Softball Scholarships...do the math!

[Chrusher]

I am new to HB and I now find myself having a dd playing select/travel softball. I stumbled upon this forum while doing research on this crazy world I’ve come to know is NTX softball. I find it comical all the excessive talk about softball scholarships and although there seems to be a lot of very good talent her in NTX, I think that if you run the numbers, it puts things in perspective and can almost disillusion some. I stole this excerpt from Cindy Bristow from an online article. I will post the weblink and the excerpt. Not sure who Cindy is, but I think the article is dead on. From Ms Bristow:
“I want to show you just how scarce those softball scholarships really are. And, why it might really be better to play softball because you absolutely love it and/or want to get better at it, instead of playing it in order to get a softball scholarship.
• Fun is pivotal; If it isn't "fun", young people won't play a sport
• Skill development is a crucial aspect of fun; it is more important than winning even among the best athletes.
• 70 percent of kids quit playing sports by age 13 -- and never play them again (source: National Alliance for Sports)
• 2,250,000 youth softball players in the US (approx 150,000 teams)
• 235,360 High School softball players in the US (14,710 teams)
• 915 Total NCAA colleges with softball Programs (all 3 divisions)
• 262 division 1 and 253 division 2 colleges that offer softball scholarships
• 4,965 total NCAA softball scholarships available
• 1 in 500 softball players will be awarded a NCAA College Softball Scholarship”
http://www.softballexcellence.com/Page. ... n_art_0008

[etx bd]

So... you're telling us your DD is the NTX Ray-Ray and the rest of us shouldn't bother?

[Chrusher]

Actually I am blessed, I have my own business, so I don’t need scholarship assistance…although I wouldn’t turn one down . I could care less if my dd received a softball scholarship, and I let her know this. We do it for fun, and we don’t get too serious about it. God only knows if she has enough talent to get anywhere in softball, but regardless, she will still attend college. I just wanted to illustrate that too many people are focused on scholarships and although it is a great goal to have; reality dictates otherwise.

[NoSkillzSoftball]

I'd prefer my DD not get a scholarship to play D1 softball because I don't want her to get a "soft" degree.

[FastTrack]

The numbers do look stagering. But you have to take into consderation, 25% wont make the grades, 25% get hurt and 25% find the man of there life! So the numbers do go down.
I talked to a coach at a recent showcase that said over 200 scholarships are left out there every year and they divide it up among the other players. They are out there you just have to find them.

[17Cards]

There are plenty of schools offering scholarships at all levels.
If your DD really wants to play college ball, then she will make it happen in the classroom and on the field.

Grades are a huge part of what you will and wont get.

[etx bd]

Actually I am blessed, I have my own business, so I don’t need scholarship assistance…although I wouldn’t turn one down . I could care less if my dd received a softball scholarship, and I let her know this. We do it for fun, and we don’t get too serious about it. God only knows if she has enough talent to get anywhere in softball, but regardless, she will still attend college. I just wanted to illustrate that too many people are focused on scholarships and although it is a great goal to have; reality dictates otherwise.

Yeah, I am blessed with my own business as well, and just as soon as this economy turns around I should be able to start buying groceries again ... But I digress. Yes it is about having fun and we need to keep that in perspective. Welcome to HB.

[Heyall]

While CIndy Bristow certainly has the credentials to speak on this matter, I do have to wonder about some of the numbers she's putting up there;

