Multisport Athlete - Are they really wanted?

[Conflicted]

Warning - lot of background her before the questions at the end. We have two daughters that play mulitple sports with Softball being their main sport..... until recently. Mom and I were multisport athletes and collegiate athletes. We are starting to run into problems as they are 14U and 12UA level softball players in a nationally recognized program doing extensive travel and the 14U is starting to showcase this summer. Both are good players, leaders on their teams and have the potential and work ethic to possibly play in college at some level. Because their mother and I do not believe that you develop athletic potential playing and practicing softball they have always been extensively involved in other sports and activities to develop confidence, overall athleticism, strength, agility, conditioning etc. Swimming, basketball, running, biking, triathlon, gymnastics, you name it and they have tried it at some level that did not conflict with Softball. About 18 months ago they both tried volleyball in a clinic, then fall rec volleyball and were quickly asked by local Club teams to tryout. We thought because of how competitive their High School Volleyball team is (perrennial state champion with 60+ kids at annual tryouts) that this might help them have a better shot at making the HS team. One of the dumbest thing a TB parent ever said was "Sure you can tryout for travel volleyball". Despite almost no experience both of them made the Elite level Travel teams (compare to A/showcase in softball) for their age and and have fallen in love with the sport. Evidently girls that can throw well overhand pick up hitting/serving a volleyball very quickly. Our girls will also be well above average height as I am 6'4" and Mom is 5'11" - so we are told they have volleyball potential beyong high school too. If anyone has any experience with Club Volleyball you will know that it is even more expensive, more travel, more time consuming with more crazy people than softball - no really. So despite the fact that Volleyball is a fall sport and Softball a spring sport there is some conflict at the travel level - pre high school. The next few months are really going to be tough as the travel volleyball season ending big tournaments and qualifiers will conflict with some of the early softball tournaments. Both sets of coaches were made aware of participation in the other sport (prior to accepting spots on the teams) with practice/tournament schedules disclosed with both and conflicts discussed. Decisions about what sport to miss in a conflict were made by the relative importance of each tournament. This conflict is a temporary thing (next 3 months for oldest and one additional season for the 12U) because when they are in high school travel softball will not be able to compete until end of May when HS Softball and travel Volleyball is over.

So despite all the proper disclosures to coaches we (mom and I and our girls) are starting to get heat from other parents and players. "It's not fair to the team that you will be playing another sport and missing tournament X". "We are spending a lot of money going to tournament X, why would we go if we know we are not going to be full strength." Coaches from both teams are getting heat from parents and oddly enough coaches from other organizations saying that they wouldn't put up with it. By the way - both coaches could not have been more understanding communicating directly with us early on but they have complained to other parents and that has come back to us. So I think they will tolerate this season but wouldn't bet on how much longer.

What happened to celebrating the multisport athlete? Everything you read says College coaches prefer multisport athletes as they are more well rounded, better developed athletically and potentially don't burn out as quickly as some of the early specialized athletes. Most of the college signings I read about are athletes who played multiple sports in High School. So college coaches want them but the travel coaches and programs put so much pressure and time demands on athletes and their families to specialize. It has to be for the performance of their own teams because I can't believe that it is best for the athlete long term.

Our girls do not want to choose between the two sports and we don't want them to right now. They get almost all A's with a B or two each quarter. The rule is that extra curricular activities get eliminated if C's come home on the report card. Academics come first.

Any advice on how to handle the pressure to specialize to one travel sport before High School? I think we would be OK with a plan to tell our girls that by Sophmore year they need to pick one travel sport as by then they should have a better idea of their ceiling for each sport. I still think they will want to play multiple sports at the High School level and we support that.

 

[MsDinosaur]

My DD spent a year at 10U doing B level softball and B level soccer. Even at just 10U and just the B level, it was too much IMO. It was an easy decision for us because our girl wanted to give up soccer, but we would have forced her to choose just one competitive sport after that year. It wasn't just the missed games, but also trying to juggle all the practices, lessons, friends, school and home life. The kid didn't have any unspoken-for time left to catch her breath and relax. I know everyone is different, but I'm concerned that it might be a lot of wear and tear on your daughters.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

What we once considered multi sport athletes, pertained to HS, where there were strict seasons. The college coaches that I know, still like to see multi talented HS athletes.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

DD here did get one season into travel VB. Unfortunately she loves that sport too so it hurt a bit when she had to back off travel VB to her first love => pitching & softball.

Further complication is that DD here is a pitcher and a softball player on a top TB team. (To be good at both of those you really have to consider them being two equivalent sports themselves)

But the area around us here there are about (5) travel VB teams. For our one season we found a team that was the most flexible and that ended up working out ok BUT it got in the way of properly preparing for HS softball. (again, if DD wasn't a pitcher I think we could have handled travel SB & travel VB just fine)

We underestimated the importance of getting a good start to the most important summer TB schedule by having a strong HS season. We will not make this mistake again. (For those with pitching DD's in this time-sharing scenario with travel VB,.....beware).

