NC vs SC College Rosters

Since there are many, many veteran softball folks on this board I'd like to get folks opinions on an observation I have made... I appreciate in advance your comments.

If you review the rosters of UNC, NC State, ECU, WCU, Charlotte and App State you will see many in state players. WCU = 14, Charlotte = 11, App St = 10, UNC & NC St = 9 and ECU =5.

By contrast if you review the rosters at S Carolina, Furman, Winthrop, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina and USC Upstate you will see very few in state kids. The exception is USC Upstate which has 9 SC players. Winthrop = 6, USC = 4, Furman =2, C of C = 1, Coastal = 0.

One could say, "N Carolina has better talent in state and of course has a larger population". Could be... But, I also find it interesting that very little of the N Carolina talent is on the SC college rosters.

Again, USC Upstate has 4 NC players. Furman has 2 NC players, USC has 1, C of C has 1, Winthrop and Coastal have 0.

I had the opportunity to hear a baseball coach from one of the SC schools speak recently. He said he likes to recruit SC kids because of the assistance in state kids can receive through the state's academic scholarship programs. This helps him stretch his athletic scholarship money further. With the exception of Chris Hawkins, it appears the softbal coaches in the state do not have the same philosophy (I realize Furman is a private school, but I listed them since they are D-1).

I'm curious to hear why folks think there are so few Carolina girls on the S Carolina college rosters?

One could simply say the talent level of the SC kids is insufficient. But, the sheer number of NC kids littering the NC college rosters says that the talent in NC is there. But, it also isn't making its way onto the SC college rosters. Why is this?

 

Great question

You must be a researcher by trade. On the SC players attending NC and SC schools, my travel team friends have told me that it is becoming increasing difficult to find kids in SC to play travel ball. There is some great talent as we have seen with the few SC teams that attend the major showcase events. Many Ga teams have taken top SC talent in travel ball and I think if U look at D-11 and community colleges in SC, U would see a huge number of SC kids. Coker, Limestone, Erskine, Lander, Spartenburg Methodist are probably heavy SC kids. Academically could SC be behind NC and therefore prevent some quality SC kids from getting into larger schools and especially in NC schools? Maybe another subject.

NC kids going to SC schools! I have had many SC schools recruit my players but few kids that wanted to go out of state to school. I am sure, I could have had several more D-1 players but many wanted to go to school close to home and limited their choices. Nothing wrong with them doing so, just making a comment to hopefully answer the question asked in post. Lastly, some of coaches in SC are not as outgoing and open in conversation as NC schools so it is hard to really know of their interest in your player, that hurts as well.

Not sure I answered any of your questions but hope I at least gave some helpful insight.

 

My First Thought Would Be ----

One reason maybe that schools like Coastal recruit from the west coast and other parts of the country. Personally there is so much talent in the Carolina's that I just understand why they go clear across the country to get their players, but that's their choice !! I think a lot of the college coaches have had an eye opener over the past 5 years and now have realized that home cooking is better than take out,and that's is what we are seeing over the recent years, home girls making these local college rosters, and I believe this is just the beginning of the talent that will be exposed over the next 5-10 years in the Carolina's.




Guru

 

Appreciate the responses so far

Guru, I hope you are right!

Abbey Fan, I appreciate your thoughts. You are close, finance guy by trade...

I can't speak for the entire state of SC, but I know the Upstate pretty well. You mention that folks are having a tough time finding players. I believe that is true but not the whole story. I believe the real issue is a lack of quality travel ball organizations. The Carolina Crush has probably been the premier Upstate organization. However, they have had a lot of internal issues over the past year or so. They will still field a strong 16U team and good 14U squad. The ThunderCats organization is stable, but not necessarily spectacular. I will give them props for placing players at Furman the past few seasons! A new team on the scene this summer will be the Carolina Elite 18U squad. Other good programs like the Palmetto Gators, Southern Slamz, etc. exist. But, the area is truly lacking organizations like the Lady Blues, Carolina Cardinals, Curve, etc. that you have in NC. For example, the Carolina Elite will only field a team in one age group. With continual turn over in the travel organizations (from a coaching and teams offered perspective) it is tough for the area to develop to its potential in my opinion. Yes, some kids are traveling to GA or NC to play. But, much like you mention as a reason NC girls don't go to SC schools, most kids don't want to travel out of state to play travel ball.
We would love to see a top notch softball person come to the Upstate to put a great travel program together!

I guess I'm off topic here...But, I did want to respond to your comments from my perspective. I appreciate your feedback.

 

Winthrop

Winthrop's main recruiting area is Canada. 10 out of 20 rostered players are from Canada.

They do not recruit Charlotte / Mecklenburg at all and I am not sure why!

 

Clemson

Can someone explain to me why Clemson has no softball program? Several years ago they chose rowing over softball - I am sure it was for financial reasons.

That is a shame!

 

Assistant Coach for Winthrop, Melissa Basilio, coached in Markham, Ontario and Pickering. I guess she must have some roots and connections there.

 

I am not sure why Clemson made their decision that way, but sometimes it comes down to Title IX. I asked someone I know who works at a local NC university why they don't have a women's softball program. They stated it was due to Title IX. They basically would have to offer the same type of facility available to the men's program(field on campus, fieldhouse with locker rooms, etc). Right now, those things are not available at this university and it would cost some major bucks to purchase the land and put in a softball complex like the men's baseball field. It is in thier future expansion and plans, but not in the next 5 years.

 

Clemson Has Rowing Not Softball

Again, I'm no expert, just read a lot... The reason Clemson doesn't have softball is the same reason a Pac 10 school like USC doesn't have one. Softball isn't self sufficient. In order to become Title IX compliant, many schools added women's rowing. As the previous poster said, the facilities need to be "gender equal". If you only have women's rowing it is pretty easy to pass that test.

I'm not 100% sure how to link another website. But, I'll attempt to do so. This is a great website (college oriented). The posts on this site will explain this rowing thing better than I can.... http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/robocoach/vpost?id=1511908

I mean no disrespect here. But, it is truly a shame that a school with the financial capability of Clemson doesn't have softball. While many smaller schools like Erskine, North Greenville, Limestone, etc. do.

 

Oh like we haven't...

Oh like we haven't heard that same exact story over and over and over!!! I don't know about the rest of you but I am plain sick of hearing this crap!!!