NCAA softball still dominated by regions

...sort of a philosophical post i guess...

speaking with several oc batbuster parents last summer. in a nutshell, they told me that when my kid was playing volleyball, basketball etc., theirs was playing softball. when my kids' homework was done, she was watching tv, hanging with friends, huntin, fishin, etc., theirs was in the batting cage. the west coast kids play year round. they have the weather for it. a lot of east coast coaches attend the west coast showcases to recruit. UNCs pitcher last season was from the west i believe as was tennessees monica abbott. i believe because of the environment, weather, infrastructure out west, they are able to produce top players on a more consistent basis. ergo, the pac 10s and other western conferences have won more championships to this point. be interesting to see how many pitchers in the SEC and ACC are from the west coast. it is after all a pitchers game. saw UNC and Tennessee coaches hawking the OC batbusters like buzzards last year! if the east coast officiandos can find a way to develop their kids on a day in day out year round basis, then the consistency of their play will rise and UNC wont have to go west to recruit. just an opinion. philosophically. so if this is the SECs year, will it be with a west coast pitcher/players or with east coast pitcher/ players?

 

Regional

I think that all sports are regional to some degree, just thinking about the big three, Football, Basketball, and Baseball, you could make a case for a regional theme to all Football is dominated by the SEC, Basketball goes to the ACC and Big East and Baseball is a Southern part of the country thing,with schools from many conf.

Softball has and will always be associated with the west coast and for good reason, they want it more and they have the history to breed new generations of ballplayers, just like Indiana breeds Basketball and Florida breeds Football. It is what they do for entertainment and socializing.

The biggest issue is the younger generations learning the game before they get to HS because they will not learn it there, and then it is to late for most and interest is lost. Population and parks also have a lot to do with the development of players as the numbers are in place out west. North Carolina is not nearly as populated as SoCal and other areas of the south, there for its harder to get the numbers to chose from.

Stating the obivous I know but we don't have kids playing in the street like we used to and the parks are to far away so if it's not an organized event they don't play. But in the regions that are suscessful those kids get after it on a regular day to day basis and that is just what they do for enjoyment.

 

This.

The LA basin which is about 100 mile radius centered around OC has over 24 million people living in it. For any given team, they have a lot of kids to chose from to build a team. They have the climate, the facilities, the money, etc... This explains why so much talent "appears" to come from that area. Its a small country.

But the bigger question is why dont those kids want to play at NC schools? Why does some of our best talent leave the state to play? (Before you get wound up again, some great talent stays also) Without getting all defensive about our schools, why dont the top kids want to play there? The fact is that UNC is the most sought after state school to attend in the country, basketball shows that... simple application data shows that. What is missing at NCSU, at UNC, etc... Is it the culture towards women's sports in the ACC? Duke, Clemson, Wake (did I miss any?) dont have softball teams.

 

Miami

Miami has no softball team. With all the $$$$$$ in S Fla. I may could understand Duke or Wake. But not Clemson or Miami. Are these so football oriented that SB would not work? FLA and ALB football schools and SB is doing very well. Getting back to the thread. ACC softball is getting better. UNC top pitcher this yr was from Atlanta. Top 2 hitters from Atlanta area. UNC has 2 freshmen from North Davidson, 1 from Butler that was NC POY....

With TB playing now in NC from early FEB till mid/late NOV the girls coming up are getting better.

 

while that may be true lets also remember that softball plays almost twice the amount of games that basketball plays in a season. so while this coach or that coach has won over 1000 games you can't compare them to other coaches in different sports, especially when they had twice the games in a season.

 

Weather?

I wounder if the climate has any bearing on the choice a blue chip player makes as to a college choice. My DD plays in the western part of the state and its miserble weather until April at best, her team had no field practices to speak of till conference was half over.

The warm seasonal climate of the south and west are very attractive to ballplayers and the ability to improve their game. I think that girls from a warm weather climate want to stay there, as well as girls from the cold weather want to go to warm weather.

As far as the ACC goes one has to believe that if these schools were more competive against SEC and PAC10 teams the girls would come, you have to think that most of the girls play against each other during the summer and want to continue to compete against each other in college,and at the highest level of competition as well. When the ACC has more suscess the girls will come.

 

This is really complicated

Obviously the softball culture in the west (and climate) give the PAC 10 a huge advantage. But what about the SEC? The bottom line there is $$. Look at ut's stadium compared to State's or UNC's . . . not even close. The SEC has been in the softball business a very short time and wouldn't be there at all if it weren't for Title IX, however, the sport culture in it's member schools plus the huge amount of $$ they have to throw at all their sports means the the ACC will likely always be second fiddle. The fact that they share the same recruiting footprint, especially in GA and FL further complicates the ACC's situation.

Coaching is interesting. I think the ACC, for the most part, has very good coaching. Obviously the same is true of the SEC. However, the different approaches of the AD's in the respective leagues are demonstrated by the fact the SEC currently has three head jobs vacant (one voluntary and two forced exits). The ACC has none. Bottom line is if you're coaching in the SEC you had better win!

 

The early yrs

I think that Coach Papa has been coaching for about 30 yrs. So that would average to about 33-34 wins per yr. I think that her early yrs the wins did not come as fast. Much like BB coaches. But as the talent comes in so will the wins. Beverly Smith, possibly Coach Papa's 1st major recruit came in the mid 90's and the program gotten better from there.

 

Ashton Ward

Ashton Ward left TENN for V TECH..... SEC to ACC

 

So?

Not sure what your point is. Ward was the first in a line of pitchers who have had one-year tryouts to replace Monica Abbott. Ashton was replaced by Cat Hosfield, who was replaced by Ivy Renfroe and who has now been replaced, ironically, by her sister Ellen. Ralph Weekly made it clear in the press release that announced Ashton's (and Jessica S) release that he had told Ward that she would no longer be pitching at ut. The Weekly's are not easy people to play for.