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Is high school team a "must" to play in college?

What's on your mind?

by Els489 » Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:04 pm

My daughter is starting catcher on her travel team, and although she's on the varsity team at school, prefers not to play there. Not a fan of most of the girls and the program. How important is high school for coaches who are recruiting?

Thanks!
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by texmex45 » Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:17 pm

Spazsdad wrote:If you are not playing HS ball because of a conflict with another activity it’s probably no big deal. But it would be a bit of a red flag to a coach knowing she didn’t play because she didn’t like her teammates or coaches.
What does that say about her adaptability and flexibility with situations she doesn’t control. What happens if she get to college and doesn’t like her teammates? What if she doesn’t particularly care for members of the coaching staff?
Probably not the end of the world but could give a coach pause when considering her.



Spaz...you are 100% right on. Adaptability is everything, and not liking your HS teammates or coaches is a red flag and quite frankly petty BS. Play because you love the game, play because your contribution will help the team. Elevate the level of play of those around you. Or, you can snivel and not play. Easy choice.
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by 110% » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:16 pm

It can also come across as arrogant. I play travel and I'm wasting my time here. She should enjoy playing for her school and with a travel ball background should excel.
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by TheTownUSA » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:43 pm

Els489 wrote:My daughter is starting catcher on her travel team, and although she's on the varsity team at school, prefers not to play there. Not a fan of most of the girls and the program. How important is high school for coaches who are recruiting?

Thanks!



As is often the case here at The Bucket, a couple of our resident "experts" chimed in with their opinions without really qualifying the circumstances or even wanting to know them. Please forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do. There are MANY legitimate reasons why your daughter may not want to play high school softball. You didn't elaborate, so I will offer a couple of good examples.

For starters, time is a valuable commodity for serious students as they move up grade levels to their senior year. Not all high school programs are like Norco or Mater Dei, where they end their season expecting to play for the State Championship. Some programs are downright shitty, where the school's administrative assistant serves as coach/babysitter for various team sports, because they need the extra $3K that comes with the gig. Also, the "players" may not be playing the sport for love of the game, but more so for the PE credits, so they don't have to take PE after their freshman year. Some of the fellas on this forum may not know it, but there are some high school teams out there that would get waxed by a good 12U PGF premier travel team. That's a true story.

What's more relevant are these few things if she wants to play college ball. First, she has outstanding grades, SAT scores and is an all around good student, where the principal or another respected authority figure is willing to vouch for her in that regard. Two, she has shown some level of community service or extra-curricular activity to demonstrate she is well-rounded and not a self-absorbed A-hole. Lastly, she is an incredible athlete going up against elite talent, with the stats to prove it and a coach who will vouch for her attitude and work ethic. Also, that she can show initiative on her own without being prodded by her parents.

If she has these attributes, most college coaches will overlook that she didn't want to waste her time playing for a mediocre high school program that never demonstrated any ambition or desire to take even one of their teams to a Division IV playoff, and only fielded a team because they had to. If she can go yard off a TB pitcher that throws 70mph heaters, you will find that college coaches can be VERY forgiving.
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by Blind Assassin » Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:25 am

TheTownUSA wrote:
Els489 wrote:My daughter is starting catcher on her travel team, and although she's on the varsity team at school, prefers not to play there. Not a fan of most of the girls and the program. How important is high school for coaches who are recruiting?

Thanks!



As is often the case here at The Bucket, a couple of our resident "experts" chimed in with their opinions without really qualifying the circumstances or even wanting to know them. Please forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do. There are MANY legitimate reasons why your daughter may not want to play high school softball. You didn't elaborate, so I will offer a couple of good examples.

For starters, time is a valuable commodity for serious students as they move up grade levels to their senior year. Not all high school programs are like Norco or Mater Dei, where they end their season expecting to play for the State Championship. Some programs are downright shitty, where the school's administrative assistant serves as coach/babysitter for various team sports, because they need the extra $3K that comes with the gig. Also, the "players" may not be playing the sport for love of the game, but more so for the PE credits, so they don't have to take PE after their freshman year. Some of the fellas on this forum may not know it, but there are some high school teams out there that would get waxed by a good 12U PGF premier travel team. That's a true story.

