High school sb

[Rick M]

I think the answer comes down to luck, although @pattar ‘s point about the wealth of the district absolutely plays a part.

We live in a small district, less than 900 students at the HS. But we have a high enough concentration of TB players that 25 of them came out for the school team. There are at least three other TB players who didn’t even bother to try out.

We live in a pretty well-off area, and there’s a ton of travel teams and coaches around so that plays a part. But there are other, bigger, wealthier districts nearby whose SB teams are garbage. Luck.


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[_MIA_]

I think the answer comes down to luck, although @pattar ‘s point about the wealth of the district absolutely plays a part.

We live in a small district, less than 900 students at the HS. But we have a high enough concentration of TB players that 25 of them came out for the school team. There are at least three other TB players who didn’t even bother to try out.

We live in a pretty well-off area, and there’s a ton of travel teams and coaches around so that plays a part. But there are other, bigger, wealthier districts nearby whose SB teams are garbage. Luck.


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I guess being wealthy doesn't guarantee a good team, but being poor pretty much guarantees you won't be any good..that might be a better way of thinking about it (@sluggers point below is probably even better)

 

[sluggers]

In general in 2022, in the sports of baseball and softball, how good a school is going to be is highly correlated with the average income of the households which make up the school more so than school size.

The correlation falls apart at very high incomes.

If the income level is too low, kids don't play because the sport it too expensive. If the income level is too high, then kids don't play softball because there are so many other sports to choose from.

The sweet spot for softball is somewhere in the upper-middle class range.

 

[_MIA_]

The correlation falls apart at very high incomes.

If the income level is too low, kids don't play because the sport it too expensive. If the income level is too high, then kids don't play softball because there are so many other sports to choose from.

The sweet spot for softball is somewhere in the upper-middle class range.

That is fair.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Where I live in NY, we compete by the size of the school, not quality. We have a team in our league who has not won a game in more than ten years, yet they always put a team on the field. In fact, we play them tomorrow, so we know we will win in a mercy. When we play them at their school, their bragging board shows they've won multiple state titles for boys soccer and basketball, so they have talented athletes. The difference is they're a low-income neighborhood that can't afford the lessons so many surrounding school districts can easily afford.

The other challenge we face is intense competition from lacrosse. Our school gets 15 girls to come to varsity tryouts, no JV, while lacrosse gets three times that amount. Every year, we have at least three girls and three boys commit to D1 schools for lacrosse. In the last ten years, we've produced one D1 softball player and one more to come with my daughter in two years.

 

[Nimrod]

Out of that sampling we have played 2 of those teams (the team that won) and only 3 in that sample are from our county. The Parkview/SG and CG/Mead - I didn't even think SG or Meadowcreek had teams
CG recently got moved into our region (they did a reorg this year since some new teams got moved into our class) so I'm curious how those games will go. Sadly I don't even recognize some of the other schools - except Lowndes who we'd never play in SB since they are at the bottom of the state. We do play them in FB and they are pretty good.

I guess we're lucky/unlucky enough to play in an area of the state where just a ton of good players come from.

It's partly the area, and it's partly because apparently none of the crappy teams happen to be in your region, but it's also partly school size. If you've got 2,500 students, there's a decent chance you'll have at least one competitive pitcher. And your team is playing other schools that size. So there's a fair chance that everybody has a competitive pitcher. But if you've got only 800 students (Class 2A in Georgia), the chances of having a competitive pitcher go down drastically. That's the other thing about softball compared to some other sports. If you've got 3 good basketball or 3 good volleyball players, you can have a respectable team. But you can have 6 good softball players and still be terrible if you don't have 1 good pitcher.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

It's partly the area, and it's partly because apparently none of the crappy teams happen to be in your region, but it's also partly school size. If you've got 2,500 students, there's a decent chance you'll have at least one competitive pitcher. And your team is playing other schools that size. So there's a fair chance that everybody has a competitive pitcher. But if you've got only 800 students (Class 2A in Georgia), the chances of having a competitive pitcher go down drastically. That's the other thing about softball compared to some other sports. If you've got 3 good basketball or 3 good volleyball players players, you can have a respectable team. But you can have 6 good softball players and still be terrible if you don't have 1 good pitcher.

Exactly! My two daughters go to a HS with about 700 students spread out over four grades. My daughter is a beast of a pitcher, but once she graduates, the team will stink. While she's there, we will compete for the state title.

It's all about pitching.

 

[nixxy311]

Our lacrosse program is getting a bit bigger now - but we're from the south where it's not been as popular as the north.

We tend to have most of our SB players play in college if they are also TB players. Not all D1 but we've had some that make it into P5 schools and do well.

Our FB team and girls basketball teams produce the most D1 players. Our girls in the last 4 years has made it to the state championship or at least the final four. Our FB just recently won state after being runner-up the year before. We actually have who was the #1 recruit - if he's not still #1 he's still up there but he's a senior and committed.

 

[_MIA_]

My daughter is a beast of a pitcher, but once she graduates, the team will stink. While she's there, we will compete for the state title.

It's all about pitching.

How much have you spent on pitching lessons over the last 10 or so years (estimate is fine..)? 15K?

 

[Rick M]

The correlation falls apart at very high incomes.

If the income level is too low, kids don't play because the sport it too expensive. If the income level is too high, then kids don't play softball because there are so many other sports to choose from.

The sweet spot for softball is somewhere in the upper-middle class range.

The wealthier districts also lose some of their best players to prep schools, particularly pitchers.


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