So on with the struggle to get DD ready for college… Has anyone experience with attending any of the smaller softball camps? We were advised about Pennsbury, but my DD is going into 10th grade and just learning to “slap”, so she decided it would make her too nervous to attend that camp this year.
We live in a cold climate(upstate NY) and her JV season was very short. Coach doesn’t really understand slapping, and she didn’t get a lot of opportunity to practice with live pitchers.
She’ll be playing summer ball and travel with 2-7 games a week for the next 2 months and hopefully will improve in skill and confidence, as her travel coaches are much more familiar with how slapping can help the team, thus more willing to have her use valuable “at bats” perfecting her technique.
She hope to attend Williams(I know, good luck with that!) or another NESCAC…Williams has a softball camp at the end of the summer. Hamilton is nearby, and of course less intimidating to apply to, and they also have a camp.
So my question for the panel-attend either or both camps as a not fully developed player, or wait a year for her to improve? Do coaches realize that these young players will likely improve, or is it better to wait and not leave a bad impression? Are these camps useful for recruiting anyway?
She’s not done growing yet,still plays U14, pitches but not at this point a major force in that area, and plays middle infield most of the time. She’s very fast, thus the decision to learn slapping.
Thanks!
Hi! We are smack in the middle of college recruiting, so maybe I can help. My daughter attended Pennsbury last year (just after 10th grade) and is attending again this year (finishing 11th grade this week), but she is doing so because the college coaches she’s in contact with have asked her to do so. They forms lists of their recruits then go there to see them all in one place, for their convenience. If she’s super fast, she may want to consider attending an outfielder’s session at one of the NFCA camps, as colleges are really looking for speed there, IMO, more so even than for slapping. These camps are not actually camps, by the way. They are combines, with the only guidance being what station to be at and where. The girls have to think for themselves. She can check off that she’s a slapper on the registration and swing away at the camp-doesn’t matter. Coaches roam freely so they can find who they want or browse the participants. Running speeds, throwing speeds, agility, etc., all get recorded and listed on the website a week later for the coaches to view whenever they want, listed under their tag numbers, no names given for privacy. The Kent State camp also gets 75-100 college coaches in attendance and is run pretty well, so we used that as her first “practice camp.” The college specific camps are generally fundraisers for their spring break trips, etc., but are a MUST if you’re interested in that particular school. We’ve been to a few where the coach didn’t even participate, the team ran the camp! If your daughter is serious about playing college ball, IMO, she needs to move out of 14u asap and start marketing herself so that she’s being looked for by the coaches at the tournaments/camps. There are 13 year olds on 16u/18u teams! My daughter also likes the LACs, and we are finding that it’s basically a waiting game now, as the recruiting is just as crazy at the D3 level as it is at the D1 level with these schools. There are lots of girls trying to use the sport as a “hook” for admission who otherwise would not get in, so the coaches don’t want to “waste” their recruits on students who could otherwise get in on their own and still play for them as a walk-on. Every school my daughter is being recruited for is also requesting her to be an ED applicant if chosen, so the kids can’t apply and decide later either, and this is at the D3 level as she hopes to be science major. Hope this helps!
OBD,
You know as much (if not more) about D3 and NESCAC recruiting as the rest of us. You also probably know that Hamilton’s coach has done a fine job in her first year and that Williams’ softball program is top-notch.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think “getting on the radar” of college coaches is less important than “getting on their radar when your daughter is peaking.” What happens if your daughter is seen by the Williams coach as a rising sophomore and the coach thinks she can’t hit? If that were the case, you would be starting from the position of convincing the coach that her prior opinion was wrong. Obviously, I can’t say (nor can any other poster here) whether your daughter is ready for prime time. If she is ready, then by all means she should go on parade. But, just because younger girls are being recruited (and they are) doesn’t mean that all younger girls should be playing up and riding the showcase circuit. When a kid is ready, the pushing helps. When a kid is not ready, it can be counter-productive.
I think I would take it slow. If your tournament team is hosting a showcase, start there. Or find a showcase/camp that you are relatively certain that no NESCAC coaches will be in attendance. Get her used to the skills tested without the pressure of thinking that she has to impress a given college coach. Hopefully the camp will provide an “honest” skills assessment (I don’t think they all are – after all, they want you to return) so that you can understand how a college coach will see your daughter’s skills. You will then know what skills she needs to work on and which skills are most competitive. For example, if they measure throwing speeds, you will be able to compare the speed of her throw with that of other girls. You will see what you need to work on. Then, if she feels comfortable, she could try one of the college camps.
Make sure that she is working consistently with a good strength and conditioning coach.