• 70 percent of kids quit playing sports by age 13 -- and never play them again (source: National Alliance for Sports) - Good! That makes less kids competing for my kid's money! In fairness, she's probably using 5-6 yr old T_Ball as the baseline. NOT kids who are playing travel on a serious level.
• 2,250,000 youth softball players in the US (approx 150,000 teams)
[bProb incl rec?][/b]
• 235,360 High School softball players in the US (14,710 teams) - Irrelevant - of those 235,000+ high-schoolers, likely less than 1/3 of them are travel-quality players anyway and sadly, a number of those will never go to college.
• 915 Total NCAA colleges with softball Programs (all 3 divisions)
• 262 division 1 and 253 division 2 colleges that offer softball scholarships - What about the NAIA schools? There are over 300 addt'l schools not included in this count and according to the NAIA website, over 90% of them offer athletic scholarships in some form.
• 4,965 total NCAA softball scholarships available - Not including the NAIA money... better up the count by another 300 or so
• 1 in 500 softball players will be awarded a NCAA College Softball Scholarship”. However, many MANY more will be attending college on other forms of financial aid such as academic scholarships, grants and needs-based assistance.

Alternately, lets take 235,360 and use roughly 1/2 just to be fair. One half of those are quality softball players, capable of recewiving some form of athletic money in addition to whatever else they may receive. Now we're down to 117,680.

Of those 117,680, let's say 25% don't make the grades - down to 88,260

Drop another 10% for injuries - 79,434

Drop another 25% for misc things (like boys) that cause them to quit softball and/or school entirely - 59,575

So now we're down to roughly 60,000 kids.
Of those 60,000, how many are going to go to college and use softball to get there? I would guesstimate at least another 20-30% do not wish to play softball in college, so let's round things out to a nice even 50,000.

So we have 50,000 kids annually who are vying for softball money at roughly 800 D1, D2 and NAIA schools. Let's not forget that nationally, a number of these kids will also go to JUCO and I'm just guessing here but I'd be reasonably sure that a small majority will never play at a 4-yr school after that. So of the 50,000 let's say 25% go to JUCO. Now we're down to about 37,000 who are actually attempting to secure softball scholarships at universites and colleges throughout the country.

Of those 37,000 how many will receive academic money and/or some other form of assistance in front of athletic money? No real way to say although I'm sure the statistic is out there somewhere. However, staying at 37,000 going after 4,965 scholarships, we're now seeing that 1 in 7 travelball-quality players are able to receive some amount athletic money.

(Unless of course, you're RayRay in which case a scholarship is a foregone conclusion!)

Above all else - it's grades and studies that make the difference. As we all know, unlike it's baseball counterpart, softball can be a means to college but college is NOT a means to softball !

[PlayingfortheOCB]

Although the numbers appear to be daunting, you can do a lot to increase your chances!

Here are my recommendations and they are in no particular order but all are extremely important if you want to earn that college scholarship.

1) get great grades and do your best on your testing.... there is more academic money that athletic money.
2) get Cathi Aradi's book on the recruiting process. It has a wealth of information and includes the names and addresses of all the current coaches and institutions. The list is updated yearly.
3) work hard on your game and become a complete player... not just at team practice but outside of team practice. It was always very easy to tell which kids had been working on their game. If you have a weakness... work on it! Make your weakness your strength. Always work hard to improve. Unfortunately, this requires sacrifice at times!
4)Find great coaching for both your travel team play and your individual workouts. I can't say enough about the value of great coaching... and it will usually open a door, crack a window or somehow help you get noticed.
5) play on the very best team that your DD can make where she will become an impact player. A key player on the field in the big game. The team doesn't have to be the very best team but the team should be very competitive.... If you can't make one of the "Top" teams then at least make a team with great coaching and offer great exposure.
6) I am sure you have heard this before... if you can pitch or hit you can play.... It's pretty hard to be a "Stud" pitcher but not impossible and not everyone is going to be a great hitter but between the two... being a great hitter is the easier task. My recommendations are to hit, hit, hit.... and hit some more. Work on being a great hitter.
7) when in doubt... refer back to #1 on the list... get great grades and do well on your testing!!!

[BenAround]

I'd prefer my DD not get a scholarship to play D1 softball because I don't want her to get a "soft" degree.

Hmmm, this almost guarantees she will. How many athletes walk out (or hobble out) after four years with a communications major?