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[Ksyrup]

And it's also destroyed rec ball. Caitlin picked up pitching relatively late (10 years old) so I put her in our local rec ball spring league to get some practice before trying to find a summer travel team for her, and the talent level was so low I instructed her to never throw a ball directly at a girl when playing catch. I was afraid she'd seriously injure someone because none of the girls had any basic skills to play the game. She'd usually strike out 7 or 8 girls an inning with half of them reaching by passed ball. God forbid someone got a bat on the ball, it was almost always an automatic little league HR.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I don't envy you. As Caitlin was just getting out of HS into college, recruiting stuff really exploded and the costs went through the roof. Not that it was cheap before but we could go to recruiting showcases for less than $2K fees, we could find our own hotels and not have to pay 2-3 times the cost because we were forced to book through the tournament, etc. It was never what a neutral observer would call "sane," but it started to go nuts right around 2016-17 as our girls were graduating HS. That last year or so, we were all pissed at the hoops we had to jump through and the extra money we were shelling out for nothing but enriching the extra hands that saw a financial opportunity to hold parents hostage.

yeah. We are super blessed my wife makes an insanely good living so money is no issue.

I am more worried about it effecting our life and being super disruptive but she really loves it, as I am sure Caitin did. Syd is also a beast with a ton of natural talent. She is 11 and already 5-4/ 110 without an ounce of fat on her. She is bigger than most of the 14U kids and she is in 10U.

My biggest concern is burn out and disruption. Both of which are probably inevitable.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

And it's also destroyed rec ball. Caitlin picked up pitching relatively late (10 years old) so I put her in our local rec ball spring league to get some practice before trying to find a summer travel team for her, and the talent level was so low I instructed her to never throw a ball directly at a girl when playing catch. I was afraid she'd seriously injure someone because none of the girls had any basic skills to play the game. She'd usually strike out 7 or 8 girls an inning with half of them reaching by passed ball. God forbid someone got a bat on the ball, it was almost always an automatic little league HR.

My town is a bit of a sports factory, Syd got accepted with 2 other girls from our all star team that won regionals. Our starting pitcher, first baseman, and Syd who is catcher and they hit 2-3-4. We outscored our opponents 81-19, so we have players.

That being said I for sure see a divide between the talent levels. Just tonight at her practice for rec fall ball I had to tell her to ease up her throws and she was coaching another kid how to catch because they need her to pitch so someone else needs to catch. When she hits the other teams coaches always tell the kids to back up so they don't get hurt

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

And it's also destroyed rec ball. Caitlin picked up pitching relatively late (10 years old) so I put her in our local rec ball spring league to get some practice before trying to find a summer travel team for her, and the talent level was so low I instructed her to never throw a ball directly at a girl when playing catch. I was afraid she'd seriously injure someone because none of the girls had any basic skills to play the game. She'd usually strike out 7 or 8 girls an inning with half of them reaching by passed ball. God forbid someone got a bat on the ball, it was almost always an automatic little league HR.

You also just described at least half the HS softball in Georgia most likely.

The shift to "travel teams" has definitely impacted a number of sports at least that far up the ladder at this point.

I ain't even attempting to judge that as good or bad, just simply making an observation about the range of impact.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You also just described at least half the HS softball in Georgia most likely.

The shift to "travel teams" has definitely impacted a number of sports at least that far up the ladder at this point.

I ain't even attempting to judge that as good or bad, just simply making an observation about the range of impact.

Syds academy encourages them to play HS ball. Rec is probably going to be gone though.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Lathum

yeah. We are super blessed my wife makes an insanely good living so money is no issue.

I am more worried about it effecting our life and being super disruptive but she really loves it, as I am sure Caitin did. Syd is also a beast with a ton of natural talent. She is 11 and already 5-4/ 110 without an ounce of fat on her. She is bigger than most of the 14U kids and she is in 10U.

My biggest concern is burn out and disruption. Both of which are probably inevitable.

Caitlin was 5-7/130 at 10. She was a monster. I'll never forget when I took her to an EKU camp and the players were asking her what she wanted to major in at college and she was only in 7th grade. They thought she was a junior or senior.

I can tell you it disrupted our lives for a solid decade, especially once Mack got old enough to start playing. We spent most of our summers and falls apart on the weekends. I traveled with Caitlin and my wife with Mack. We took 1 non-sports-related vacation in 9 years.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Syds academy encourages them to play HS ball.

Varies by state I'm sure. Georgia went to a split kinda deal a few years back. They do fast-pitch in fall (like, now) and then retained slow-pitch as a spring sport. Only 33 slow-pitch schools (out of nearly 500 possible) left but they're trying to keep it alive as long as they can I guess.

The fast-pitch has quite a few absolute dregs, quite few that can't even find non-region games, and a few powers (those who manage to get the travel kids to still play HS)

[Ksyrup]

Georgia actually plays HS SB in the fall so they can do the travel ball thing all spring. That's how much the tail wags the dog in that state. There are only a couple states that do it that way.

For us, we usually had to recruit extra players to play in a huge 1st June weekend recruiting tournament in Chattanooga because our HS playoffs were still going on. And then we had dead period end of June into early July where HS coaches couldn't have any contact with their players which was another pain in the ass to navigate.

[Lathum]

We are definitely planning for a divide and conquer strategy. My goal is to not let it disrupt our usual 2 week Nantucket trip, but I get it is going to be a moving target.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Georgia actually plays HS SB in the fall so they can do the travel ball thing all spring. That's how much the tail wags the dog in that state. There are only a couple states that do it that way.

Thanks, I couldn't remember the details of how that all came about.