Taking a Break for a Year and returning

[ball_junkie4me]

What do college scouts and High School coaches think if a child takes a year break ?

[Ted]

Age?

[Bleacher Creature]

agree. age makes a diff
mine stopped travel ball during 12-u but came back @ 14-u with drive and love for the game she had when she first started.
i like to think she has made up any lost ground during this year but i am her dad .

[Tucson]

It really depends on the player - and so many other things.

At my sons' HS, you were done if you ever quit.

But, there is always exceptions. If you have the talent and can hit HRs, I bet they will make a spot for you.

[DonnieS]

My 17 y/o quit playing back when she was 12-13 saying 'Softball is your thing dad, not mine.' My youngest was going strong, I was disappointed but knew she would focus on track, basketball, volleyball, etc. which she did. She traveled with us (younger dd's team ) and fell back in love with it only to come down with mono and miss 6 more months - she came back with a vengeance.

[QuickStudy]

What do you mean "taking a break"? If you mean from HIGH SCHOOL softball...

I know of several players who have received scholarships from top 25 softball programs who elect not to play high school softball (before and after receiving the scholarship), but continue to play club softball.

In fact, one of Stanford's recruits in the high school class of '08 only played one year of high school softball.

[softballperformance]

It is probably not the best thing but there is many cases where athletes have returned to sport successfully after a year or even years off. Think Michael Jordan as one famous example.

In Canada, in 2000, Hayley Wickenheiser, probably the most famous female hockey player on the planet, decided to tryout for the Canadian Softball Olympic Team. In the early 1990's, she was quite an accomplished athlete and when to the Junior Worlds in 1995. After not playing for a few years, she committed for a year to softball and trained hard even doing a softball season at Simon Fraser University - that was during my first year as an assistant coach there.

Well, she worked hard enough that she actually made the Olympic Softball Team. She went back to hockey full-time after that but that a good example.

If the athlete is active and does another sport, I don't think it will hurt too much as long as she committed.

Best part is to tell university coaches why. Bottom line, they want player that can play. Can she?

Marc Dagenais
Softball Peak Perfomrance Coach

Softball Blog - Tons of Softball Tips and Drills