Travel Ball is Killing Rec Ball

[whack]

Eric is right. Not to mention that the bottleneck in softball isn't nearly what it is in men's sports, where there are millions of dollars at the end of the rainbow. I'd venture to guess that there are a lot more girls who are going to college based on their academic desires and just want to play ball where they go to school, as opposed to trying to compete with a percent of a percent to go somewhere that can land them in professional sports, where those measurables are the only thing that separates a lot of players. There is also a lot more money tied up in coaching men's sports (I don't have any numbers to back this up, however), even at lower levels, and likely more pressure to bring in kids who pass the eye test.

False. The chance of a girl playing college softball is less than a boy playing football. This is straight off the ncaa website. These show the percentage of hs players that play in college.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MNDad]

Size and speed don’t matter? Find me a 5 flat 40 WR or a 5’10 240lb offensive lineman. In college. Go on I’ll wait. I was recruited by the school I ended up signing with solely on size and speed. They (HC and DC) didn’t even know I played football they happened to be at the state hs basketball tourney I was playing in and saw me. Found me after the game asked if I was interested in playing football in college. I asked if they wanted to see film they said nope at 6’6” and your size with quick feet we’ll make an all conference lineman outta you. It matters in all sports my personal experience in college recruiting was in football and basketball but if you think it don’t matter you are fooling yourself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I never said size and speed don't matter and I clearly wasn't talking about football. My point was clear that you'll find girls of all sizes.

I'm familiar with football and basketball recruiting. Neither have anything to do with softball and the process is completely different.

 

[OsDad]

False. The chance of a girl playing college softball is less than a boy playing football. This is straight off the ncaa website. These show the percentage of hs players that play in college.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would be interested to know if those numbers reflect TB players who don’t play school ball at all, and it’s certainly more nuanced than “all girls who play high school softball attempt to play in college and only X% succeed”.

It also says “HS to NCAA”. What about every other level of college ball?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[whack]

I never said size and speed don't matter and I clearly wasn't talking about football. My point was clear that you'll find girls of all sizes.

I'm familiar with football and basketball recruiting. Neither have anything to do with softball and the process is completely different.

Lol you keep thinking size and speed don’t matter in all sports. I’m sure you play a lumbering girl at short stop too and a tiny fast first baseman.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Softballmom2008]

It may appear that way, but if you really analyze rosters for top DI colleges, and down...while there aren’t many girls under 5’6”, the vast majority are under 5’11-6’.

 

[whack]

They don’t recruit hs softball players is what you are all telling me then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OsDad]

Lol you keep thinking size and speed don’t matter in all sports. I’m sure you play a lumbering girl at short stop too and a tiny fast first baseman.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is moving the goal posts a little bit. No one said “A 4’ 9” girl can play first base at OU”, but there IS likely a school SOMEWHERE she can play 2nd base at, if she’s got the right skills.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[whack]

It may appear that way, but if you really analyze rosters for top DI colleges, and down...while there aren’t many girls under 5’6”, the vast majority are under 5’11-6’.

The average woman is only 5’6” so the vast majority are all taller than average. There’s that pesky size thing again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OsDad]

They don’t recruit hs softball players is what you are all telling me then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m saying you can’t use one number to generalize something, when it’s obviously an incomplete statistic. Since I’ve been on DFP I’ve learned that a lot of girls don’t play school ball at all, and a lot don’t even attempt to play ball at Power 5 schools, since their career likely depends on their academic track and not how well they play in the WCWS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[whack]

This is moving the goal posts a little bit. No one said “A 4’ 9” girl can play first base at OU”, but there IS likely a school SOMEWHERE she can play 2nd base at, if she’s got the right skills.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe at best. We had no girls on our softball team in college that were even close to 4’9”. We were d2. The vast majority of them were all bigger than the average woman.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk