more softball

[XMan]

#1 About a third of the girls are already on scholarships at colleges whether redshirted or full time playing Freshman
#2 When most folks say a full ride they refer to the max allowed by that particular school. See the info on Title IX.
#3 Daddy sports is Little League--This 18 & U is mostly extremely competitive girls that have trained for years for these college opportunities.
#4 You LaGrange posters have succeeded in cutting down every girl in sports that does not play for LaGrange! Why? The LG girls seem to be great youth with very strange fans.
#5 I truly rejoice in seeing such a great youth phenomenon spreading across America but it seems there are always those that cut down the girls that enjoy developing their athletic skills in year round sport endeavors as well as representing their HSs at the best of their trained ability...sad



1. A third of what girls are on scholarships? The ones in this 18 & U tourney or girls at college?
2. The NCAA decides how many scholarships each sport gets according to division. Each school can then decided to give this many or less, but never more. Example, DIA football gets 85, DIAA football gets 75, and baseball gets maximum of 11.7. I dont know off hand how many softball gets. These scholarships are then divided up amonst the players as the coach/university sees fit. As you can see with baseball 11.7 scholarships and usually around 24 players, you do the math.
3. This is still daddy ball. Did the coaches of this team have girls on the team? Ive also seen some extremely competitive little league games. Level of competition does not seperate daddy ball from high school sports
4. I am not a LaGrange poster and Im not cutting any of the girls down. It is great that they played and won and all that. I just dont want parents of other kids on here reading things that arent true about scholarships. Every parent thinks their kid will get a scholarship because of this and that really messes things up.
5. Again, not meant to cut down any girls, just posted to bring out the reality.

[Etexpirate]

Originally posted by XMan
#


1. A third of what girls are on scholarships? The ones in this 18 & U tourney or girls at college?
2. The NCAA decides how many scholarships each sport gets according to division. Each school can then decided to give this many or less, but never more. Example, DIA football gets 85, DIAA football gets 75, and baseball gets maximum of 11.7. I dont know off hand how many softball gets. These scholarships are then divided up amonst the players as the coach/university sees fit. As you can see with baseball 11.7 scholarships and usually around 24 players, you do the math.
3. This is still daddy ball. Did the coaches of this team have girls on the team? Ive also seen some extremely competitive little league games. Level of competition does not seperate daddy ball from high school sports
4. I am not a LaGrange poster and Im not cutting any of the girls down. It is great that they played and won and all that. I just dont want parents of other kids on here reading things that arent true about scholarships. Every parent thinks their kid will get a scholarship because of this and that really messes things up.
5. Again, not meant to cut down any girls, just posted to bring out the reality.

1. I don't know the percentage of girls playing softball at the collegiate level that have some sort of financial assistance.... But every girl but one on the Blast is commited to a college with some sort of scholarship assistance if that helps put it in perspective. Full ride? Who knows.. And OC didn't state that they "ALL" got full rides.

2. All of the parents involved in select ball are fully aware of how many scholarships are available.. But you must not realize just how many D1 schools are handing them out..and also JUCO's. There are an amazing amount of girls playing Fastpitch softball..to say a third received some sort of assistance would not be an exaggeration.

College scouts? I met with 3 this weekend. Met with a big 12 coach the weekend before and arranged an official visit. Have been attending tournaments since my DD was 14 watching the scounting process. Maybe you need to get out more to be more informed of how it really works...

3. Daddy ball?? There are quite a few teams that there isn't a DD of the coach on the team. The Organization will have several teams in their club either being sponsored by an outside source or financed by fund raising activities. High school ball doesn't even compare to Travel ball other than the rules of the game. Not to say one is better than the other..but it's not apples to apples by comparison.
The schedule and endurence and self motivation required to play ball at the select level is non compareable to a High school season. again..you need to get out more..

4. All parents wanting the reality about scholarship opportunities will probably go to the NCAA website to get their information.. Reading OC's comments on a 3A website will probably not influence many parents to rush out and buy a ball and glove expecting a scholarship.. Give educated folks a bit more credit..

5. your goal wasn't to cut down girls.. though I would say inadvertently you effectively minimized the efforts of the girls that played their guts out all week for their fans, college scounts and most importantly ...themselves this past week. You were trying to make OC look stupid and misinformed.
And your comments have nothing to do with reality..becasue you are sadly misinformed.

edited because I can't spell...

[BTEXDAD]

Congrats to all the girls at tournament.
I'll put my two cents in and then get ready for some football (and volleyball).
From what I was advised, D-1 schools have 12 softball scholarships available for full team. It may actually be the 11.7 that xman mentioned, just being rounded off.
Some kids may get academic scholarships and still make team and play softball. They are therefore on financial assistance, but not on an athletic scholarship. Some have both academic and athletic scholarships. Some simply walk on and make team with no scholarshiips available till next year or not at all.
Little League is definitely daddy ball. Younger age groups in tournament ball are often very much daddy ball also.
The elite programs have moved beyond that though. Although there may be some dads still coaching, often it involves people who are full time coaches. They make (very good) living from coaching tournament teams, giving batting and/or pitching lessons.
One thing I will say. Hopefully no one thinks they are going to play tournament ball with an elite team for 8-10 years and come out ahead financially by getting a good scholarship. Put a pencil to all your fees, lessons, hotels and gas. Then calculate what you'd have with that money having been invested in good mutual fund for 8-10 years.
You have to look at if as a way to spend time and travel with your child to various places and have fun watching them play a game they love. Hopefully you are fortunate enough to have your child on a team where kids and parents get along to make it more enjoyable for all. The scholarship just gives them a chance to play the game they love a few more years before they have to settle down, get a job, have kids and start the process over again.