High School Softball season in the fall?

The current NC girls softball season is February-May. Does it make more sense to have the softball season played August-November? Possibilities include switching the volleyball season as well (or not). This is a question I've heard discussed at the ballfields from time to time and I was curious as to what the TBR community thoughts were. Oh, new to TBR and I must say that I have been impressed by the breadth of topics and insight by various members.

 

I personally like that idea. Trying to prepare for the season in February and early March out of doors can be a real bear and is makes injury more likely.

The person to answer about the possibility of this ever happening is Pop Rivers. What are your thoughts coach?

 

I've always liked the idea of a H.S. Softball fall season, it would give the college coaches a better chance to watch the kids play.

 

This has been a hot topic on here several times. I don't remember what the official answer is but i know that i would not be in favor of it. My main reason is that if you look at other fall sports they work out almost all summer and while that would be great for high school softball in some aspects, you would have a conflict with travel ball which is vastly more important to the kids being seen. one of the pros i've seen for fall is that it would give them a better chance for colleges to see them, which is not the case. D1 spends alot of the fall in a dead period now. Prime time for colleges to recruit is summer and now we're back to the old travel vs. high school because as i've just stated you would almost have to pick between the two or have your kids practicing 5 days a week, 2-4 hours a day (and that means missing travel practice, plus private instruction as most pitchers have), playing 5-10 games a weekend and also having to decide between scrimmage high school tourneys (played on weekends) or travel tourneys. As for me, leave it be, my kids play both but both prefer softball over volleyball (well Morgan's close because she's pretty good at both) and if they don't want to i won't make them choose between the two. It's high school, they need to have a little fun.

 

Fall season

Georgia has fall ball in HS and then they play travel ball starting in March and have qualified for Nationals in many cases before we play our first game. They have a huge jump on NC and SC in Showcase and Nationals. I also agree fall ball provides better weather for HS.

Some reasons, why not, Colleges are playing in spring and a reduced schedule in fall, Plantation and MB, two big showcases are in the fall and Bat busters have a good one in fall as well as Bandits. It is just a tough thing to do.

 

Pros/Cons

Appropriate weather- it certainly just seems to make good old fashioned common sense to play ball outdoors when the weather is nice. A relatively smaller population of players play TB, compared to the NC high school population of teams so the benefit would have to be larger than to just the travel ball players.

Development of players- Summer ball is frequently used for player development in structured game settings, better preparing more players to begin a high school season. While fall ball can also be used for the same thing, there doesn't seem to be the same overall caliber of play in travel ball during fall season. Except at some of the larger showcases. Probably due to volleyball season but just guessing.
If the season were to switched with volleyball, that may also open up additional athletes to play softball. Many do both. Or soccer.

I have had a daughter playing college ball and one playing high school at the same time. Real tough to see the college player. I agree not a reason to switch seasons but still. As a parent, you want to enjoy all of it.

I talked with a couple of the GA teams at the MB showcases this fall. They were already finished with their high school season. Probably due to not making it real far in the playoffs. The same issue would apply to showcases in May/early June in NC. The ones that are still playing in HS playoffs would typically keep playing for the schools. The rest can play TB.

As far as college recruiting goes, if we are able to do what's best for the girls, then there are ways to work the recruiting issues out. I didn't see as many D1 coaches this year as I recall seeing in past years. Some of it may have been the tournaments we chose to play but I have seen those tournaments in the past have better representation. Just my perception or recollection. However, I did seem to see more DIII, NAIA, and JC schools, which is good. All girls are not cut out to play at larger programs and some really prefer smaller programs, especially if the academic programs fit better and more playing time is involved.

Just food for thought.

 

Keep HS a spring season. Spring ball starts in the cold and Fall ball ends in the cold. Current TB has almost five months when the weather is mostly good and college coaches are free to visit TB Tournaments. The biggest reason this issue comes up all the time is because the TB'ers (adults) are always chomping at the bit to start doing their thing when the weather breaks in the spring.

As for HS, its far better to endure the cold early on, when the team building process is going on, and have great weather for late season and playoffs. Its very difficult to play softball in top form in cold weather due to the nature of the game. A warm weather season finish helps the athletes play to their potential making for better competition, less injury, more exciting games, and helps draw crowds that consist of more than just the players' parents. Average HS playoff games can draw several hundred specatators. Key games in good weather can draw 1000 or more. That would never happen on a Friday night in the fall when the football team is playing.

What we have now is a good formula that shouldn't be changed.

 

I agree. I would not be in favcor of softball in the fall. One can only picture the same cold weather remarks affecting a state championship.

 

This topic is one that is talked about a great deal as the year progresses. It also happens every year among coaches at clinics and different meetings around the State. This proposal has never had much backing among the HS coaches in the State. There are several reasons and here are a few. Whether good, bad, or indifferent, many of the HS coaches in the State also coach football during the Fall. This in itself would cause a great shortage of Softball coaches during the Fall season. Another is Volleyball, Tennis, and Cheerleading. This may seem like a small problem at larger schools, but at smaller schools this would make things difficult. Personally, this year alone, I have 3 potential starters in "08 on the Conference Champion Tennis team, 3 on the Volleyball team, and 3 on the Cheerleading squad. Now, that would be all 9 of my potential starters having to make a choice in the Fall. In the Spring, it is either Softball or Track at our school. Betterbatter was right in the fact that it is very difficult in those early season practices to play the caliber of Softball that everyone would like to play, but teams really need to be playing their best as the season draws to the end. The weather at the end of the season is almost perfect at times. In the past, the NCHSAA has never given this proposal very much weight. In the years to come, it may gain support among coaches, but I don't think it will garner enough to make the change to the Fall.