Softball players making college choices before their first high school games

[G3automotive]

Softball players making college choices before their first high school games.....

=.001 % In the country ???? none in ohio ?

I agree this will change a little for sure as the months go on but the reality of it is there is not a lot of kids verbal before there start of high school softball ..... not sure y people want to keep saying different ? not sure were they gain ?

 

[coachjwb]

It's probably understated a little ... some are probably not reporting and like you say, the numbers will probably grow in the coming months ... but even if it's 0.1%, it's an extremely small number. But also make no mistake, there's no doubt that 14 year olds are getting looked at during some of the bigger showcases, and some are probably being "followed" after those initial looks ...

 

[oiler_pride]

Hey Jeff just to let all the people in ohio know how many girls from the state of ohio with a 2018 2019 grad year have a verbal commitment to play softball for a college ? warren jump in and add to the list if jeff misses any one thanks .... I am not in the know ....

I never said alot. What I said is that it is happening and will continue to happen. Yes even here in Ohio. Last year the 2017 girl from Lakota verbaled before her High School season and who is to say there isnt a 2018 girl in Ohio that will be able to do the same this year if she so chooses.
The landscape of college softball recruiting has changed from a few yrs ago. College coaches are recruiting 2018s and 2019s. Get onboard or get left behind.

 

[Lester]

The girl in the article is throwing 70 as a 2017. We faced her this past weekend and I gunned her and she hit 69 on 5 straight pitches in game. She is not a genetic freak either. All 5'4 of her. Legit prospect and I would say has a huge upside as well. So while a verbal means really nothing, I would have to think she is way up the list on a ton of schools.

I am personal friends with the Rice family and my step DD (from OHIO) played with her last year on the Beverly Bandits team as 14u players. Both are now still with the Bandits but on separate teams and we are still very close and hang out at each weekend.

All speeds, ages, and facts are true. Lauren, first, is very laid back and quiet. She's the real deal as a person and as a pitcher. Love this child! Rachel (my step DD) both had offer from Mizzou last fall and they hoped to get them both at the same time. Long story short, school choice prevailed and they went their own ways.

This process is not for everyone. IT was hard on us and the Rice family.

Bottom line is this is a rare case, probably should be called very rare and to say it ruins the sport or the like might be a leap but surely its getting started much much earlier. I can talk about our process but not on this forum much more than I have to this point.

Just know that Lauren and the Rice family knew what they did, how they got to this point, and are superb individuals and have their heads on very straight. Coach Tony on this forum was integral in their case as well as our case. A great guy and coach to boot!

 

[Lester]

The girl in the article is throwing 70 as a 2017. We faced her this past weekend and I gunned her and she hit 69 on 5 straight pitches in game. She is not a genetic freak either. All 5'4 of her. Legit prospect and I would say has a huge upside as well. So while a verbal means really nothing, I would have to think she is way up the list on a ton of schools.

she had a decent list but it all happened very fast. The St Louis Fall Showcase really got her a ton of looks beyond her prior looks at 14u ASA/USA months prior as a 13u player.

I never said alot. What I said is that it is happening and will continue to happen. Yes even here in Ohio. Last year the 2017 girl from Lakota verbaled before her High School season and who is to say there isnt a 2018 girl in Ohio that will be able to do the same this year if she so chooses.
The landscape of college softball recruiting has changed from a few yrs ago. College coaches are recruiting 2018s and 2019s. Get onboard or get left behind.

My step DD is the player from Lakota.

I hope by replying I clear up information which is my only intention.

 

[okiedad1961]

If were ever going to get past the published .001 in Ohio were going to have to consolidate talent the way the bandits do.Take the Moms,Dads Coaches out of it and evauate talent make 2 elite teams for each age group expose them nationaly and say were from Ohio not illinois, Indiana, Pa etc

 

[tjsmize3]

G3 ... I am guessing that percent would be more like .001% ... and just '14-U's ... doubt there have been any 12-U's ...

