I hate to break it to you, but that's already happened, at least from a recruiting standpoint. HS ball means nothing.As soon as it becomes normal for travel sports to take priority over school sports, school sports will start dying off.
I wasn't trying to say that it does, with regard to recruiting. I'm just talking about kids who play for the experience of playing. Plenty of kids (such as mine) enjoy it, and take it seriously and put in real work even if they have no desire to play in college. Mine even turns down travel team and pickup invites. Softball is just one part of who she is, and she wants to make time for everything else. Kids like her are the majority of school athletes.I hate to break it to you, but that's already happened, at least from a recruiting standpoint. HS ball means nothing.
I understand what you're saying, and I do feel sorry for those kids. The problem is not everyone has a positive school ball experience, so their outlet might be travel. There are more than a few people on this forum whose children did not play in HS because of poor coaching, bad dynamics, or no program.I wasn't trying to say that it does, with regard to recruiting. I'm just talking about kids who play for the experience of playing. Plenty of kids (such as mine) enjoy it, and take it seriously and put in real work even if they have no desire to play in college. Mine even turns down travel team and pickup invites. Softball is just one part of who she is, and she wants to make time for everything else. Kids like her are the majority of school athletes.
But in addition, there are kids (especially in small towns) who have nothing else. Bad home life, or poor, etc, who use sports as an escape or just something to take pride in. Those are the kids that will suffer most, and those are the kids that NEED sports most.
I do not agree with this. Your position in this instance is that your daughter is above the team because she is more talented.You get to feel that way. The player gets to find a different team. DD didn’t play for a coach that was willing to lose her over a flex like this thank goodness. We were up front with every coach about what our priorities were. Play kids based on what their on field performance has earned. Reality some kids really can do it all just like some kids can get an A without studying. We don’t take the A away because they didn’t put in the same three hours with the text book and if the rest of the team thinks it’s unfair tell them to work harder to be better because if they’re really as deserving as they think they are then they should be able to be better than a kid who’s missing such valuable time.
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Good read.I do not agree with this. Your position in this instance is that your daughter is above the team because she is more talented.
I think there are layers to this situation. Missing travel practice for a school sports is one thing. Ok by me. Missing already scheduled tournaments for another sport has to have a level of consequence. You committed to that team, the schedule, and the players/coaches.
What if half the team decided they were going to miss a tournament for another sport? I agree that kids should play other sports but I do not necessarily agree with your stance of "my kid gets to do what she wants or she will just go find another team."
Also, a coach having some level of consequence for a player that misses a tournament or even practices is not a flex. It's life. As with everything else, proper communication is the key to all.
Good read.
To add
College camps overlapping with travel schedule. Is also 'a one or the other' type situation.
Know of several travel team coaches who are experiencing such a problem trying to keep a solid roster playing their showcase & tournament venues because there are many players that are going off to college camps it is interrupting their team schedule. So these coaches starting next year are implementing part of their game schedule will be mandatory. Because they cannot have lack of attendance tearing everything apart. They are making an adjustment to the predicament.
For instance the team is scheduled to play a tournament but two of the three pitchers have reasons why they did not want to show up that weekend. How would the team play? There has to be a standard to have some sort of balance.