Is Club Ball the Beginning or End of High School Athletics?

Good and bad programs (and coaches) exist in travel ball as well as school ball. Where you are coming from determines your opinion.

The QUALITY school programs actually spend more time at PRACTICE drilling correct fundamentals than they spend playing games. Most travel teams spend more time playing games than they spend practicing. Practicing (intensly and correctly) creates the skills necessary to play this game at its highest levels.

On the travel ball circuit more times than not, the athletes who are most fundamentally sound are the ones who are recruited from good school programs. Its sad to watch good athletes who come from weak school programs play travel ball game after game, year after year, and never fully master good basic fundamentals and therefore never reach their highest potential.

There is a need for school ball just as there is a need for travel ball. The two can easily work together. This game (school and travel) is on its way up. Travel ball can benefit from good school programs and school programs can benefit from travel ball.

One added note. The game as a whole, also benefits from the media attention it gets. Local media usually covers school ball, not travel ball.

:imagestor

 

Betterbatter, you bring up a good point with the media covering H.S. ball and not travel ball. Does that mean that a particular news affiliate, whether it be print, radio or t.v. is indifferent about a group of girls within their market succeeding with teammates from another area? Do they care more about "In-Market" rivalries?
That also brings up a question that has been weighing on my mind. How does the kid from Avery, Mitchell, Watauga or Yancey County get involved with a travel ball team with a good reputation so that they can get noticed? The median income around here does not lend itself to this being a possibility even if the child and parent are willing. Is more corporate sponsorship needed? Does travel ball need to be presented as Little League Baseball is?
Does the travel ball coach need to REALLY be paying attention in the stands at H.S. games to look for the kids who have potential, not just looking for the "superstars" who can help he/she "load up" to make themselves look good? Are travel ball teams morally bound to give that kid with potential, but lacking the stats, so far, a chance?
Just something that has been weighing on my mind.

 

better batter---------- Agreed on the media coverage, but that only occurs after a school team is successful in winning lets say (3) State Titles, but you take the average school where most schools fall under this situation ,and you never see them get any media time, and that's where the exposure from travel ball comes from...I believe you are speaking from experience...either you or your daughter plays for one of those stacked high school teams that gets plenty of exposure, but again I bring up the point again take all the travel ball players off the team, and see how much exposure you would still get from the media.............most of the time the ones that play travel ball are the ones that produce the key hit in the game or the diving catch for the last out.....I'm not against high school ball,but I think travel ball teams give a young athlete the full exposure to the game, and the full benefit to the college scouts to see the talent that is out on the field...again Central Cabarrus and some of the bigger schools can challenge me on this statement...........but everybody doesn't run their softball teams as efficient as Monty Sherril, and he is a heck of a coach and my buddy Charlie Blackwelder has one of the "BEST FASTPITCH TEAMS" in the state.........These girls did not learn from their middle school or high school coaches how to play the game.......Their fastpitch coaches taught them how to be aggressive and how to win......Softball Guru

 

You can always tell which topics get the passion out of people. You can also tell which ones have had good experience with their hs coach as well. A lot of good points have been made here. The time that the hs coach gets to prepare his team to play ball a travel team would kill for. But, the hs coach also gets these players (changing) that are green to some extent and has to spend a lot of time developing those players. I will say it before somebody else responds to this post, yes there are few and far between really quality hs coaches. To be honest with you the same can be said to some extent with the travel coaches. I gave up head coaching last year so I could coach under a college coach that I thought would be a great experience for me. It far exceeded my expectations. I found that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. I am not writing this post to promote one coach over another but I feel compelled to at least acknowledge Coach Chris Hawkins of USC UPstate for taking the time and patience to work with a group of young players and patience with me as well. I rediscovered what I had known as a ballplayer many years ago but had not necessarily forgotten but had not put as much emphasis on as I should have. What did I discover? The mental part of the game. We all work hard on the defense the hitting and other essentials of the game. But, to break it all down into how do you mentally respond to each pitch, the score, what inning, the count in each situation, etc. I felt like I had been taken back to school. We as travel coaches get caught up in the tournaments and travel we get to enjoy each weekend. What I mean is this, We get to go out of town at the parents expense (in my case my expense as well) and go on a mini vacation each tournament. Yes, we work hard but have you ever thought that the hs coaches/teachers have to be at school all day and then coach practices every day for months as well as the games to be played? I got into travel ball over 8 years ago and have seen it grow and it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. I may have gotten off track on this topic, interruptions in the office, have to work sometimes you understand but just stating that we all have gotten frustrated with our hs teams some more than others but they will remember their hs years fondly if we help them to remember them the same way. Play summer ball in the summer and hs in the spring (older groups). IN conclusion, one post said that hs ball in the near future will be changed forever or close, I sure hope that does not happen, I hope that the players we have coached in travel ball come back to their hs's and bring with them the passion that they've experience and the desire to share with the next young group of student athletes that are coming along.

