As a follow up to my previous post: great pitching beats good coaching. We beat the former D2 coach today 13-2. Shameless plug for my girls. Oldest daughter drove in 5 and hit a grand slam. Youngest daughter threw a complete 6IP and struck out 14.
High school sb
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- Nov 29, 2009
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The reason this school attracts so many top softball players is because of the Head Coach. She is a former Beverly Bandit coach. So she knows the game. The players who want to go there have a winning mentality, drive and the talent to dominate. The team's non-conference schedule is many levels tougher than their conference schedule. The school is located next to the SW suburbs of Chicago which is home to a lot of very strong HS softball programs and the coach schedules games against all of them. Playing HS ball at this school does not have much of a competitive level drop off compared to travel ball. It's been that way from nearly the inception of the softball program when the school went co-ed. It used to be an all boys school.
Cannonball
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- Feb 25, 2009
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I was just checking out scores and who played who tonight. I saw a score of 18-0 and was shocked at who played who. I thought, why would that school be playing that school? Then, I took a look at the overall schedule for the lesser team. It seems that a bunch of "powerful programs" have scheduled this school. Why? IMO, it comes down to stats. Some stats padding happening by several schools. I understand conference differences in ability but not this. As I have stated before, I think that a school should schedule 1/3rd of teams that they should beat, 1/3rd that will be a tight game, and then 1/3rd of games that you most likely will lose. Even in the games that I think we should win, I want a close game. No wonder some of these players have obscene stats.
Yep. I know the school. I went to a high school that plays in the same conference. I know of a couple girls who have been seduced by the school. One is a B level travel player who I think has no chance of making their team. She doesn't go to my school so I have no real skin in that game. I just think she's gotten bad guidance since softball is a priority for her.
To be fair, it's really other private schools that I know of that definitely engage in some questionable behavior. A lot of "we'll find a way to get you to be able to afford the school if you come here to play the sport you play well." And not necessarily with softball.
I'm curious why the lesser school would even schedule all those top teams. You get better by playing better competition, but only to a point. Losing by 20 all season is just going to make the girls want to quit.
I'm with you on your 1/3 idea, though I try to schedule very few teams that will run rule us. This year I scheduled three games we're definitely going to lose. A few more against teams I'm unsure about because we haven't played them before or haven't in 3+ years, but they've been losses/pretty tough games in the past. I count 8-10 that could go either way (we're 1-1 in those so far). And then eight we'd better win. Some we won't get to play because it's never going to stop raining, so I'm curious to see how many of each group we end up playing. We could end up with a great record or a mediocre one depending on when the sun shines.
Do you coach at a private school?.....I only ask because around here public schools coaches can't schedule games for themselves. I think they can schedule 2-3 non league games, but then the rest are against the league that the team is in.
We're a public charter that's operated by the state, not Chicago Public Schools, so we've had free reign with things like scheduling (within IHSA rules). This year was our first in a conference, but none of the other schools have baseball/softball, so we're still independent in those sports. I build an entire schedule from scratch each year.
That said, the CPS schools we play can schedule their own non-conference games. I'm sure they have budget/other limitations, but the schools that care schedule 25-30 games. Others play the bare minimum. Coaches of those schools need to play at least 6 games to get paid last I heard, and it sure appears that some go out of their way to play no more than required. A couple schools we used to schedule with regularly now don't even respond, and only one of those is because the coach isn't a fan of my sparkling personality.
Regarding scheduling: 12 of our games are only with teams in our region. We already have a tough region so those games are generally harder. We do have a bunch out of region and we beat a fair bit - but we still mostly play in our county (we have over 20 schools in our county - not counting private) or just outside due to the travel to get to the places. To get to the playoffs you have to be in the top 4 in your region. The last few years we haven't made it in due to our region but will routinely beat teams that are 1st in their region :/ They usually get beat fairly quickly though.
About the tiers and only playing within your tier but still going back to class to playoffs makes no sense. How do they determine the playoff brackets? The playoffs are determined by your rank in your region here.
About the tiers and only playing within your tier but still going back to class to playoffs makes no sense. How do they determine the playoff brackets? The playoffs are determined by your rank in your region here.
- Mar 22, 2021
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I went back to the bracket from last year. They obviously won state but it wasn’t a cake walk. Also they were the only private school in the sweet sixteen.
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Right or wrong, people of “privilege” have been able to improve their school situation for as long as I can remember. It just a lot more prevalent now.
Warning: a narcissistic narrative of my past is discussed below so if that bothers you stop reading now.
I had a choice to go to school in my hometown or the school where my father taught and my uncle was the principal. The latter school was bigger, had more AP courses and had better sports (in particular basketball.. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312134914/fallriverdreams)
I chose the latter school. It worked out well academically but from a sports perspective, in particular basketball (Chris Herren was a year behind me, played my position and we didn’t really get along very well..as in we would get into fights in practice; didn’t get along with coach; had to deal with my family’s legacy at the school, etc) I would have been better off going to school in my hometown…sometimes being a big fish in a small pond is better..
Warning: a narcissistic narrative of my past is discussed below so if that bothers you stop reading now.
I had a choice to go to school in my hometown or the school where my father taught and my uncle was the principal. The latter school was bigger, had more AP courses and had better sports (in particular basketball.. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312134914/fallriverdreams)
I chose the latter school. It worked out well academically but from a sports perspective, in particular basketball (Chris Herren was a year behind me, played my position and we didn’t really get along very well..as in we would get into fights in practice; didn’t get along with coach; had to deal with my family’s legacy at the school, etc) I would have been better off going to school in my hometown…sometimes being a big fish in a small pond is better..
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