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Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Some like it hot on September 16, 2025, 10:59 am

Prove me wrong...

1. The club environment will continue to consolidate, and in ten years there will be only a handful of national programs. Those teams will get even more preferential treatment for tournaments and coach eyeballs.

2. Fall season should NOT be a second summer season. Clubs are playing way too many games, and not practicing, training or resting enough.

3. The qualifier formats (PGF and Alliance) make it so that teams have to play six months out of the year in order to get into the finite number of meaningful exposure tournaments, exacerbating the problem with lack of practice, training and rest.

4. In ten years, high school softball will be decimated by players opting out to play the club circuit in the hopes of gaining college opportunities.

5. JUCO and exposure leagues (e.g., Gulf Coast and Northwoods) will become an increasingly viable route for high school players to get into the D1 ranks, much as it is for baseball.

6. College programs will create their own semi-pro leagues, comprised of area or alumni players, in order to raise revenues and monetize the facilities that are unused for much of the year.

7. College softball will have its own governing body, separate from the NCAA, as college football is creating with its CFP and NIL structures.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Bill on September 22, 2025, 3:42 pm, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

1. Expansion of national organizations is happening not consolidation. The top 3 teams at 18U PGF in 2025 didn't exists 10 years ago. Two of them didn’t exits 5 years ago. Arizona Rising, Lady Dukes(2016) & Unity Johnson. In addition, franchise teams, continue to merge in local teams and are expanding.
2. Fall season at 14U and up is driven by the recruiting calendar and the September 1st contact date. This second recruiting window is essential for Junior year 3-star prospects to get recruited and a kickoff for all Sophomores in the recruiting process. It will not change and is a necessity given the recruiting calendar. Prior to 16U practice and training should be a priority. It would be nice if they changed the recruiting calendar but that is not happening. A good start would be to eliminate winter games. I don’t see this happening as tournaments are more lucrative than training for indoor facilities.
3. Most softball teams under 14u are playing 12 months a year. In softball the reason is not qualifiers, it is coaches who don’t know how to practice and parents cannot help themselves. Coaches and parents believe more games are better and if they are not playing games they are falling behind. This will not change unless indoor facilities transition from running tournaments to hosting training. I don’t see this happening as tournaments are more lucrative. It continues 16U to 18U for the reason in #2.
4. High School Softball will still be important as it drives parents and players egos. There are no local news articles written on travel teams. It is the only time parents can show off how good their daughter is to the community at large. It is also the only time the players who did not make the big-name club teams can brag about getting that hit or striking out that D1 commit. Pounding ones chest makes the world go round. Read this page during high school season. As long as there is no club recruiting in spring high school will remain.
5. JUCO is not competitive enough to be an option in softball. Mid-Majors will be the place to be with the transfer portal. Summer leagues will grow in popularity for players who don’t get opportunities during the season.
6. Interesting thought but most campuses will have difficulty drawing a crowd in the summer months and they would never try to do this in the spring. Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia do not sound like fun in July. Talk with the AUSL players they love being in places like Chicago.
7. Any separate governing body will include will include Baseball(Diamond Sports) and most likely Olympic Sports. There needs to be some centralization to make sense financially. No doubt 2030 will look different than today as football continues to evolve.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Preach it on September 25, 2025, 9:11 am, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

3. Most softball teams under 14u are playing 12 months a year. In softball the reason is not qualifiers, it is coaches who don’t know how to practice and parents cannot help themselves. Coaches and parents believe more games are better and if they are not playing games they are falling behind. This will not change unless indoor facilities transition from running tournaments to hosting training. I don’t see this happening as tournaments are more lucrative. It continues 16U to 18U for the reason in #2.

100% accurate. There is no reason a player under the recruiting years shouldn't be playing multiple sports and get rest and recovery times. Saw plenty of 10U/12U teams last year playing 100+ games. When do you practice with that schedule? When can you play other sports?

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by MORE GAMES MORE WINS? on September 25, 2025, 10:52 am, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

We had a coach like this that wanted to play over 100 games each year before the girls were in high school. Waxed me that this coach thought getting a high number of wins was success? We were 41 and 72 for this year, and very few families stayed around. Same person is still coaching, just doing 10 Fall tournaments.....

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Mr XAW on September 27, 2025, 1:01 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

41 and 72 is that a successful season? Sounds to me like a losing season, what level of tournaments

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @Bill on September 23, 2025, 6:41 am, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

Thank You

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by right on September 19, 2025, 10:43 am, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I could definitely see High School being even more decimated, but it won't take 10 years. I will say 3. High School ball gets worse every year, and big organizations will start giving them options of Spring Teams traveling to play better competition in the Spring

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Nope on September 18, 2025, 7:18 pm, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I don't see any of those scenarios happening.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @Some on September 18, 2025, 10:22 am, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I agree with everything you said.