What's more relevant are these few things if she wants to play college ball. First, she has outstanding grades, SAT scores and is an all around good student, where the principal or another respected authority figure is willing to vouch for her in that regard. Two, she has shown some level of community service or extra-curricular activity to demonstrate she is well-rounded and not a self-absorbed A-hole. Lastly, she is an incredible athlete going up against elite talent, with the stats to prove it and a coach who will vouch for her attitude and work ethic. Also, that she can show initiative on her own without being prodded by her parents.

If she has these attributes, most college coaches will overlook that she didn't want to waste her time playing for a mediocre high school program that never demonstrated any ambition or desire to take even one of their teams to a Division IV playoff, and only fielded a team because they had to. If she can go yard off a TB pitcher that throws 70mph heaters, you will find that college coaches can be VERY forgiving.


Great non-advice and some advice to do something really stupid.

Time is a commodity.....sure. Her TB team will take up a lot. If she sits out, she likely gets to practice-only with them for the HS Varsity season. She's a catcher....great to have a good one, but pitchers are always king. Just because she plays TB doesn't mean she is a great catcher. A statement to a prospective recruiter is that you played and you dominated. Refusing to play will NEVER be considered a plus if you aren't doing it for another VERY GOOD reason. "I don't like the girls or the coach" is the WORST reason. If your kid is a borderline college player she won't play in college because of this. If she is good enough, she may not get to go to the school she wants to go to because of this mistake. Coaches recruit with a list of players and go to events in order to remove players from their list. You should never give a coach a reason to remove you from the list.
"I don't look for trouble....trouble looks for me." - Five Finger Death Punch
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by Schmick » Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:03 am

TheTownUSA wrote:
Els489 wrote:My daughter is starting catcher on her travel team, and although she's on the varsity team at school, prefers not to play there. Not a fan of most of the girls and the program. How important is high school for coaches who are recruiting?

Thanks!



As is often the case here at The Bucket, a couple of our resident "experts" chimed in with their opinions without really qualifying the circumstances or even wanting to know them. Please forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do. There are MANY legitimate reasons why your daughter may not want to play high school softball. You didn't elaborate, so I will offer a couple of good examples.

For starters, time is a valuable commodity for serious students as they move up grade levels to their senior year. Not all high school programs are like Norco or Mater Dei, where they end their season expecting to play for the State Championship. Some programs are downright shitty, where the school's administrative assistant serves as coach/babysitter for various team sports, because they need the extra $3K that comes with the gig. Also, the "players" may not be playing the sport for love of the game, but more so for the PE credits, so they don't have to take PE after their freshman year. Some of the fellas on this forum may not know it, but there are some high school teams out there that would get waxed by a good 12U PGF premier travel team. That's a true story.

What's more relevant are these few things if she wants to play college ball. First, she has outstanding grades, SAT scores and is an all around good student, where the principal or another respected authority figure is willing to vouch for her in that regard. Two, she has shown some level of community service or extra-curricular activity to demonstrate she is well-rounded and not a self-absorbed A-hole. Lastly, she is an incredible athlete going up against elite talent, with the stats to prove it and a coach who will vouch for her attitude and work ethic. Also, that she can show initiative on her own without being prodded by her parents.

If she has these attributes, most college coaches will overlook that she didn't want to waste her time playing for a mediocre high school program that never demonstrated any ambition or desire to take even one of their teams to a Division IV playoff, and only fielded a team because they had to. If she can go yard off a TB pitcher that throws 70mph heaters, you will find that college coaches can be VERY forgiving.



In your effort to appear pompous and condescending you accuse the "resident experts" of giving advice without qualifying the circumstances.
The OP gave the circumstances when he stated his DD didn't like her HS teammates or the program.
The only assumption that the "resident experts" made was that "the program" meant the HS coaches.
Now that assumption is probably fair and accurate just like me assuming you're a douche who makes long-winded but highly irrelevant posts because you think they make you look smart and you can get in jabs at people you're jealous of, and you likely enjoy the smell of your own farts.
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by Els489 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:20 am

Love the responses! To clarify, she IS going to play HS ball. Was just curious about college recruiting in case she didn't. The problem with her team is mainly the girls don't take it as serious as she does. She is one of only a handful of travel players and she takes softball seriously. Combine that with some "daddy ball" and you can see why she isn't thrilled. She understand the situation and how it can look to college coaches so she is going to rise above.

