Pulled my DD off her second year 10u travel ball team.

[Traps71]

FB told me 5 years ago today my DD committed to her college team. Crazy how time flies. We have all seen the stat how about how few HS players go on to play college softball.

My experience tells me the % of players who stick with TB will end up on college roster is very high. High level teams all the way down to the Hittin' Kittens. 80-90% for all teams. High Level programs I would venture to say it's 100%. If you track those same players all the way through college to Senior year the % falls off a cliff. Out of the 9 Sr's from DD TB team only 2 are still playing. The other player's route, Juco, D1 in the NE, now D2 in state. Getting committed is easy, playing 4 years is the challenge!

I take your point, but your second observation--the fact that the relatively few girls that do play in college (we are told between 5-7%) don't play all 4 years for various reasons--I think underscores the overall point I am making. You aren't going to be playing organized, competitive softball for very long. Until age 22 or 23, if you are particularly talented or committed. For most, it will stop at age 18...or even before. Some of the most talented girls on my DD's first 10U team left the sport at 14U or 16U, some in part because they had bad experiences with other coaches/teams.

You might as well make sure you are actually enjoying the experience while you are doing it. Most especially in travel ball because you are actually paying for the experience. It should be a net positive for the player. If it's not, why are we (both the player and the parents cutting the checks) doing this?

 

[Bullseye]

She was currently on a A listed team but will will be going back to a B listed team to actually get playing time.

There is no easy way for a coach to say you're not as desired as the other players. They either say it or they show it in playing time. Finding a good fit may have nothing to do with the team's abilities. But don't be mad when the team's abilities close the door.

 

[Julian93]

So i just wanted to give a update on the situation, we found another TB team and my daughter is loving it. She is getting the playing time she deserves and is also playing different position that she would not ever get a chance to play on her old team. She made a comment to me last week that really stood out to me, she said that she feel so much more comfortable playing with the coaches she has now and that on her old team she was scared that if she messed up she would get screamed at and would get put back on the bench. So yes leaving that old team was the best decision we made. Thank you all for your input.

 

[Lobster Birch]

Good to hear.

 

[Cougars]

My experience tells me the % of players who stick with TB will end up on college roster is very high. High level teams all the way down to the Hittin' Kittens. 80-90% for all teams. High Level programs I would venture to say it's 100%. If you track those same players all the way through college to Senior year the % falls off a cliff. Out of the 9 Sr's from DD TB team only 2 are still playing. The other player's route, Juco, D1 in the NE, now D2 in state. Getting committed is easy, playing 4 years is the challenge!

I have no stats to back this up, maybe someone else does, but I think your 80-90% of all 18u TB players playing in college is WAY high. I'm sure at the highest levels, it is 95%+. However, there is a large group of non-"highest level" teams that are just high schoolers that like playing softball.

We are a pretty typical 18u 'B' team. 6 are seniors, and there's 1 that has some interest in playing in college. I don't think any of the juniors are interested. I admit we are probably an extreme example for 18u. I would guess that out of all the other "chicagoland" B teams we play in June, few of them are 50%+ playing in college (any level). Very small sample size, but our local high school team had 7 seniors last season (all played TB), and 3 or 4 of them were going to be playing in college.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I have no stats to back this up, maybe someone else does, but I think your 80-90% of all 18u TB players playing in college is WAY high. I'm sure at the highest levels, it is 95%+. However, there is a large group of non-"highest level" teams that are just high schoolers that like playing softball.

We are a pretty typical 18u 'B' team. 6 are seniors, and there's 1 that has some interest in playing in college. I don't think any of the juniors are interested. I admit we are probably an extreme example for 18u. I would guess that out of all the other "chicagoland" B teams we play in June, few of them are 50%+ playing in college (any level). Very small sample size, but our local high school team had 7 seniors last season (all played TB), and 3 or 4 of them were going to be playing in college.

There is a potential for problems if part of the team is working towards playing in college and others could careless. Dedication vs recreation.
Forget this.^^^^^ I just remembered this was about a 12U player getting back into the game after a bad experience. Enjoy your new team and don't get to serious about college until 2nd year 16u. What you can get serious about are proper mechanics, both throwing and hitting. Don't want to get to 16U with a funky throwing motion or long armsy swing and eliminate any chance of playing college ball. If you are an athlete with good mechanics and good grades you can find a place to place. Probably wont be top 25 D1, unless you have good genes, exceptional eye hand coordination and are super dedicated to practice 30 hours a week.

 

[FP26]

I have no stats to back this up, maybe someone else does, but I think your 80-90% of all 18u TB players playing in college is WAY high. I'm sure at the highest levels, it is 95%+. However, there is a large group of non-"highest level" teams that are just high schoolers that like playing softball.

We are a pretty typical 18u 'B' team. 6 are seniors, and there's 1 that has some interest in playing in college. I don't think any of the juniors are interested. I admit we are probably an extreme example for 18u. I would guess that out of all the other "chicagoland" B teams we play in June, few of them are 50%+ playing in college (any level). Very small sample size, but our local high school team had 7 seniors last season (all played TB), and 3 or 4 of them were going to be playing in college.

There are a number of 18u teams in our area that play travel ball just to stay sharp for high school ball. yes, there are some teams that have the college goal in mind, but not all of them.

 

[Dabears17]

So i just wanted to give a update on the situation, we found another TB team and my daughter is loving it. She is getting the playing time she deserves and is also playing different position that she would not ever get a chance to play on her old team. She made a comment to me last week that really stood out to me, she said that she feel so much more comfortable playing with the coaches she has now and that on her old team she was scared that if she messed up she would get screamed at and would get put back on the bench. So yes leaving that old team was the best decision we made. Thank you all for your input.

Great news! My goal for my DD was:
1) Find a coach she liked and respected.
2) Be on a team where she was between the 6th and 8th best player so she would be pushed to improve.
3) Play at least 2/3rds of the innings.