Good luck to you and to your daughter
That’s really helpful info from both of you, thanks.We’re going to stick with our current U14 team which I think will be moving up together at the end of the summer. She’ll be U16 next summer and still have Sophomore, and Junior summers to go, and she has a great positive team and coaches right now.
At least for swimming in the NESCACs, recruiting really was after junior year. I imagine most D3 softball is the same.
I’m not sure she’s ready. So I guess we’ll wait til next summer. Honestly what is a “showcase”? Pennsbury?
Thanks as always, the panel comes through!
Showcase is like a tournament, but no champions. At least in lax, you play a schedule of teams, and you win or lose, but you aren’t eliminated and there is no championship game. All the college coaches get notebooks with all the players and stats and a special area to sit for each game and you aren’t supposed to talk to them. Girls who have committed wear colored armbands. Girls wanting to be recruited send emails to the coaches with their game schedules so the coach can watch them. For the last two years, all games are filmed and the coaches can watch the films after the showcase too. You can contract with the film company for ‘highlight video’ too (it is not cheap!).
For girls lax, there are 4 showcases a year, and last year they were in Colorado, Florida, and two in Virginia (used to be one in PA but no longer). I think they might have added one in New England too so that more kids can be seen. After my daughter played in them, she was contacted by a lot of schools, mostly D3. The D1 coaches are there (or their reps) but they are looking at freshmen and sophomores.
OBD,
Showcases are events where set softball skills (in theory) are evaluated by a number of college coaches (e.g., catcher pop times, speeds of throws, home to first, hitting, pitching, etc.), much like a college camp. They are also money makers for the sponsors. In the Northeast, Pennsbury is well known and well respected, but you have to apply and be accepted. Pennsbury’s academic camp also has academic thresholds for acceptance that aren’t way too high. As with all recruiting, you have to be smart (as you know and as you are) and not throw away money for all the showcases that prey on unsuspecting parents who want (and will pay for) the best for their athlete.
One thought you might consider. Head First is an extremely well run baseball showcase/camp, and I understand that both coaches and athletes alike really like it. The college coaches in attendance include the Ivys and Nescacs, and other schools the folks on this site covet. In the last year or so, they have started up a softball showcase and are trying to get it in the same league as the baseball showcase camps. They have a couple of locations, but you might want to look at the camp on Long Island. I don’t confess to know all the details, but I believe the theory is that they pay coaches so that there is no prohibition on the recruits talking to coaches. There is supposed to be a ton of coach/athlete interaction. It might be worth looking into.
Don’t forget. Weight training and conditioning.
Keep us posted on your daughter’s progress.
Wow, thanks. I think I’m just going to sign her up for the Hamilton camp this summer. If she is good enough, she’ll still be good enough next year, and since we aren’t even really interested in D1, there’s time.
I like the look of the Head First site, thanks.Will consider doing that in Oct if we have a good summer.
Our varsity coach is very much into weight training and conditioning, will be sure to stick with that as well as the hitting, pitching and actual playing of the game of softball!
Thanks again!
So for an update-and any other helpful comments- Hamilton had to cancel their camp due to poor numbers. Their coach suggested the Williams camp, which my D felt she wasn’t ready for, and conflicted with scout camp-we can’t spend ALL our time getting ready for college at 14!
So she ended up at the U of R Nike camp, which she very much enjoyed. She also got a lot of very expert individual attention and really learned a lot. In fact , she started hitting triples regularly afterwards, so well worth it from my standpoint!
The slapping is finally coming together as well, and she also got a lot of opportunities to pitch in an open league to much older and bigger girls without falling apart, so it was all good.
We will be looking for camps/showcases in the spring and summer. Appreciate any advise, planning Pennsbury and maybe Williams/Midd/another shot at Hamilton.
Anyone do the Head First showcases?
Thanks as usual!
OBD,
Keep an eye on the Pennsbury academic site. The camp opens up for applications (I believe) in February. Priorities are set based on teams admitted to the Pennsbury tournament, with succeeding priority going to the older classes (juniors and a few uncommitted seniors). The camp was a well oiled machine, heavy on specific skills: speed, agility, fielding and +/- ten swings off a machine. Pitchers had their own session. I think it was worth the time. There was a NESCAC mini camp at a small indoor facility close by (Williams, Hamilton, Tufts) by invitation on the date of the regular, non-academic camp (presumably for folks attending Pennsbury academic). Just something to keep in mind.
