JC#1fan

Would have or could have? They are two completetly different things. I have been around softball for twenty -seven years and have never seen the injuries like I have this year since the introduction of metal cleats in girls softball.

Agreed, girls are just not built for them.

Just curious, but when you want to stop, should there be any forgiveness? A: If you don't mind broken ankles and torn tendons the answer is no. You apparently have never worn metal cleats if you think they don't grip better in the dirt. By the way you baseball fanatics, What do the pros wear? Uh! Turf shoes, grass or turf, infield or out!

So what secret technique is there to be taught when stopping? The metal cleats have no forgiveness as do rubber cleats that is why girls are getting injured with them, not some BS about technique.

An eigth grader that will participate or already participates in a high school program is counted toward the total of 5 players on a team in the fall. If you have 5 freshmen and 1 eigth grader(even if they have not tryed out for the high school team yet) playing on a 14 under travel team, only 5 of those girls can play on the high school team the next spring or the high school team can be penalized. Seventh graders would fall under the same violation if your school is allowed to have eigth graders play high school ball. Crazy ain't it.

I understand and agree with your post, but the post I was anwering referred to "National" events in which case you cannot change the roster. The TSSAA rule says nothing about participation it refers to rosters. If someone where to challenge a roster and it contained more than 5 girls on the same high school roster even though they did not compete together it would be a violation of the 50/50 ruie as it exsits now The reason for this is that TSSAA cannot watch every player on every field at every time, so they are left to look at rosters. If your team has more than 5 girls from the same school on a travel ball roster how can you prove they did not play together, the answer is you can't. the only proof of participation is the roster. This rule is very tricky and could very easliy get teams in to trouble that are trying to do the right thing. I am just a poor boy or I would challenge this rule as a violation of civil rights. How can anyone "force" a decision to make someone do something when they are not part of their organization. i.e. not on a TSSAA roster. When high school season is over and you don't play another TSSAA sport how can TSSAA tell you what you can do. Its ridiculous and only hurts players that cannot afford to travel long distances three times a week to practice and forces them to not participate in the sport they love. It is a crime in my opinion.

If they want to play on the same team in the spring they do not play. the problem with national events is you cannot change your roster at the event so an injured player would still on that roster and considered on of the five.

Absolutely not look at my earlier post (post #15), what about Jefferson, they beat Cherokee last night and William Blount earlier in the week. They have a lot of early season 1 run losses, but they are playing awlfully good right now. However it is easy to rank teams, but not all the way across the state. There are a lot of teams playing out there and no way anyone has seen them all.

This was a presidence set last year when the rule was unvoked to give a date for every school to abide by so that no school gained an advantage of playing time. I came across this somewhere on the TSSAA site I will try and find it again. If I do I will post it. I think this date applies to all TSSAA sports that were included in the 50/50 rule.

This is what I was trying to say about Cat. Even though her recruitment was due to pitching, you don't get to as high a level as she has without proper coaching and you would think that would include all aspects of the game. Any girls parents and coaches that have just gotten their girl to sign with a school as big as UT would not allow her to bat, run and slide if she couldn't do it and jeopardize her career. If you don't think metal had anything to do with her injury you should look at the quotes from her coach in the news papers i.e. "he liked them until the injury". As I had said earlier we lost our two top catchers due to start and stop injuries in the same tournament. One tore her ACL and MCL trying to stop and her cleat allowed "NO" forgiveness and something had to give, unfortunately it was her knee. This girl was yet unsigned and may have ended her hopes as she is a senior. She was playing third for us because she was the best thirdbaseman we had.If not for that she would have been our starting catcher and she was our clean up hitter, batting somewhere close to .400 for the year with several schools looking at her. This injury had "NOTHING" to do with technique because she simply trying to stop. Lost our other catcher in the same type of senerio the next game with what the tournament trainer thought was a broken ankle. Fortunately she has recovered and she is back.

After a team is eliminated from their respective tournament they are allowed to play summer "travel ball" as a team (all players from the same high school team can play together) until August 1st(this date was set due to different school systems starting the new school year at different times). The head coach is allowed to coach this team with the exception of the two "dead" weeks in July (the team can pracitce together, but cannot use their high school facilities and no contact from their coaches during dead times) until August 1st. After August 1st the coaches of the high school team can no longer coach the "travel ball" team and no more than 5 girls from the same high school are allowed to play on the same "travel ball" team including incoming 8th graders and still be eligible for the high school team in the spring. The rule does not say that no more than 5 can play together, but that no more than 5 can make the team the next spring. In other words you can play 10 girls that willl try out for the same high school team in the fall, but no more than 5 can make the same high school team. The bad part of this is that high school coaches may not know who is playing with who and the high school team is who will "pay". This is the "dumbest" rule that has ever been made. The obvious thing is that no girl is guaranteed they will make the team next year and if your girl is not playing a fall sport they are not on a TSSAA roster, so how can TSSAA put a rule in effect that disallows a athlete from playing where they want when they are not on a TSSAA roster. School districts with only one high school suffer the most, counties with multiple high schools don't have to travel 30-40 miles to practice as they can combine with other high school in their own county. This is a rule that only affects the athletes. Other states play year round, no wonder all the big schools go mainly for girls out of state.

