Honest question

[Orange Socks]

Year round TB makes the HS team better, even if there is only 1 TB player. Most kids who play TB who want to play in college, can and will end up on a college roster in the fall of their freshman year. Those that don't, either didn't try hard enough to get recruited or didn't want to.

My GF in college back in the early 90's played for the college team(SHSU). This was my first exposure to fastpitch. Guess what! She did not play HS, because there was NO HS softball in the Houston area! She only played TB. She actually was being recruited for Volleyball by La Tech as well and she only played in MS and HS. That's how it went. My school district didn't even offer fastpitch until the mid 90's. That's only 6 years before my DD was born.

My DD has probably played in well over 600 games in her lifetime. She played more softball games in 2 years than I did my entire youth baseball career. Rec ball gives you maybe 15 games in a season. You can play almost more than a half a season worth of games in a Bracket tourney.

 

[mmeece]

Why do we have 14U showcases? Asking for a friend. Just talked to a dad about his DDs 14U TB team. Their team traveled from So Cal to Texas and Ohio for showcases last month. That an estimated $7500 in a month. Stop the madness.

Completely agree for all but the very top level teams. Most 14u teams have no business playing in a showcase, much less traveling across the country for a showcase unless everyone just wanted to do it for fun. How many of those girls intend to play that far away from home anyway? There are a handful of 14u teams nationally who want to get players on the radar of P5 schools, but most just need to play ball and attend the camps of schools they are interested in.

 

[CrazyNani]

Public school sports teams are limited to the talent found within their geographic borders.

What makes you think that, even with heavy investment, school-based teams would provide a competitive level of play, adequate coaching, and player development for a player who has national-level talent?

I guess I was envisioning more money being put into the high school programs, perhaps even creating county wide teams if not enough players at each high school. Obviously, the players would have to be competent to make the team. The assumption was that I meant business as usual but I was thinking of TB coaches becoming those high school coaches.
Anyway, just throwing a thought or two out there.

 

[JumboJack]

I don't foresee that happening. My DD's HS team is very mediocre, but she still loves playing and representing her school. I know a lot of girls who are proud to play for their HS team. There are also quite a few HS coaches that are also TB coaches.

My DD was in the exact same position. 3 really good TB players, 3 players that had only played HS ball and were ok and the rest were freshman that had just stepped on the field. She loved every minute of it and would have never dreamed of not playing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marriard]

I guess my original thought was accurate, it isn’t about the girls at all. It’s about generating revenue. Most players and their families are simply being exploited.

Nope - that is too simplistic and too general a statement. It is much more complex than that.

It is not all about revenue; though for some it is a major driving force.

Some genuinely are doing it for the girls. Some people just love the sport. And some people are being exploited (or are at least delusional in what they are getting ).

The whole recruiting scene is weird; but if you put the effort in, the results can be positive for both sides. And it is still an opportunity for a WHOLE lot of girls to be active in a sport.

But in the end, there are somewhere in the vicinity of 50,000-60,000 college softball players across all levels (NCAA, JUCO, NAIA, Some other small orgs, even some JV teams). Just because you are not a star D1 level recruit does not mean that you can't be showcased to the right level for you. Because of attrition during college years, there are probably close to 20,000 freshman players every year. Showcases are a big part of becoming one of these players for many girls.

 

[marriard]

TB was originally invented to give the very best players a chance to play against other similarly skilled kids, to learn from non-parent coaches, and to develop their talent. The first TB teams had to travel to find adequate competition, because the sport was small and there weren't many good players or teams. College coaches got wind of the upgraded level of play and wanted to see these really skilled kids and recruit them, so they started tagging along.

Enterprising coaches and greedy TDs, seeing that parents would spend $$$ to have their kids labelled a "travel player", blew the whole thing up.

*********************

I agree with most of your post except this part; because while there is some truth to this; there is as much on the other side of this as well.

At some point, it became an 'old boys club' and you were not invited unless you played by their rules. It was a total class system and it got blown apart by people who were sick of it.

When I first started in softball; at 2nd yr 12U/1st yr 14U locally you HAD TO CHANGE YOUR TEAM AND PLAY for this one org or you were shut out of ASA competition (no you can't enter our tournament to even try to qualify). They used to strut around being like "Look at our great softball team at nationals' - which was BS - they just had a system where if you wanted to play ASA (which was the best travel you could play at that time) you were on their team or you were shut out by their long-term friends and partners running ASA so they had all the talent come to them. And if you were on the outside looking in for whatever reason, you had no access to better competition to get better; so you were stuck;

The game is much better for this not being in place. Yes it is a massive mess of orgs and levels and showcases and so on; but there is access for everyone at a huge variety of levels of play.

And the same people continue to fight to get their old boys club back together (Alliance for example in the last year or so). But that horse has bolted.

 

[Shiloh]

I guess I was envisioning more money being put into the high school programs, perhaps even creating county wide teams if not enough players at each high school. Obviously, the players would have to be competent to make the team. The assumption was that I meant business as usual but I was thinking of TB coaches becoming those high school coaches.
Anyway, just throwing a thought or two out there.

got it

those are very good ideas

sounds just like club ball

 

[YOCOACH]

I guess my original thought was accurate, it isn’t about the girls at all. It’s about generating revenue. Most players and their families are simply being exploited.

It depends on what the family and players want out of their TB experience. For example, there's an organization in my area that sends teams to PGF nationals and to the large showcases. Then there's my team which pretty much stays within a 4 hour drive and plays showcases. My team fees are $800 but we also fundraise. Their team fees are $2500 plus fundraising. All parents and players pay their way for travel expenses. However, both teams have proven track records of sending players off to play at the next level.

So, the question you and others need to ask themselves is this; Am I receiving value for the money spent?

We had a thread on here not too long ago that asked the question, 'Is travel ball worth it?' From the answers I read to that question, no one felt "exploited," as you put it.

 

[Eric F]

I guess I was envisioning more money being put into the high school programs, perhaps even creating county wide teams if not enough players at each high school. Obviously, the players would have to be competent to make the team. The assumption was that I meant business as usual but I was thinking of TB coaches becoming those high school coaches.
Anyway, just throwing a thought or two out there.

Money from where? Last year, I bought a bownet, 2 dozen new balls, and a bucket for my DD's HS team because the school didn't have any funds for equipment.

Many TB coaches don't want to deal with the limitations and politics of HS ball. Many HS coaches don't want to deal with the year-long grind and politics of TB.

 

[softballparent60]

Many HS including my DD's will only allow head coaches from their pool of teachers. There are many qualified TB coaches in our area but the school will not let them coach unless they become a teacher or employed in the school district. This is the reason why HS coaching in a lot areas is not very good.