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Just go to the park. Take a grill and label it a cookout with friends and family. Wander if they prohibit cookouts ?;&
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I was only kidding. I think this should be the discretion of the parents. I agree that travel ball should not interfere with school ball, but saying you can't practice with your friends is kinda absurd to me if you have some free time and want to practice without it messing with school ball. On a side note. I don't think a football coach would have a issue if a player was part of a weight lifting team if it did not interfere with football schedule.
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It's easy and sometimes fun to complain about OHSAA and some of their rules, but I think there are reasons for some of those rules. Just playing devil's advocate if there wasn't such a rule ... what if a travel coach required players to attend practices at a time when they had high school practices or games ... after all, not all schools practice the same days and times, and most travel teams have girls with multiple schools ... is everyone OK with kids/families having to make that choice?
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If they are playing HS ball, than HS ball should come first and foremost during the HS season....regardless of the travel rule. It is just like any other school function and school ALWAYS comes first. No players on our team will ever have to make that choice.
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Wave Rider - trust me Travel Softball is WAY MORE important than highschool softball for the kids that plan on playing softball in college. Most travel players consider playing HS Softball as social community service. There are places for all. And if your sights are set to simply make or play for the HS team you probably would not be playing for a travel team that wants to workout year round.
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Wow as an individual my dd can't hit off the t in the basement? How about play catch with her dad and brother in the back yard. I guess if we use a baseball it would be OK since it can't be confused with a softball.
Got to love Ohio.
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Absolutely right. Having a Sunday workout during the HS season is all there really ever is. But as a parent I would never want a group like OHSAA telling me what I could or couldn't do with my kids. It's just wrong.
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Klump ... agree with you and I would handle it the same way as you, but what if some others didn't? There's no way to police the travel coaches, so perhaps OHSAA is trying to protect the kids with this rule. Not saying it might not be over the top or couldn't be improved ...
Flarays ... I don't think anyone disagrees with you that travel ball is way more important to those who end up playing in college, but not that many do play in college and I would argue that there many other benefits of playing for one's school, not just "community service".
Flarays ... I don't think anyone disagrees with you that travel ball is way more important to those who end up playing in college, but not that many do play in college and I would argue that there many other benefits of playing for one's school, not just "community service".
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I'd say the rule exists to reduce overuse injuries. Probably came from the baseball side where pitchers need more limitations to avoid injury.
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Technically, it is until that specific player participates in their HS team contest .. if they don't get in the game they are still eligible to workout with the TB team ...
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coachjwb - and that is exactly my point. The "No Participate" rule does nothing but hurt the players that do have higher level dreams. Those that are fine with the high school goal are prefectly positioned. The ones that want more are tabled.
The "Community Service" line is theirs, not mine. It refers to the social and communal aspects of playing for your communities school team. Again - nothing wrong with that. But in most cases it simply doesn't satisfy some players competitive nature. I will give a couple quick examples.
* Our catcher is a sophomore and plays at a private school. She attends camps at many different colleges. She went with Kirt to Europe this past January. She is a pretty good player, a great student and an even better young lady. In a game this week her team lost 12-10 in 10 innings. Her pitcher hit 9 batters, walked 5 others and her team made 8 fielding errors. Working out with our team on Sundays keeps her sane.
* Our number one pitcher was all-district and region as a sophomore last year. Her team is good, but her teammates are not the type of kids that she would like to hang out with off the field. Without having those sundays to be with her "sisters" she probably wouldn't play HS Ball.
Ever since I was involved with HS softball in Ohio I found it very disturbing that parents are told they had to follow these crazy rules when there are coaches that aren't held to the same standards.
OK - rant over
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If that were the issue then HS coaches need to controlled. As a travel coach our team practices once - maybe twice a week for 2 hours each session. How much time do HS teams practice? And why?
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OHSAA has no knowledge of your travel team practice hours, ethics, etc. and to expect them to otherwise would be unreasonable I think.
I'm not agreeing with them, I'm just trying to understand why they MAY have this rule.
The only thing they can HOPE to control is the situations which are known to them and that is the teams under their umbrella. They really can't know too much about them of course but that's the best hope.
We know there are HS programs than can and do overuse their kids. We also know that travel teams can and do. Small percentages on each I feel. OHSAA has ZERO control over travel so they attempt to influence what they can.
My opinion... and more like a guess, of course.
I think the best we can do is take it upon ourselves as parents to call up a few kids and meet somewhere to give them whatever additional practice (quality, quantity, etc) we can until they can get back to their team. I don't see OHSAA changes this rule anytime soon.
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Very good post WM. And you are right, the rule will never change. But that doen't make it a good one.
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Agreed. I'll bet if they examined it and then changed it the baseball side would scream bloody hell. Then they would have a mess.
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@coachjwb
The OHSAA rule could be written to eliminate HS eligibility if the player participates in a practice or contest that conflicts with a HS event. Doesn't that undercut many of your arguments?
The OHSAA rule could be written to eliminate HS eligibility if the player participates in a practice or contest that conflicts with a HS event. Doesn't that undercut many of your arguments?
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Carol ... yes, it could, but I did acknowledge earlier that the rule as written may be over the top and probably could be improved. What you're suggesting would no doubt be an improvement, though it might open the door a little further to put a travel coach or player in a tough situation given how high school practice and game schedules vary at schools and how they can change at a moment's notice due to weather, etc.
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Ok. I tend to agree that until the first contest/scrimmage the player is still eligible. However, I can see how the rules can be read that a person who played LAST year in a scrimmage, preview, regular season/tournament game would be ineligible for outside practice from day one.
In other words, a freshman who has never played for the team doesn't technically count as a member of the squad until the first scrimmage. But a sophomore who played last year has already participated in one and is not eligible for the first day of whatever they determine the school's season is.
I don't see (only within the context of the rule quoted here) where it makes a differentiation between the current season and any past seasons when determining when a player is counted as "on the squad" and ineligible for non-interscholastic participation.
Our tb team has already shut down for the season, so I'm just asking for my own educational benefit.
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We would have to look at the surrounding text to see if it extends to the prior year. Chances are at the beginning of the section or rule book itself it states "For the current athletic season...." or something along those lines.
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Here's the best surrounding text I can find. In the ohsaa bylaws it says:
<i>4-1-3 A student is a member of an interscholastic squad when the student participates in an interscholastic contest. <b>Such status as a squad member continues until the start of the next school</b> season in that sport. An athletic contest involving participants from another school or any noninterscholastic or any organized adult team is a game, preview or a scrimmage.</i>
I'm not sure that this lends anything to whether there is an eligibility difference between a sophomore and a freshman though. Just makes it more confusing in my mind.
If I had to take a guess, I'd say that the sophomore is on the team until the season starts, then they aren't considered on the team until the first scrimmage/preview etc. Therefore their eligibility would be the same as that of a freshman.
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