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No comparison between travel and h.s., why try ?
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I feel that the issue of playing time has hurt HS softball more than anything. It seems that the girls can not accept the fact that there are times that a Freshmen or Sophmore may start ahead of them. The parents are even worse. They will complain to anyone who will listen, and before you know it, girls quit or don't return the following year, thus weakening the program. Just look at some of the other posts in this forum. A lack of playing time seems to be more acceptable in travel ball, plus a girl can always switch travel teams if she is unhappy. That is not an option in HS.
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Not even just HS ball, I saw another thread of the ego's showing about 7th graders striking out 18 players in a game and "they are going to be threats for the foreseeable future." Please, I've seen these same ones get beat in travel games when they have to play real teams and real players vs kids picking up a glove for the first time.
Travel is where the rubber meets the road
Travel is where the rubber meets the road
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As a Dad whose daughter will start playing HS ball next year the posts are certainly interesting. It seems travel ball is usually the highest level of competition what with tryouts and no limit on geography to find players other than how far their parents want to drive for but HS ball also fills a role with these kids. They are also social beings and playing with your friends from your school is important as well. Not to say that some programs and conferences don't historically produce good teams and players such as most of the teams in the Federal League and so on. That however seems to be the luck of which school you go to as other schools lack good coaches and traditions in their area to produce good players. So my thought is they can both be a part of your daughters development. Unfortunately if you are in one of those types of schools which seems to be referred to on this site with politics, poor coaching, etc. it may be a bad experience just as if you chose your travel team poorly--difference is you can more easily move between travel teams than schools. That all said I have another year to experience exactly what HS ball will be like and may have a different concept at that point.
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This has been an interesting post to read from my perspective and every comment has been pretty accurate. The reason I state from my perspective is that the comments I read on here are the same that I have heard for many years down here in Texas. The good thing to know is we have evolved down here, and so will Ohio in time, and with the correct focus.
I think Purple hit the nail on the head to a degree. Down here in Texas there is very little difference any more between a HS team and a travel team in the major cities. I am talking from a talent perspective. Our district this year was comprised of 95% travel girls at the varsity level. I am not over estimating here folks. West of Texas its probably 100 % (The large metropolitan areas of California.)
Why? Because the only girls that make the HS team now for the most part are travel players. We have evolved that much in the past 10 years here in Texas. We even have travel girls who end up sitting the bench at my DD's HS because the talent on the team wont let them crack the line up in HS ball.
If you can play you will be on Varsity. Grade does not matter.
You could say that is a nice problem to have but then you have to deal with the politics of that too. Your DD wont get a college scholorship in softball with her HS team. Very seldom do you see a college coach at a HS game. They are too busy coaching their own teams during the spring.
Your daughter will only get that by going to College exposure tournaments and select tournaments during the summmer. Even then nothing is a sure thing with softball and a scholorship offer.
The politics will always be there in both HS and Select. They never change. Its just a different style of politics.
Elliott.
I think Purple hit the nail on the head to a degree. Down here in Texas there is very little difference any more between a HS team and a travel team in the major cities. I am talking from a talent perspective. Our district this year was comprised of 95% travel girls at the varsity level. I am not over estimating here folks. West of Texas its probably 100 % (The large metropolitan areas of California.)
Why? Because the only girls that make the HS team now for the most part are travel players. We have evolved that much in the past 10 years here in Texas. We even have travel girls who end up sitting the bench at my DD's HS because the talent on the team wont let them crack the line up in HS ball.
If you can play you will be on Varsity. Grade does not matter.
You could say that is a nice problem to have but then you have to deal with the politics of that too. Your DD wont get a college scholorship in softball with her HS team. Very seldom do you see a college coach at a HS game. They are too busy coaching their own teams during the spring.
Your daughter will only get that by going to College exposure tournaments and select tournaments during the summmer. Even then nothing is a sure thing with softball and a scholorship offer.
The politics will always be there in both HS and Select. They never change. Its just a different style of politics.
Elliott.