Jeff, I am surprised you responded to this random point that does not even seem to be relevant to the original post. How many 2018 grads receiving verbal scholarship offers... in Ohio... to date, really has nothing to do with Warren's original post that 8th grade is very young to be making decisions about where you want to go to school. If anything, looking at the actual reported numbers in regards to who is making a verbal commitment in the 2018 grad class shows nothing more than Ohio is probably still way behind. I think there are clearly people in Ohio who genuinely want to see that change and are doing their best to improve the amount of scholarship money being given to young Ohio softball players. Certainly Warren has done a tremendous job in doing his part to make this happen.
I posted an excerpt from an article Cindy Bristow wrote about the statistics involving scholarship money to play college softball. I'm pretty sure this has been referenced on OFC before. If you believe her numbers, there are 235,360 high school softball players.... let's say Ohio has 6000 of those to make the math easy. She goes on to say that there are 4965 college softball scholarships available... so let's also assume that since some of them will be split up (partial scholarships) there will be 10,000 (of 235,360) kids in the US getting softball money (i.e. NLIs signed)... again just making the math easier. Since Ohio is 1/50 states in the US we would expect NO MORE than 200 of those scholarships to go to Ohio. Finally, if we assume the number of graduated 8th graders nation wide making a verbal commitment represents 1/2 - 1 percent of all offers made to high school aged players, then AT BEST we would expect no more than 1-2 girls out of 6000 in Ohio each year to have verballed in the summer of their 8th grade season. Some years maybe it is 0 since we still seem to be behind the curve in comparison to other states like CA. Given that we know Jenna and Taran did this, as well as a number of others in Ohio who have verballed in 8th grade it sounds as if nothing unusual is happening... why it matters if the 2018 class had 0,1 or 2 girls verbally commit I do not understand???
Lastly, if you believe those numbers are even in the ballpark, then consider this.... 200/6000 Ohio softball players will receive scholarships to play in college AT BEST (I'm sure it's less because Ohio has not been at the top of the recruiting class in years past). That represents 3% which again, could be a little high. So if your dream is to get money to play ball in college and you know the odds are about 3/100 that this will happen for you, understand the advantage to playing with an organization who has anywhere from 30-70% of it's 14-18u players committed. Jenna and Taran did and that's why they traveled out of Ohio to play with the Beverly Bandits! Hopefully going forward we can do a better job of understanding college recruiting and keeping our best players here at home.

70 percent of kids quit playing sports by age 13 -- and never play them again (source: National Alliance for Sports)
2,250,000 youth softball players in the US (approx 150,000 teams)
235,360 High School softball players in the US (14,710 teams)
915 Total NCAA colleges with softball Programs (all 3 divisions)
262 division 1 and 253 division 2 colleges that offer softball scholarships
4,965 total NCAA softball scholarships available
1 in 500 softball players will be awarded a NCAA College Softball Scholarhip

 

[coachjwb]

Tom ... good points both in terms of some of your numbers/math, as well as the fact that what I responded to is at least somewhat off topic, though I would argue that it's not totally off-topic. You and I both agree that the percentage of 8th graders making verbal commitments is very small, and I think that's relevant to the discussion because I think that some people were starting to get the impression that it happens all of the time. As to the original post, I know I have said on many occasions, including on the radio show last night, that I think it is ridiculous that colleges are able to seek out and secure verbal commitments from such young players. I certainly don't blame a family for making them, but that doesn't mean I think it's right ... in fact, I think it borders on being just plain wrong. I have also repeatedly made the statement that relatively few girls who play travel or high school softball end up playing college ball, and even fewer receive athletic moneys. I've also heard people exaggerate the ages of these players all the way down to 12-U's, and make statements that entire teams of 14-U's are all committed, and my intent is to clear up some of those misconceptions. As I think you know, I much more often agree with you on things than I do G3, but I still think those points are relevant to this discussion.

 

[Joker2]

I think there are two issues at play here......first being does it happen (offers being made before a player plays a high school game) and I think the answer is yes, absolutely.

Second issue is how a parent/family position their DD in the best possible situation to be seen to receive an offer (verbal or otherwise). Focus needs to first always be on grades and competing in classroom. Second, by investigating schedule (especially fall) and summer nationals as college coaches have limited time to recruit and tend to focus on select tournaments or rely on specific organizations (as Lester inferred) to accelerate the recruiting pipeline.

 

[WWolff]

I do not know of any 12U players that have verbaled. But the main issue is not 12U and or 14U it would be 2017 and 2018 grads. because these would be the graduation year of the girls that verbaled last year as 8th and 9th graders. Now check back early next summer on the 2018 and 2019 class and we can compare that then.

Gold Fastpitch is a great tool for parents to post there daughters accomplishments but by know means is that total number of girls that verballed in those classes. Only what was reported to them.

 

[mike_dyer]

I know I said I wouldn't but until you kids let it go I feel I must. So.....

Sports Illustrated recently wrote a story about this. They got all of the kids in the country who are not yet juniors in high school who have received an athletic scholarship in any sport together and took them all to the beach and to an amusement park. Here are some shots from the story:

 

[mike_dyer]

Has "bowser" ever posted or is it an account that was made just to hit thumbs down when I post?

