High school sb

[LEsoftballdad]

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

Pattar, are you trying to make me depressed? She started taking lessons in August of 2016 at $55 per half hour. I would estimate she did 40 lessons with her original trainer per year. We switched to a different trainer in June of 2018 who charged $60 per half hour. Over the last 18 months, we switched to an hour each week at $120.

I'd have to say it's rapidly approaching $20,000 over the last six years for pitching lessons alone. Has it been worth it? Without question. Would my SEP-IRA be worth a lot more without softball? Yup, but I would never give up the time I've had with my two daughters that other dads only dream of having.

 

[Eric F]

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.

One of the factors we see is that upper-middle class (and higher) families are often opting for private schools, which drains the talent from the local public school. My DD has 3 TB teammates that should be at her public HS, but go to 3 different private schools.

 

[tomorrow]

Speaking of private schools and pitchers. My DD goes to a very small private school that barely has enough players to field a team but will have 5 TB pitchers on the team. For better or worse, it is like rec ball where nearly the entire team pitches.

 

[Eric F]

So I get softball tweets that randomly come up under the Softball topic and one I saw yesterday was a player in TX who had a 4 HR game. So I ended up looking up her HS and found it in GC to see what the game looked like. The score was 22-0 and I guess it was called after 3 innings - her team also had 11 walks. This same team had several other blow outs. I know people have said that HS SB is just not the same level as TB but in my experience we have some really good HS teams out there. Teams rarely get blown out in our county or class. We will have teams get run ruled but I don't think I've seen anything like that score. We have players on top TB teams that we play against so it's always been fairly competitive.

Is it a state thing? Just curious why the big difference? Do a lot of TB girls not play HS? We play in the fall so it's weird to me seeing HS's playing now because this is our TB season. We have girls that play with teams out of state where they actually won't even get to play any tournaments until other girls are finished so I would think some girls want to play TB so they don't play HS?

There is not just one answer. In the past 3+ years of HS ball, my DD's team has lost games by more than 20 runs, and won games by more that 20 runs....in the same season. Last season, we had only 1 league game that went 7 innings. Every other game was a run-rule victory or loss. Our scores this year are following the same pattern, including a 22-2 loss to the #1 team.

Our league includes teams from Div 1 to Div 7 (lowest), which is based on historical performance. My DD's team (Div 6) currently includes 3 TB players, a few girls with rec experience, a few others with only HS experience, and 1 who has never played before this year. Generally speaking, it's looked like this every year. Meanwhile, the top teams in our league are stacked with full rosters of experienced TB players, some of whom will be playing at good D1 colleges next year. The top HS teams would be competitive against top 16U/18U TB teams, for sure. My DD's HS team would get crushed by pretty much every decent 14U and older TB team.

It's not just an issue of school population size. My DD's HS has 2300+ students, which should be enough to supply plenty of talent. However, there are 6 experienced TB players who should be at the school, but have opted to go elsewhere. 3 of my DD's TB teammates go to private schools. 3 other players transferred to other schools in the league specifically to play with better softball programs. In more than a decade, my DD's school has not had a winning record even once.

 

[_MIA_]

Pattar, are you trying to make me depressed? She started taking lessons in August of 2016 at $55 per half hour. I would estimate she did 40 lessons with her original trainer per year. We switched to a different trainer in June of 2018 who charged $60 per half hour. Over the last 18 months, we switched to an hour each week at $120.

I'd have to say it's rapidly approaching $20,000 over the last six years for pitching lessons alone. Has it been worth it? Without question. Would my SEP-IRA be worth a lot more without softball? Yup, but I would never give up the time I've had with my two daughters that other dads only dream of having.

Lol...not knocking you or anybody who invests money into their kid for their enjoyment purposes.

I am just making the point that if a kid's family makes 40 to 50K a year burning almost half of that over 6 years is a non-starter and pitching is so large a part of the game...

 

[AnotherSoftballDad]

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.

This is it in my area.

The teams that win are the ones that have a good pitcher, most often a Jr. or Sr. When she graduates then the best team in the district switches to the team with the next best pitcher.

I would also add you need a 1/2 way decent catcher, and 3 girls that can hit then you got a winning team.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

This is it in my area.

The teams that win are the ones that have a good pitcher, most often a Jr. or Sr. When she graduates then the best team in the district switches to the team with the next best pitcher.

I would also add you need a 1/2 way decent catcher, and 3 girls that can hit then you got a winning team.

Yes, a good catcher helps. We have a team in our league with a girl who throws 62 and no catcher. The team cannot win because she's all alone out there. Well, that and she throws 62 flat and misses the zone too much.

 

[radness]

There are softball people paying to go to private high schools that do not have better softball programs.

There are people faking their home address to go to public high schools that have better softball programs.

There seems to be less long-term coaches at the same High School than there used to be. 1, 2 years at the same high school is now common before they move on.

There are some high schools that have strong Sports in all categories. But some high schools seems the focus is only on a couple Sports.

 

[Eric F]

There seems to be less long-term coaches at the same High School than there used to be. 1, 2 years at the same high school is now common before they move on.

Some people have said (not in this thread) that having a long-term coach is a good way to build a strong program. I have seen too many counter-examples to agree with this.

 

[_MIA_]

A HS coach is at the mercy of how many good pitchers he/she has attending their school (unless they can recruit of course) and if they have a decent catcher. That will at least give them a chance of not being run-ruled every game. Doesn't matter if they have been coaching at the school for 100 years or 100 hours. Despite how good they are, they cannot turn water into wine..