THere have been more girls injured due to stop and go type plays in the metal cleats than in sliding this year. JCHS lost both of their catchers in one tournament while trying to stop after leaving the bag on a pitch. Metal cleats hang and young female athletes tendons can't take it. Its that simple. The freshman catcher recovered and is back playing. The senior has torn ACL and MCL and may have ended her career period. Much has been said about technique and that argument has merit, but the young lady that signed with UT from Riverdale that has the "NATIONAL" single season strikeout record and broke her ankle has had to have been coached on the correct technique, you don't get to that level without good coaching.

Greenevile which is 0-6 in conferance play in the IMAC beat Science Hill which is on the list with two of their best players out due to injury.

Agreed. I have to let you off the hook because you have denounced Joe Caldwell. Coaches aren't the only ones that can post scores, if you know the missing scores could you post them. Click on the add score? link beside each game and you should be able to edit the scores.

I guess you say "Oh please", but I don't know if begging gets you another championship.

That was all I was asking for! Little ticked not to be "kin" don't you think. I have seen her play and she is good. Easy to throw around accusations about someone not knowing the game when you don't know who they are(you know how that REDHOTZ gang is). Invitations to D-1 camps are posted on the internet everyday. I was invited to the White House one time I bet they don't remember me. I would bet I have seen as much "travel ball" as anyone. Kim is great, we just want the scores posted please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So you can convince us without having to go to the park. Please take this as all in good humor as it is intended /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />

I went to the Oliver Springs Schedule on this site and the earlier post is right. How can you compare this girl to any one with half of their team scores not even posted. They have played none of the higher ranked schools and the losses (that are shown) were blowouts, 15-1 and 11-0. Sounds like the big schools being talked about (Podunk University) are being talked about by a DAD (i.e. travel team and number used in the quote name). I am sure this young lady is good, and I wish her the best. But let JC#1fan give you a hint, if someone has to stand on a pedistal and "holler" my daughter is great it is usually because their daughter is seen through "rose colored glasses".(I like George Jones) Post the rest of the scores and then let us compare. For all I know they are all wins(blowouts), but then again it could be the other way. Hitting .727, who knows, against the competiton she has faced anyone could hit the ball at 45 mph!

They don't give scholarships? I guess thats why they have the billboards everywhere in Chattanooga. Its called recruiting and its legal or they couldn't do it. If they are allowed to recruit others shouldn't complain about it, but a Rooster that picks his own eggs shouldn't be so proud of how load he crows in the morning either. GPS a great team? No question, but if you hand pick your players and don't win the state what do you have to say then?

I can appreciate Cherokee having a high ranking in upper east tennessee, but they have split with Rutledge and lost to Unicoi and they are currently in third place in the IMAC behind M. East and M. West. and don't forget they squeeked by Jefferson 1-0 on an error. With that said anyone that faces Cherokee will have their hands full. The IMAC is loaded with four out of the six teams that could beat each other at any time. If you go by records against each other M. West is still on top, followed by East then Cherokee.

Your post addresses many of the issues that are valid in this disscussion. Most high school female ahtletes have grown up blocking bags with their legs and it was not a big safety issue because of the rubber cleats. Now this style is a habit and most high softball coaches have never played the game and even fewer have played in metal cleats, so how can they teach technique to replace the habit. A quality rubber cleat, like the Ringor brand is just as good as the metal cleats and if you have ever put them on your feet they feel more like a running shoe as far as comfort goes. There are to many other changes that could be made to help this game other than adding metal cleats.

Check this picture out: If this was your daughter would you feel the same.

This is the funniest thing I have seen on coacht!!!!!! Dobbins Bennet finished 6th in their own tournament last weekend and not a team that finished ahead of them are on the list? Greeneville (4-15 on the season beat Science Hill in that same tournament) There are some good teams on the list , but what a joke about how they are listed. I would bet whoever ranked these teams are A: members of the boosters for some of the teams B: Blind C: Never saw a softball game in their lives. The IMAC conferance had three teams that finished ahead of Dobbin-Bennet and another ahead of Science Hill in the Eastman tournament. I wouldn't laugh about Siegel, but where is Soddy Daisy, Blackman, Hixson, Bradley, GPS, Morristown East or West, Unicoi. If you rank these teams by record that is one thing , but you have got to consider who they have played. In my opinion there are only four teams on the list that could possibly be on there, Ooltewah, siegel, Beech , and Riverdale. What about Knoxvile area teams. Farragut, Gibbs, Maryville. It would be very hard to know and compare all of Tennessee, but we will find out in a few weeks.

Baseball has a thread, we really don't care about it over here. If they are not a problem why are there so many more serious injuries since they were allowed. And about TSSAA they made the decision to allow them and most teams require athletes to wear the same foot apparel, so the athlete really does not have a choice. Read the other thread about the injuries to athletes this year (and what some of the coaches think now after season ending injuries to their players) due to metal cleats when not sliding. This includes the UT signee from Riverdale who broke her ankle in two places. I don't care if they wear metal cleats on their heads in baseball, females are different built ahtletes. Their joints and tendons do not have the same strength, exspecially at younger ages.

Tell 'em Pop!

TSSAA did not "have" to follow this rule. NFHS sets the precidence for rules , but governing bodies for individual states do not have to accept them. In other word NFHS says you can if you want to, but TSSAA said they wanted to. Look at the other post on this forum about steel cleats and the statement set forth by the Maryland governing body.