So looking back I think it was huge my DD getting what she got out of basketball before she had to quit that to do travel SB & travel VB (basketball tought her the importance of endurance training). Then I see it also a big positive what she gets/got out of volleyball (especially the outside hitting jumping) that helped her be more explosive off the mound......... But no more travel VB.

So this year DD & her best bud go over to open-gym and they do VB drills with each other to try and keep the VB skills as sharp as possible without actually belonging to a travel VB club. Next season we'll see how far the other club VB girls advanced past my DD & her buddy.

 

[chinamigarden]

I've told these 2 stories here before. But here goes.

A girl in our softball organization and from our HS. Was all state in basketball and a really good ss and hitter. Surprised everyone when she took a softball scholarship to a D2 school, everyone assumed she would play basketball. After 1 season she decided she didn't want to play softball any longer. About 3 weeks later the school hired a new BB coach. She had recruited this girl when she coached for a JC, she offered this girl a scholarship and without having to change schools, just moved the scholarship from one team to another, she got to play BB.

Another girl in our organization, and from our HS. Varsity lettered in 4 sports (SB, BB, VB and pole vault) Ended up getting a scholarship for a Big Ten school for Pole Vault.

Neither of these girls would be playing in college right now if at 10, 12 or 14 someone said, softball players shouldn't play other sports. My dd plays what I consider the 3 major sports for HS girls, SB, BB, and VB. Its hard to work it all in sometimes, but its what she wants and what she wants means a whole lot more to me then what some other parent wants.

 

[Conflicted]

Thanks RubberBiscuit - they are not pitchers - thankfully. Agree that pitching is its own full time sport. Glad to hear there is hope if we can get past this season. No chance they make the High School VB team without playing travel (30+ cut last year and many played travel). Softball here only has a few travel players and should be no problem barring a coach that won't take freshman over upperclassmen.

 

[Conflicted]

Thanks Chinamigarden - Funny you mention pole vault. They are both considering indoor track instead of basketball during the winter so they can do high jump, hurdles and pole vault. Older girl from their old gymnastics gym got a D1 scholarship after only pole vaulting a couple years in High School and no gymnastics money after 10 years of gymnastics (did not play any other sports).

 

[WinThemAll]

It can be done. I know a player (pitcher) that is on a VB scholarship at a mid-major D1 and is also on the softball team. She is an extremely gifted student and athlete. She was a three-sport (add basketball in there) athlete in HS and did travel VB and SB her junior and senior years (did have an injury from basketball that kept her out for most of her SR HS SB season). She is an exception to the rule.

Being a multi-sport athlete in HS and doing travel in multiple sports take a great deal of planning and cooperation--it is not for the average athlete. You really have to be exceptional!!!

My DD really liked BB and VB, she was not tall enough for either but was a pretty good defensive specialist in VB. She decided after her sophomore year that while she enjoyed VB her time was better spent on honors classes, student council, class president and softball.

 

[marriard]

Here is some news for a lot of people: A Good Athlete Will Pick Up a New Sport in NO TIME.

Will they be great? Not immediately but they certainly can be if they want to.

We had an eighth grader recently take up softball for her MS team who are pretty good - first time she has ever played. I know the coach and he said "She came out, she could throw hard, catch and she ran like a gazelle. She was on the team." By game three she was starting at second base. I was talking to her parents and the it turned out she had done the same in basketball 6 months earlier - never played it before but was starting by mid-season.

My DD dabbles in other sports. She loves softball and pitching but I know tomorrow she might decide that she wants to go play something else - and that will be her decision - not mine. She plays rec basketball between softball seasons (and sometimes during seasons) and is very good and her PE teachers says she dominates soccer at school despite never playing it at any level (and there are several travel soccer players in her class). I was talking to the same PE teacher and asked how long it would take her to be a good soccer player and he said "6 weeks. She just needs to understand the game and have someone show her how to execute the skills correctly". She also does gymnastics and turns their team program down regularly.

I can't imagine trying to do 2 travel sports. But I can certainly imagine doing travel and various rec-level programs. And I could easily see both my DD and DS being able to switch which sport was the travel one without too much effort.

We didn't call it travel/rec where I was in school, but I was a total basketball junkie. Played at the highest levels available where I was and played in multiple leagues and age groups at the same time. I also played a bunch of other sports (rugby, cricket, aussie rules football, some soccer, water polo, squash and so on) where we were upfront with the coach - I probably would miss a lot of practices but I'll be there for games and we were OK if he played others in front of me because they were there all the time (which happened about 1/3 the time depending on how much they wanted to win or how good I was at that sport).

As long as your kid is having a great time with the other kids on the team(s) I couldn't care less what other parents think or say especially if I have been absolutely upfront from day one.

And you know how important ANY travel tournament really is in the scheme of things... yeah it really isn't that big of a deal.

 

[sluggers]

I had one DD who lettered in four (yes, 4) sports in HS. She tried to play two travel sports (basketball and softball). But, we pulled the plug on one of them.

There is a whole lot more to life than sports. Athletic competition is great for the kids, but enough is enough. How about family vacations? How about weekends with their cousins? How about going to the beach and playing in the sand? How about going to a museum? Or to plays? How about telling the child to entertain themselves because mommy and daddy are going out?