Travel Ball vs. HS Sports vs. other club sports

[daywalkerdad]

I didn't suggest that you "just move districts." However, if you do move, your child should be eligible to play for their new school the next season.

Kids are tied to the district unreasonably for the attitude just quit. No problem with that attitude in travel. The school district is to serve the students, parents, and taxpayers.
Let me give an analogy that is non sports related. Kid misses class for an Ivy League interview on a day of an exam, teacher says student not allowed to miss and will be punished with no make up and will lose points.
Response is if student does not like it they can drop the class.
Sounds pretty silly doesn’t it? Kind of like the teacher is missing the point as why they are there and who they are there for.

 

[Cannonball]

A ton of recruiting happens in the fall. If you're playing volleyball, soccer, or field hockey in the fall, but softball is your main sport for college, there's no way you should miss a tournament. If you're playing rec ball, fine. I can tell you, if any girls missed a tournament for a school game of another sport, they'd get cut from my daughter's team.

Those girls are there to get recruited for college.

Then they should not be playing HS sports that occur at the same time.

 

[Cannonball]

Kids are tied to the district unreasonably for the attitude just quit. No problem with that attitude in travel. The school district is to serve the students, parents, and taxpayers.
Let me give an analogy that is non sports related. Kid misses class for an Ivy League interview on a day of an exam, teacher says student not allowed to miss and will be punished with no make up and will lose points.
Response is if student does not like it they can drop the class.
Sounds pretty silly doesn’t it? Kind of like the teacher is missing the point as why they are there and who they are there for.

There is a vast difference between the classroom and athletics. For example, kids get cut in athletics.

 

[daywalkerdad]

There is a vast difference between the classroom and athletics. For example, kids get cut in athletics.

I agree a difference, but kids get “cut” in academics too.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Then they should not be playing HS sports that occur at the same time.

Why not? I hate field hockey, but my daughter enjoys the camaraderie with her classmates, and she gets good conditioning. She stinks at it, so she's not important to the team's success, and she's probably player 18 of 18. If she misses a game for a tournament, it doesn't impact the team at all. Her FH coach is a jerk who says going to my niece's wedding yesterday would reduce her playing time. What playing time? She just wants to have fun.

Now, if she was an integral part of the team, then I'd have an issue, and I think the other players and coaches would, too.

 

[PJR202]

Our typical conflict is travel basketball and then school basketball. Travel is fine since it only stops them from attending voluntary summer/fall practices. And really, that's the same for school basketball. It ends shortly after official softball practices start, so we let the kids finish their season. MS kids playing soccer can't play SB. High school doesn't interfere. Most travel SB teams around here prioritize school ball and work around it or just don't hold games during the season.

In-season, practice or games, they can miss for another organization's event, such as if a player is an FFA competition (FFA is 30% of the student body) or the kid has a band concert, or if they have some kind of one-off situation like a CPR class or whatever. Family vacations are ok as well.

Really it all shakes out. By 10th grade or so, any kid that isn't fully committed to SB will have already hit the road on their own.

 

[angispeds]

We missed 1 game of a fall warm up tournament that was before the recruiting window because an important conference game was scheduled and my daughter is critical to the success of her soccer team. Her soccer coach has always been very supportive and has never asked her for anything until this game. So we made it work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dabears17]

The Long Island championship was played between two teams, one of which had their prom scheduled the day of the game. The sanctioning body moved the game to 3:00 PM from the original 5:00 PM start time to accommodate the school having their prom. It didn't work. The game went 12 innings, and it didn't end until 7:15 PM, with the prom team coming out on the long end.

How those seniors made it to the prom after a 12-innings game in 85° heat is beyond me.

Two years ago, an opening round softball playoff game was on the same day a high school had its prom, so they moved it from 1 PM to 9 AM or 10 AM. Last year, the baseball championship game for one of the classes was a weekday evening game that conflicted with the 5:30 PM graduation ceremony. Because they were holding the championship game at a minor league park, the best the section could do was move it to 8 PM.

The last two years, the opening round of softball playoffs has been the Saturday of my daughter's High School's senior trip and the seniors leave at 7 AM in the morning for a 4-to-5-hour bus ride.

 

[Chilixa]

Why not? I hate field hockey, but my daughter enjoys the camaraderie with her classmates, and she gets good conditioning. She stinks at it, so she's not important to the team's success, and she's probably player 18 of 18. If she misses a game for a tournament, it doesn't impact the team at all. Her FH coach is a jerk who says going to my niece's wedding yesterday would reduce her playing time. What playing time? She just wants to have fun.

Now, if she was an integral part of the team, then I'd have an issue, and I think the other players and coaches would, too.

The issue for high school coaches is they have to have consistent rules as well. They can’t just base rules on the kids ability. Our high school requires priority to be given to the sport in season, and we are good with that. My DD travel coach works with her and so far there have been limited conflicts other than being late to a few team practices.

But good communication with both sides can solve a lot of problems ahead of time. If the high school coach knows ahead of time they have travel players on their team they can limit how many weekend games they schedule.

But eventually if a player is good enough to play in college they will probably have to specialize at some point.

 

[DryHeat]

DD1 and DD2 both play a HS sport in the fall (same sport). Our view is that in-season HS games take priority over TB. Over the last 4 years we have spoken with every TB coach up front about it (and MS sports when those were still happening). We let them know that on Match days (weekdays), DD would be late to practice. There are probably 8-10 conflicts per year per kid. Late could be 15-60+ minutes depending on the day. They do arrive warmed up, though....
There have been a few conflicts with Saturday HS tourneys, where DDs both elected to go with their TB team and let the JV kids get some game time in the HS tourney. HS coach is cool with that since the tourneys mean nothing in the standings.
HS playoffs will be different and will take priority over TB.
This has all been worked out with the coaches ahead of time as part of the interview process before joining the team. TB coaches have been very supportive.

Regarding Prom/homecoming, DD1s coach told the team straight up not to miss homecoming for a tournament. If the kid is doing her recruiting work properly, she will have already communicated her schedule to interested coaches. It didnt hurt DD1 that she had already committed by HC her junior year. Prom is during HS ball and Saturday playoff games are 10 or noon, so no issue there.

Last weekend 2 of DD2s teammates had HC and agreed to play the first game at the TB tournament. Of course it started and hour late. They were RUNNING towards the parking lot after the game. But coach knew they were going and supported it. DD2 will miss a tourney soon because of HC and Confirmation all on the same weekend. That weekend isnt negotiable.

DD1 is on a highly-ranked 18u National team. DD2 on a middle-tier 14u team.