- Aug 21, 2008
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Most of them, yes. Can there be some pictures that are NOT mass mailings? Of course. Those pictures you see on social media seem to happen at various times on the calendar, times that correspond with the NCAA recruiting windows. There are times in the year when the coaches cannot recruit or talk to recruits.
Don't forget that there are 2 types of camps schools will have. The Open registration ones, which is basically a cattle call and is used to help subsidize the assistant coaches, who usually do not get bonuses the way HC's do. Many HC's will allow all camp proceeds to go to the Asst. coaches and the players that help. The other kinds of camps are the sneaky ones. This is where a school has identified 4-5 pitchers (for example) and will tell those 5 people when and where to look for the camp registration sign up. And they will put it in an obscure place that 99.99999999999% of the population will not see. This is done intentionally so that someone who is NOT among those 5 people won't see it or know to look for it. However, there are NCAA rules regarding camps and advertising. So, they will hide this camp from the general public, but those 5 ppl will be told when and where to look and sign up. It just goes to show that whatever rules NCAA put out, there's coaches who will find a way around it.
I wish you luck. Your DD is among the few that seems to value the education and sport equally. Usually one dominates the other in a kid's priorities. The important thing is for her to find a place she loves. The softball side should come a very very distant 2nd. There's no guarantee the coach will be there all 4 of her years but if she loves the school and where she's at, that won't matter as much to her as it may to someone else. We see kids following coaches who change jobs all the time.
Also, don't forget another option. I realize your DD probably loves playing softball and being on the field. But, there are other less demanding places in a softball program than being a player. A team manager for example goes to practices, hits grounders, fly balls, can catch bullpens, travel with the team, etc. etc. But, they also don't have to do a lot of other things that the players do like weights, team meetings, individual practices with position coaches, sports psych meetings, etc. While this idea here isn't a bad compromise: she's still involved with softball but in a less demanding way so she can focus on the books. That compromise comes at the expense of cutting her 4 years of playing short. Again, this is only food for thought.
However, a lot of people think college is where softball ends for these ladies. For most that's true. But there are opportunities to play ball in Europe (for example) which has the same summer season as USA. Then she could go down under for the winter season. All I'm saying is, with or without the 4 years of playing in college, softball does not have to be done for her.