I think the saddest part of the current travel agenda is the lack of practice by the best athletes, as they're too busy traveling to tournaments specifically for recruiting. Honestly, there should be more recruiting done in a controlled practice environment so coaches can view repetitive fundamental skills.

I believe that lower mid-major teams are the new JUCOs, as they play against significantly better competition than the JUCOs.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by You have got to be kidding on September 19, 2025, 4:52 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

Lack of practice by the best athletes? These kids practice 6-7 days a week. They miss school events, family things , social lives because they are on the tee and on the field. Just because they aren’t wasting hours at team practices don’t confuse that they stent practicing

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @Nope not kidding on September 20, 2025, 8:08 am, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"
Board Administrator

Look at you, scoot, you solved the dilemma. Colleges don't need to be practicing as teams; just leave it to the parents. Why are they wasting time on team practices? I imagine you can put together an excellent roster as well.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Better in college on September 20, 2025, 1:54 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

Look at you ….you actually think coaches improve and develop players in college. Coaches manage players in college and if those players don’t work out then the coach goes to the portal for new players. You better understand your own position and your own swing when you get to college because the only person who’s going to make you better is you! How many players do you personally know in college because I know plenty and this experience is pretty much universal!

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @Better in College on September 20, 2025, 2:38 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I have two daughters; one played for a mid-major (tournament team for two years), and the other was a four-year P4 starter. One is a five-year DI Ass't Coach.

What I have seen is plenty of parents exactly like you. I've seen you try to coach your kid from the stands, and the eye rolls from your daughter and the other parents when you keep pushing the same nonsense. I've listened to the stories my kid tells about attempted parental interference and the bullshit they put in their heads. Take your JV HS Baseball experience and leave it to the professionals. If you ever spoke to your daughter instead of at her, you might get an honest assessment of your coaching.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Could not be more wrong on September 22, 2025, 9:33 am, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I actually don’t coach my kids and never have. My only role is to drive them to wherever they need to go. Maybe load balls on the tee for them. I do not coach from the stands and I would never speak to her college coach about anything related to her softball performance. I never spoke to any coach she ever had about her playing time or really anything other than injuries etc before college. Looks like we do actually agree on something. She played with a national program that obviously didn’t have weekly practice so she worked mostly on her own. She’s in her second year starting at a P4 program. The kids in her program that were unhappy were the ones who expected the coaching staff to fix everything for them. They had no ability to break down their own film or fielding mechanics or anything. They were lost because they had been babied along the way.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by LMAO on September 22, 2025, 3:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

If my livelihood depended on W's, I would not leave the team's development on the shoulders of the players themselves. Wow.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @could not on September 22, 2025, 3:44 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

My kids were coached constantly in college. All nuances, but continuously coached. The Head Coach rarely provided details, but the Assistants worked closely with them. While the video was available, the analytics were all provided by the coaching staff, as that was their job.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @Hot on September 29, 2025, 3:40 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

My kid is almost finished with college ball the her coaches definitely coached her. Whether individuals, pre-game, in-game, or post-game, she was always being given instruction about how to be better. This is why it's important to pick a good coach, as there's positive and negative ways to say things. For example, "your face is timeless" versus "your face could stop a clock".

Choose appropriately.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by DD (Digital Dandies) on September 19, 2025, 3:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

I think there is potential for the recruiting process to become more digital, thereby saving some of the time and money of traveling to endless camps.

Potential recruits needs more than going to showcase events to have their 20 yard dash timed and simple videos taken, with junk social posts coming out of it...

If I was running an org, I'd be thinking about investing in the type of technology you see at OGX, Motor Preference, etc. that can do a good job of quantifying performance and potential - and then coupling it with professional presentiment/marketing of those athletes to coaches.

A camp trip is at least a $500 expense. I know that for my daughter's journey we spent thousands on camps... I would have loved to have replaced at least one trip with a professional assessment that would give coaches meaningful metrics to consider.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by @some on September 19, 2025, 1:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications"

It takes 5 days to travel to tournaments? The best players practice daily and have private instruction. 10u 12u yes, they need it. Anything beyond that is not so much

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Well on September 18, 2025, 9:57 am, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

Players are getting in front of college coaches in the Fall. So you go ahead and just practice. I don't think your players and parents are sticking around.

Re: Hot Takes & Prognostications

Posted by Not to hot on September 17, 2025, 1:25 pm, in reply to "Hot Takes & Prognostications"

There are already only a handful of national teams in the Midwest, that aren't going anywhere

why would they opt out of HS?There is no one playing meaningful tournaments during HS season

College programs run in the red so 6 & 7 are pretty off

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