Thanks again.
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by TheTownUSA » Tue Sep 01, 2020 11:32 am

Els489 wrote:Love the responses! To clarify, she IS going to play HS ball. Was just curious about college recruiting in case she didn't. The problem with her team is mainly the girls don't take it as serious as she does. She is one of only a handful of travel players and she takes softball seriously. Combine that with some "daddy ball" and you can see why she isn't thrilled. She understand the situation and how it can look to college coaches so she is going to rise above.

Thanks again.



My pleasure! As you can probably tell from some of the other responses, The Bucket is HUGE on conformity among the 5 or 6 resident experts. God forbid anyone use their critical thinking skills before rendering an opinion, or they might just find themselves subjected to sophomoric ridicule and possibly even ejected due to the cancel culture mentality that exists with some of the moderators.

The thing about conformity, or "yes men" is that you can't really learn anything from them. Be assured, if your daughter is an outstanding student, an upright citizen, is one hell of a good athlete, and can write a compelling letter explaining to a college coach why she wants to play for her, she WILL get that coaches attention.

Some of these fellas don't know this, but catcher is the most valuable position on the team. The catcher is equivalent to being the quarterback of a football team. Catchers are often good hitters, because they get to see pitches cross the strikezone much more than other position players. If these other guys haven't figured it out by now, I'm not going to explain it for them.

Lastly, the college coach is judging your daughter's character and ability, NOT YOURS. Contrary to public opinion, if Charlie Manson fathered a daughter that pitched like Jennie Finch, and was a peach of a girl, any college coach that's worth a damn will not hold it against her that her dad was a serial killer. College coaches are often more mature and wiser than travel ball coaches. They understand that there are often extenuating circumstances that are beyond the athlete's control. If your daughter encounters a coach that doesn't understand this, they probably weren't worth playing for, so nothing lost.

Lastly, some of the fellas on this forum can be amusing to banter with, but $3.50 and their opinion will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks and not much else.
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by Chin Music » Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:49 pm

Catcher is the most valuable position? You just verified that u don’t know much about softball or the recruiting process.
You can write a letter to explain........
If you’re writing letters to explain yourself the red flag has already been risen.
Sure I’ve had kids that played in College and didn’t play for their HS. team and the questions were asked. No it didn’t affect that process (D3- NAIA) but who knows who may also had been in that pool.
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by Blind Assassin » Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:24 pm

TheTownUSA wrote:
Els489 wrote:Love the responses! To clarify, she IS going to play HS ball. Was just curious about college recruiting in case she didn't. The problem with her team is mainly the girls don't take it as serious as she does. She is one of only a handful of travel players and she takes softball seriously. Combine that with some "daddy ball" and you can see why she isn't thrilled. She understand the situation and how it can look to college coaches so she is going to rise above.

Thanks again.



My pleasure! As you can probably tell from some of the other responses, The Bucket is HUGE on conformity among the 5 or 6 resident experts. God forbid anyone use their critical thinking skills before rendering an opinion, or they might just find themselves subjected to sophomoric ridicule and possibly even ejected due to the cancel culture mentality that exists with some of the moderators.

The thing about conformity, or "yes men" is that you can't really learn anything from them. Be assured, if your daughter is an outstanding student, an upright citizen, is one hell of a good athlete, and can write a compelling letter explaining to a college coach why she wants to play for her, she WILL get that coaches attention.

Some of these fellas don't know this, but catcher is the most valuable position on the team. The catcher is equivalent to being the quarterback of a football team. Catchers are often good hitters, because they get to see pitches cross the strikezone much more than other position players. If these other guys haven't figured it out by now, I'm not going to explain it for them.

Lastly, the college coach is judging your daughter's character and ability, NOT YOURS. Contrary to public opinion, if Charlie Manson fathered a daughter that pitched like Jennie Finch, and was a peach of a girl, any college coach that's worth a damn will not hold it against her that her dad was a serial killer. College coaches are often more mature and wiser than travel ball coaches. They understand that there are often extenuating circumstances that are beyond the athlete's control. If your daughter encounters a coach that doesn't understand this, they probably weren't worth playing for, so nothing lost.

Lastly, some of the fellas on this forum can be amusing to banter with, but $3.50 and their opinion will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks and not much else.


:roll: That's 30 seconds I'll never get back.
"I don't look for trouble....trouble looks for me." - Five Finger Death Punch
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