I mean look at those pictures, man. Every kid in the United States of America who has an athletic scholarship but isn't a junior in high school is having a blast in them. What's not to like?

 

[bowser]

I think your most recent post on this matter is misleading...you know quite well that no one is saying "athletic scholarship." You are content to ridulcule anyone who posts anything about the true topic here and your posts are just plain ignorant. you said in an earlier post you were done commenting on this topic...live up to your word.

 

[mike_dyer]

Pick one and ask them to give you some details about the package their 12 year old is guaranteed when she graduates high school if you want to see someone be misleading. Hell, just ask one of them to produce a name. The dancing could go on for 2 or 3 more pages.

The truth is that there isn't 1 person in the entire country who isn't a junior in high school who has an athletic scholarship.Therre is nothing misleading about it.

Oh right,,,,, not the topic. In fact it has absolutely nothing at all to do with the topic and is completely unrelated. So what exactly is the topic?

 

[WWolff]

Pick one and ask them to tell you what the package their 12 year old got entails if you want to see someone be misleading. Hell, just ask one of them to produce a name. The dancing could go on for 2 or 3 more pages.

The truth is that there isn't 1 person in the entire country who isn't a junior in high school who has an athletic scholarship.Therre is nothing misleading about it.

Oh right,,,,, not the topic. In fact it has absolutely nothing at all to do with the topic and is completely unrelated. So what exactly is the topic?

Mike I think what most people are referring to are verbals. The articles main focus was about early verbals , but does also touch on NLI's

Verbal Commitment- A player promises to attend a college while the coach promises to provide some sort of scholarship, and can happen at any age. [FONT=proxima_novalight] (And yes both parties can break this commitment and one may at some point)
[/FONT]NLI (National Letter Intent)- A actual binding contract which occurs your senior year. (My bad to early not enough coffee yet. lol)



I do think the horse is dead

 

[CanonD7]

NLI (National Letter Intent)- A actual binding contract which occurs your junior year.

Warren, I thought NLI's were signed in November of your senior year

 

[mike_dyer]

Verbal Commitment- A player promises to attend a college while the coach promises to provide some sort of scholarship, and can happen at any age.

Details, please.

Tell me what percentage of 1 of the 12 scholarships that are available the coach has promised any 14 year old kid. Is room and board include?

The most recent tall tale I heard was that an SEC school had offered a 13 or 14 year old kid a full scholarship, room and board and the whole works, PLUS they are going to pay for grad school. What kind of idiot makes something like that up? Then other adults, who have kids and jobs and all that, repeat it. And they don't repeat it like it's a remote possibilty, they tell you that it's etched in stone and most of them act offended when you tell them how ignorant they are.

Oh, and it's 12 total for the whole team. It's not 12 this year 12 more next year, 12 more the year after that. How many kids are rostered on a college team? How many of their spots are being offered to a 12 or 14 year old kid?

 

[Lenski65]

Warren, I believe you cannot sign your NLI until your senior year.

 

[WWolff]

Warren, I believe you cannot sign your NLI until your senior year.

Yes correct Mike had me flustered. lol
I can see we can not get any where with this.

 

[brownsfan]

Details, please.

Tell me what percentage of 1 of the 12 scholarships that are available the coach has promised any 14 year old kid. Is room and board include?

The most recent tall tale I heard was that an SEC school had offered a 13 or 14 year old kid a full scholarship, room and board and the whole works, PLUS they are going to pay for grad school. What kind of idiot makes something like that up? Then other adults, who have kids and jobs and all that, repeat it. And they don't repeat it like it's a remote possibilty, they tell you that it's etched in stone and most of them act offended when you tell them how ignorant they are.

Oh, and it's 12 total for the whole team. It's not 12 this year 12 more next year, 12 more the year after that. How many kids are rostered on a college team? How many of their spots are being offered to a 12 or 14 year old kid?

Dude, it sounds that your either envious or jealous that this is happening and not to your kid. IF my dd happened to be one, the last thing I want the package announced here on OFC. Why? Because of this very reason. These girls work their hearts out for the early commitments and deserve it-whether or not they get a full ride or not. Now my dd is not one. BUT I do know it does happen. In fact, I know one girl personally and her family and herself were destroyed by the likes of y'all a few years ago. She was one of the first to leave the state. She's a junior in college now.

Why do you think there is very little money left for the 2016 class, maybe now for the 2017 class (don't know will find out more towards winter). I have an idea, go to a camp and ask this very question about the amount of money given.