Mizzou star commit Quits HS Team

[ElmoBlatch]

Not much mystery here. Her travel coach is an assistant at O'Connell.

Bishop O'Connell: Teams/Schedules

 

[Amy in AZ.]

But, she is going to a different state and I guess these are Catholic schools. So, I don't know anything about the association rules. I mistakenly thought this was a MO. high school.

I do read about eligibility being challenged, sometimes. It happened recently to a UofA football recruit, who transferred between states purely for football.

 

[SoftSocDad]

Her travel team all plays at the other school, she had a few rough outings this year and she and her family wanted to go to her comfort zone. It is not as much a mystery or convoluted drama as people are making. Her father does give reasons in the story.

But YES, I think it is a big deal and that we should care, as it shows us where our sport is at, whether the topic is loyalty (old-fashioned nowadays), college verbals, family decisionmaking or the effects of travel ball/college recruiting on any of the above. She is one of the biggest HS stars and what she does sets the model, whether we like it or not.

Her choices 'set the model' for some small handful of players who may find themselves in similar positions down the road. In other words, you want this to be a bigger deal for your own reasons, not because it affects the sport in any way.

In the great scheme of things, this is nothing more than a player quitting one team to join another for her own reasons, something that has always been and will always be part of the high school and collegiate sports landscape.

 

[chinamigarden]

In michigan you have to sit out the next sports season. So in this situation in Michigan, she would not be eligible to play a fall sport. But could play softball next spring.

 

[sluggers]

This season, however, she struggled with her control while adjusting to playing with a new team behind her. Last Wednesday, she walked 12 in a 10-2 loss to O’Connell.

Yes...obviously, her teammates and coach caused her to walk 12.

Reading between the lines, you've got to wonder where her parents are in all of this... It sounds like some parents who don't have their heads screwed on right...."Woe is she! She lost a game. On NOOOOOO!!!!"

She is one of the biggest HS stars and what she does sets the model, whether we like it or not.

I'm not sure what that means in the context of HS softball specifically, or softball generally. Jenny Finch is a star softball player, and you probably could find 10 people in the DC area who ever heard of her.

 

[Dusty]

She never played for Tommy, who retired last year as the Shamrocks Gold coach, or the current 14u coach who is an assistant at O'Connell. She played for the Shamrocks current 16u coach but left that travel team last fall to join a NJ travel team.

I saw this article this morning in the Post, which is my daily paper, and my first impression was that this is a teenage girl who's unsettled by getting waaayyy to much attention from the media and a bunch of internet goobers. I hope this break from HS ball gives her the space to pull it together and get her groove back. It also makes me grateful for my dd's modest pitching talent.

 

[sluggers]

You can't just dump them after being pulled as a pitcher from two games for poor performance.

Absolutely right. I'm having trouble understanding the whole thing--Screwby is an ex-softball player and would probably cut off her ear so she could play just one more HS softball game. This kid is walking away from one or two years of HS softball.

(For my California friends, HS softball in the rest of the country is actually a lot of fun.)

 

[KevinC]

Father's quote from the article:

“She’s totally distraught. She has too much at stake. I don’t want her to lose her scholarship because she loses her confidence.”

It sounds like the only reason she's going to HS is to get an athletic scholarship. Hopefully when she gets to college she won't put all her eggs in one basket and assume she'll be able to make a living playing softball.

oh and I live in the DC metro area and my DD and I are two of the ten who know who Jenny Finch is.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

oh and I live in the DC metro area and my DD and I are two of the ten who know who Jenny Finch is.

But do you and sluggers know who "Jennie" Finch is?