High School Program Information

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

Does your High School make cuts to the roster? How many girls do they keep? Do they have Varsity and JV teams? Is the JV team ran together with the Varsity team or are they their own independent team (practice alone, travel alone on occasion). Have they ever struggled to field a team? How do you feel travel ball impacts the high school team?

 

[ChrisSB]

We are at a small school, around 370 in the whole school and have a great program! We have JV and varsity and have to make cuts. 14 on varsity and 12 of them play travel. JV is comprised of girls that play low level travel and some that haven't played before but are athletic. JV and V practices are generally ran separately but sometimes they'll overlap.

 

[Lance Steckler]

my local HS is very large D1 school. They have V & JV, keep about 12-15 per squad, and make cuts. A general statement, but if you're not playing travel ball, you're not making either squad.

Edit (by very large D1 school, I mean ~2500-2600 students 9-12)

JV and V practice separately, with little overlap, separate schedules, travel etc. There are sometimes where they travel together.

 

[quincy]

My DD's HS had 4 teams, nieces school about 15 minutes away had 5 Teams.

 

[Agcy]

I think it all depends on the size of the school and how many girls go out. I know of 1 large school that can only get about 11 girls to go out (and they are not very, shall we say, experienced) and some smaller schools that field 3 full teams (V, JV, JV2).

In our school, mid-sized with approx 250 9-12 students, we get 20-30 girls to go out. We have solid V and JV and try to get a JV2 (IE Freshman) team if we can field enough pitchers. About half the JV gets to suit for the Varsity games. Practices are at the same facility, but defense is definitely run separate for JV/JV2 and V.

Our Varsity team is 17-20. No one is excluded from the program, but they do have to earn their place on V. Almost all our games are JV/V double headers where the JV and V teams travel together.

Where we struggle is that the players that would normally play JV2 don't really get a chance to play much because of the lack of pitchers. Then they play JV, but don't get much time on the field.

Coach doesn't care if you play travel ball but, you have to get permission to miss a Saturday practice to play a travel ball tournament and HS games take priority over anything travel related. We have a 14U (C) travel team that only plays in the spring, but that isn't really enough to make great players or really make a difference in playing time. I've asked for a local HS fall team, but there aren't enough SB focused girls to field one (VB, CC, Music all get in the way for real commitment).

 

[NJZoo]

Our high school is fairly big (about 1200 kids) with a V and JV team. Any decent travel girl ends up on V and the other girls round out the JV team. Over the recent past I'd say they are about a .500 level team, so there is no illusion of winning a sectional or state title. My daughter will be in 9th grade next year and I expect that she will be in a position to make the V team. Most travel teams take the Spring off in our area so that the girls can focus on HS ball, so there is no conflict. I'm looking at HS ball as a chance to have fun and play with her friends (just like Middle School ball).

 

[LEsoftballdad]

We're a small school with about 700 students in the four HS classes. We get 15-18 girls per year to try out for softball, so it's only a varsity team. We have a mix of travel, rec, and LL players. Other than my daughter and 2-3 other girls, none really play travel.

We do, however, have a thriving lacrosse program. I read a stat last night that as of of 2017, 23.5% of male D1 lacrosse players, and 22.7% of female D1 lacrosse players are from NY. I think half of them might be from my town.

 

[_MIA_]

Usually when I answer surveys they offer me a gift certificate to Victoria Secret or something..what are you offering?

 

[JayIndy]

My kid's school is a powerhouse, large school, really good program. This year - 16 varsity, 14 JV. 6 kids were cut (4 freshman, 2 juniors), and 2 seniors cut themselves. During fall workouts probably about 10 kids decided not to even try out after working out a few practices. It's crazy the difference from school to school, just in the same county. One school is scrambling to get enough to play, and at her school there are D-1 committs that don't see the field at all.

 

[Cougars]

Our school is about 2,700 kids. V, JV, and F team this year (Didn't have a F team the last couple years). About 45 players total. With the F team, not sure if players were cut this year, but they have been in past years. Just about every player has some form of travel experience, with a wide range, from local chicagoland teams to a few doing a more 'national" type schedule. I'd rank the program 'above average' overall, but with the bigger schools, the top teams are really good.