's stopping you from doing this today??

 

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Just wanted to share a special experience that you will probably never get from travel ball.

Our high school coach recently won his 400th career game. My daughter is currently on the team. My wife was a member of his first team here back in 1985. Last night after our game we had a dinner in the coaches honor and there were pictures of his first team with my wife and current pictures. It was quite an enjoyable experience for me watching the coach, my wife, and daughter share this experience together.

I enjoy travel ball and hope that someday it leads my daughter to where she wants to go, but I cannot imagine anything in travel ball matching the lasting memories that were formed last night.
I guess my point is that travel ball is probably more important for college exposure and training purposes, but in the end I want my daughter to have great memories about softball and she got one yesterday.

Awesome post !!

Travel ball serves a need and desire as well as H.S. serves a sense of community and pride. At Anthony Wayne, as well as many other H.S. programs I'm sure, we're simply blessed with coaches, past and present that treat the game with great respect and and work very hard at making it the very best experience for ALL of the players. The two are simply different. They are both great for the "all around" development of your daughters. If you can't see the difference and benefits of both, you're missing opportunties to teach your daughter about life,...the ultimate game she needs to succeed at.

 

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Just wanted to share a special experience that you will probably never get from travel ball.

Our high school coach recently won his 400th career game. My daughter is currently on the team. My wife was a member of his first team here back in 1985. Last night after our game we had a dinner in the coaches honor and there were pictures of his first team with my wife and current pictures. It was quite an enjoyable experience for me watching the coach, my wife, and daughter share this experience together.

I enjoy travel ball and hope that someday it leads my daughter to where she wants to go, but I cannot imagine anything in travel ball matching the lasting memories that were formed last night.
I guess my point is that travel ball is probably more important for college exposure and training purposes, but in the end I want my daughter to have great memories about softball and she got one yesterday.

Best post I read all day.....Thanks

 

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I am not bashing High School, some have great programs, our's unfortunately is who's who.
I was just defending Travel Ball players to someone who said they only play for themselves.
Congratulations to your wife and daughter.

 

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Thats why year after year they flounder around and often disappoint. Sorry to hear about your situation but hang in there, your time will come.

No it won't! It never came for mine. I believe this coach proved what he was going to next year by putting a freshman in over her!

 

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What's stopping you from doing this today??

My freshman dd does not play HS ball (didn't want to) so nothing is stopping me. I'm suggesting that all travel players play with their travel teams April through July. Are you with me? Are you ready to change the way we play in the mid-west? Are you ready to rock this region of the United States and be a leader, not a follower? I bet the players would get better playing travel tourneys rather than a HS hit or miss schedule.

Len

 

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I don't think it will happen because a lot of the travel kids ARE on a good h.s. team and will not walk away. And then there are the financial savings for parents when the girls practice and play locally.