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Crazy8s:
It's pretty bad that you have to continue to put girls down. The girl you are talking about has been playing travel ball since she was 8 years old and has really worked hard at her game. She works on her game year around besides playing other sports.
She had the opportunity to play on a 13U travel team instead of playing 7th grade school ball. I talked too her about it and she wanted to play for the school and with her friends.
You stated " these same ones get beat in travel games when they have to play real teams and real players". You are half correct on that statement! She has been beaten by the good travel teams and she has also beaten them (Stingrays,Lady Lasers, Cincy Doom, Miami Valley Express, etc.).
You will see her play your DD travel team again this summer. She faced the team your DD plays on in a fall tournament and she pitched a complete game and gave up 3 hits and won 7-1.
Please quit posting under different names so you can hide behind them. I KNOW who you are! As you can see by my screen name "sargentcarter" I'm the one that's at my high school daughters games with a crew-cut. I'll see you there!
GO OHIO CLASSICS 14U
PS I will not hide behind my screen name!
It's pretty bad that you have to continue to put girls down. The girl you are talking about has been playing travel ball since she was 8 years old and has really worked hard at her game. She works on her game year around besides playing other sports.
She had the opportunity to play on a 13U travel team instead of playing 7th grade school ball. I talked too her about it and she wanted to play for the school and with her friends.
You stated " these same ones get beat in travel games when they have to play real teams and real players". You are half correct on that statement! She has been beaten by the good travel teams and she has also beaten them (Stingrays,Lady Lasers, Cincy Doom, Miami Valley Express, etc.).
You will see her play your DD travel team again this summer. She faced the team your DD plays on in a fall tournament and she pitched a complete game and gave up 3 hits and won 7-1.
Please quit posting under different names so you can hide behind them. I KNOW who you are! As you can see by my screen name "sargentcarter" I'm the one that's at my high school daughters games with a crew-cut. I'll see you there!
GO OHIO CLASSICS 14U
PS I will not hide behind my screen name!
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sorry sarge, you may think you know someone, but be careful who you yell at when you think you see them as you have no clue, I don't know you, don't wannna know you either, or what town you are from, so go look for someone else to yell at.
I am done with the barrages, was just stating a point of overzealous people building things up at ages that don't matter and school ball isn't what people are making it out to be
I am done with the barrages, was just stating a point of overzealous people building things up at ages that don't matter and school ball isn't what people are making it out to be
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I don't know either of you, but I do know that I have seen a few pitchers or hitters that looked above average on Rec or on teams who played in smaller tournaments, that have been made to look real bad at the larger tournaments such as Compuware, Stingrays, State Championships, Ect, once they started playing on the larger more competitive travel teams.
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Getting close to Sheriff time?? :-/
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Was just thinking that as I was reading...
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Time for this to stop!
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I believe that any JH or HS coach is fortunate to have quality travel ball kids interested in playing school ball - from what I have seen, these are usually the better players. My DD is new to school ball - 1st year playing JH ball but has been playing travel ball for 4 years. Our school has quite a few travel ball kids on the team - good group of players - nice team. Does politics come in to play when the coach is deciding who plays what position or whether or not an 8th grader plays before a 7th grader, sure it does. Hopefully coaches understand that from my opinion, these young travel ball kids are the future program of the school. In a couple of years, they will be your JV and Varsity players as long as they continue to be interested in playing school ball.
What I think is sad, and have heard more than once and read on some posts, is when politics plays such a heavy hand in school ball programs (fortunately not ours at this time) that quality travel ball players do not play school ball. That's a loose-loose situation - the program, coach and player are all missing out.
What I think is sad, and have heard more than once and read on some posts, is when politics plays such a heavy hand in school ball programs (fortunately not ours at this time) that quality travel ball players do not play school ball. That's a loose-loose situation - the program, coach and player are all missing out.
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Hilliarddad3, I was just curious, but do you happen to live off of Amity Rd? If so, I think we have met before. Anyway, good luck to you your DD and hope you have an enjoyable 2006 FASTPITCH season. 
