rtyree1121

I know from first hand experience that if a girl sits on the bench for one year at Georgia, she will be gone the next year and replaced by a new recruiting class. Arizona started the idea of having speed in softball, and other teams are just now seeing how valuable it has been, not just in scoring runs, but in improving the overall defense also. The Nashville area has very few speedy people also. If you watch some of the national ASA tourneys, you will see that most of the powerhouses all have 3 key ingredients.....great pitching, team speed, and great defense.

after having daughters play in the old Snyder-oliver tourney for 16 years, I can give a big AMEN to that!

The recruiting process was fun at the very beginning, but toward the end it was very frustrating to listen to the coaches say one thing and do another. There is alot of dishonesty going on that wasnt much fun to be a part of. I'm gonna try to catch up on alot of golf that I missed out on over the years this summer. After that, I may try to help out some in coaching somewhere, or maybe even do some umpiring since they are so pathetic around here...I think even i could do better than them. My other daughter also elected to not pursue softball in college, although she is good enough to play at some smaller level. She got more money for academics than she would of gotten for softball, so its better this way. I'll just miss watching college softball especially...It was another higher level of play in the SEC which was fun to watch.

Katfo, exactly.....colleges coaches look for certain qualities in a player....not so much their statistics, but their individual talents, desire, and grades....Clifford Kirk is Mary Poppins compared to most big time coaches. It becomes a business at the college level, so you have to perform the way they want you to, or you will be out the door in a hurry, or they will be out the door.

Although it is very flattering to get an offer to play at a big school like the SEC, most girls would be better off going to a smaller school unless they are guaranteed to be a starter. With scholarship limitations the way they are, there is not much redshirting done unless there is an injury. Those that dont play much run the risk of not having their scholarships re-newed. Just look at Tennessee...they have 17 girls on their team now, with no seniors....they have signed 5 girls for next years class, which will bring the total to 22 girls. With the limit of girls who can travel with the team being 18, guess what will probably happen to 4 of those girls?

The coach for the Eagles daughter was tall, her last name was Lockridge...she pitched in the early 90's, I guess it could of been her....Rocky went to Georgia also, but when the new coach came in after their Freshman year, she told all the freshmen(5 of them) except my daughter that their scholarships would not be renewed, so they left school. Three of the girls were from the Chattanooga area. Unfortunately my last daughter to play softball finished up her last year at Brentwood this year and is not playing anymore, so I dont get to follow it as much as I would like now. My first summer in over 16 years without having travel ball.

The year they won it all in 1997, their two pitchers were not very tall...Brook Siebel and kim Dunlap....the next year they had mostly Rocky Castillo, and she wasnt tall either, and then her last year, they had a tall girl...Crystal Bobo..which would of been in 1999...could it have been her?...I wouldnt know anyone on the Eagles before 1997.

She was a very good athlete, but then again, I am her dad so I have to think that way. Since we are from middle tennessee, you probably didnt know much about her, but her summer team (Nashville Eagles) won the national ASA 18-u title in 1997. She was lucky to be on a great team, and although she was only 16 at the time, she got lots of attention that year. Her college experience at Georgia saw a lot of ups and downs, but for the most part, she loved the college ball-playing experience. It was a lot of hard work though. Not much time was left for anything other than ball and school, so alot of sacrifices had to be made she didnt get to be involved in that normal college kids got to do. It was all worth it, after being a not so good team her Freshman year, they fired the coach, and hired the current coach that is very tough. She brought them to another level and national prominance...as they won the SEC her senior year(2003) and they were ranked in the top 10 in the country, got to play in the NCAA tourney, and even got to play against the 2000 Olympic team.

congrats to her...getting full rides for girls in TN that go to colleges within TN has been made much easier with them getting the Hope scholarship which helps offset some of the scholarship costs...its much tougher to get a full ride to a school outside the state.

Katfo, you are right about a girl going to a "big school". My daughter was fortunate to get a full ride to a 'big" school, and it was a big thrill to get that offer, especially since she was not a pitcher or a catcher. People will be surprised to find out how few full rides are given out to players that dont play those two positions. Its more important that the girl picks the school that is right for her, instead of picking a school for the coach. More than likely, whoever coaches her will not be at that school by the time she graduates.

You're right, they will get offers from some big schools, such as UT or some of the other SEC schools. But, their offer is based on their good performances in summer leagues, not their high school careers.

Coaches from the top teams (SEC, Big 10, ACC, etc) could care less what a player does in high school, so they dont look at the all-star teams. All they care about is how well the girls do in the competitive summer leagues, where the competition is much better. Some coaches wont even recruit a girl unless she plays in the Gold division in the ASA.

Not even those girls will get offers from UCLA....if you look at UCLA's roster for the last 15 years, very few girls ever play for that school unless they are from California, and Arizona. I doubt the UCLA coach even knows where Chattanooga is.

college girls get paid working at summer camps put on by their coach....my daughter played in college and was paid for working at the camps.

I dont think high school players can get paid for working at a softball camp...but college players can, and do it all the time...but I think there is a limit on how much they are allowed to earn.