Head First Long Island was quite good, although much different from Pennsbury. It started with the same specific skill drills (20 yd, fielding, hitting), but then the girls were placed on teams and spent about a day and a half in games, with the college coaches coaching. That allowed the coaches to get a sense of what kind of person the players are and also was more fun than the drills. But there was some serious talent there. There probably was equal talent at Pennsbury, but the talent seemed greater at Head First because of the live game situations (i.e., it is easier hitting off a machine at any speed than facing live pitching). Head First was always a hit with baseball. It must be catching on with softball because I noticed the DC October showcase camp is on waiting list. If you opt to go that route, I wouldn’t wait too long to register next year.
Thanks, goin’. I started an application for her last Feb(would have been a freshman) but realized she just didn’t have the stats to even fill it out, and she was just learning to slap, so after getting some excellent advise on the forum(as usual), I put it away til next Feb.
I also guess we have to start getting more serious about “documentation”. I have no idea how fast she pitches-she certainly is no prodigy and that’s also something I am torn about. She really shines at fielding(middle infield)-has such quick reflexes she’s almost always in the right place at the right time, but she also pitches. So do you tryout as a mediocre pitcher? Or a crackerjack second baseman? She’ gonna be awesome as a slapper by next summer, but our school program has “issues”, shall we say, and the JV coach didn’t even know how to use or coach a “slapper”…
And when would you make a “skills video”?
Anyway, getting a swimmer recruited was mucho simpler-here’s my son’s time at X event…This team sport stuff is tricky!
OBD,
It is truly hard to give thoughts when you have no idea of how well your daughter is pitching. But, the way you asked the question makes the answer easy. If she is a “crackerjack” middle infielder, she should be doing that. I don’t think there is much demand for a mediocre pitcher.
Pitching in softball is a total commitment. Many girls work on it every single day (really and truly, every single day). Remember, because the softball pitch is easier on the arm, it is MUCH harder to pitch in softball than in baseball. In baseball the arm (hopefully) is rested after a game. The effort to preserve the arm (not to mention the strategic reasons) means that there are more open positions for pitching in baseball than in softball. Because softball pitchers can pitch every day, they do, and there are way fewer open positions for pitching in softball in college than for baseball. It is not unusual for a pitcher going into college to have 6 pitches down cold. It makes having another sport or interest tough. If she wants to pitch and doesn’t have one already, she should be working with a good pitching coach on a weekly basis in the off season. The coach of a good college team could probably recommend someone – and hopefully they will have a gun so you can figure our how fast she is pitching.
I believe Pennsbury would be easier to try out as a pitcher than Head First. At Pennsbury, you bring a catcher and about 6-10 pitchers line up in a row and show their stuff. They have guns. You can hear “fastball, 63, changeup 42” as the workers time the pitches. The worst that can happen is the speeds are not good. At Head First, the hitting was such that a pitcher without good stuff (or a younger pitcher) could get clobbered.
As a rising sophomore, I would definitely get a skills video made. Sometimes coaches like to see the improvement between videos and it gives a comparison to see the improvement.
OBD, I am really glad to hear that the slapping is working out. I take some pride in authoring that idea for you!!
Heights, you get total props for that-it was all you!
She’s the only slapper on her travel team, and the only slapper at our school. We do live in the hinterlands, tho.Our JV coach doesn’t quite get it, and half the umps don’t know how to call it. One told her she was out of the box-we were videoing and she wasn’t-and another told her she couldn’t “bunt” with 2 strikes…
She has a fabulous hitting coach-former D1 star batter and base runner.It’s been a lot of fun and she’s really enjoying it after the initial frustration.
For the pitching-she’s been working with an excellent pitching coach for the past year-because she won’t give it up, not because we want her to do it. She only has 2 pitches right now. However, she played on an open league team in addition to her travel team this summer and pitched to many much larger, older, and better girls because that team didn’t have much. She actually did fine,even winning a few games, and more amazingly, she didn’t lose her composure. I think if she got more serious, she could be excellent, BUT she only works with her coach once a week, and it’s been hard to get her to do other stuff, PLUS very minimal opportunity for live pitching.
Our town has favoritism issues so she’s really never going to get to pitch for our school unless someone dies or quits in a fit of pique. That’s why I didn’t encourage it. For travel, we had 2 better pitchers than she was last year, so she didn’t pitch much there either. But one of them quit, and there’s a shortage of girls in U16 who pitch in our area right now, so this is her chance.
Thanks as usual for all the great advise.
You know what, if she likes to pitch, she should keep pitching. Sometimes I think recruiting can subtract what is important in sports – learning teamwork, working hard toward a goal, gaining leadership skills. I say go at it, as long as she has back up position skills.
OBD, that’s all great news. With her size and speed I can imagine that she is going to be a very attractive prospect for the NESCAC coaches. I agree with gointhruaphase, if she enjoys pitching then let her have at it.