 

In response to my own post. I have been critical of hs coaches as well. I would love it if they would be more like the monte's. Only in the quality of the schedule he plays. I have always wanted to go out and play the best. I do not know of any other way to get a true barometer of how good a team really is otherwise. This would be as close to travel ball as you could/can get as a hs team. Go to the big tournaments, like the one in S.C. (azaela I think) and change the N.C. rules on how many games a team can play in a week or day. (tournaments being the only exception to the current rules)........I need to get back to work but hopefully some of what I have said people find to be either informative or sometimes provacative.

 

Affordability of travel ball at the highest levels (or any level actually) will always be an issue. The hotels, flights, food and time away from work for parents is costly. However, for the player who is serious about playing that level of ball there are ways to raise the money to cover the costs.

Some teams provide yearly programs that their players can sell advertising in and the money that each player raises goes into that player's "account" until needed. One of the most succesful means my teams have used over the years is a hit-a-thon. In the 8 years of doing this, I have never had a team raise less than $6000. I have also had players raise over $3000 on their own. (if anyone would like details or the forms we use, email me at [email protected] and I will be more than happy to share this with you.) Again my point is that although it is expensive, there are ways for a player or team to raise the money needed to play at the highest levels. It just takes a little planning and some hard work, but the payoff is worth it.

Also, IMO travel teams aren't really morally bound to do anything. However a quality travel team and coach should provide an opportunity for a player to improve her skills by playing the best competition possible. But is should also be noted that the coaches and teams that do have high morals, team rules that are enforced and treats players with respect are ususally the most successful. The other ones just seem to trade players between themselves year after year and always have excuses as why its always someone else's fault things never go as planned. Sometimes stability of a coach and team over the years is a better indicator of a teams success than wins and losses.

One last thing in regards to the topic of this thread, due to the lack of quality coaches and quality competition, some school districts out west have done away with their high school softball programs. The serious players play travel ball beginning in March and the recreational player plays little league or some other type of rec. ball. Also, many of the travel coaches out there get paid some serious $$ to coach (as many soccer coaches around here do now :imagestor).

 

There are a number of top-notch, quality travel ball programs for the high school girls. With excellent coaches ,that know what it takes to play in college and how to get there.Where I think the current system fails the girls, is in the younger age groups. The ages 12 ,14 are where good fundamentals are learned.If you want to see a difference in the quality of ball in high school this is where it all starts.There needs to be more quality travel ball programs at the younger levels.Bmac is doing an excellent job of this with his teams.A good example for us all.The ten game schedule that my daughter played each season before she reached high school in no way prepared her for pitching in high school.With out the travel ball experience during those years I really dont think she could have handled it. There are a lot of teams at these ages I know, but not many quality ones that stress the fundamentals of the game.It is easier to teach them the fundamentals of the game at 12 than at 16.Once learned they stay with you always.

 

Teams

Teams keep sprouting up each season and therefore talent and coaching gets watered down which hurts the overall effectiveness of NC fastpitch. Each time a parent does not feel their daughter got enough innings, was not the featured player or they felt the coach was not fair, boom another team arises. There are some quality younger teams that have excellent coaching, I would say go watch a few in action and I think U can get what your daughter needs. U are right winning is not everything at that level, fundamentals, sportmanship, and learning the game are much more important. Also, one last thing, try to get to an organization or team that is established so your daughter can either stay with that same group or move through the ranks and play the best competition available.

 

I like the comments about getting the proper fundamentals..........there you go in a nut-shell,middle school especially, the coaches are not well schooled about the game ......and I don't understand why the high school coaches aren't raising cane about it...........hey that's who they have to pull from once they get out of middle school age into their freshman year of high school.By the time a girl is 14 years old and she doesn't understand the fundamentals of the game, it's too late............yet I have heard more negative comments from parents how their middle school SUCKs!!! Why doesn't the high school coaches play a bigger part during middle school tryouts or they may end up shooting their own selves in the foot???? Now, back to travel ball....look at the precentage of success from any big named high school and count the number of kids that are in constant training due to travel ball circuit. Listen, I'm not shooting down high school ball, I'm just making a point.........other than a few IE. schools that I've previously mentioned,kids will get more exposure from travel ball than high school ball..if little Suzy enjoys rec ball or any other form of softball for enjoyment POWER TO HER, but don't expect college coaches to go and sit and watch these types of play.............. Softball Guru

 

Do any of you know of a high school program that sponsors or holds a pre-season or post-season tournament or even a scrimmage for their feeder schools? An excellent opportunity to evaluate, and get to know your future players, that never happens.Somehow where i live it just never gets off the ground.I guess you just take what you get and try to make the best of it.Its easier that way.