The first half of the club softball season is coming to an end at the beginning of February. Softball players are preparing for the 2024 High School season, where they will no longer be able to play or practice with their club teammates or coaches unless they are also on the same High School team.
During the fall and winter seasons, teams play in mainly local tournaments that also have the chance to qualify for the bigger, out-of-state tournaments in the summer. During this season, the coaches are getting to know the players and their abilities. This will help them decide which girls will get the first priority to earn a starting spot after the High School season ends. This is also an important time for girls to find out how all of their teammates play so that the team plays better as a whole. For example, the girls need to know the strength of everyone’s arms, or their speed so they can play and communicate based on everyone’s abilities.
Abbey Feld talks about how important the fall season is, “The fall and winter season prepares the athletes to get a head start on the coming up seasons. It helps to stay in shape for the upcoming High School season, and get in a lot of live game reps”.
By the time that High School season ends, the girls and coaches should know how well everyone plays, and they will have more success in the bigger tournaments.
Recruiting does not happen during the High School softball season. The college coaches are not allowed to communicate with their prospects during this time because it is also when the College Softball season starts. This is called going dark, and communication is allowed to start back up again after the College Softball Season ends.
While the Club Season is fun, it can also get very stressful. Club Season is when you always have to take everything seriously because College coaches are always watching. Recruiting can get really difficult because every coach has more than one prospect that they are looking at, and this means that the athletes are always getting compared to other girls. Along with that, the players are expected to email the coaches of any college that they have an interest in. The emails have to contain a lot of information about the girl as a player and need to show that they truly are interested in that college. The players are also highly recommended to send additional emails to inform the College Coaches about the tournaments that their teams are playing in, and the tournament schedule when it comes out.
Many teams will also pay for recruiting apps, where the athletes are constantly uploading highlight videos, videos of drills, and game footage. This is a really good way for a College Coach to recognize the athlete, and add them as a potential prospect. It is also a good way to see how the athlete performs, even if the College Coach can’t make it to the tournament in person.
Recruiting is different for every athlete, however, girls can commit as early as a junior. Other athletes like to wait and see all of the options that they get before they commit to a college. As a junior, most girls have multiple colleges that they would be open to. Seniors typically have it narrowed down to just a few schools (if they are not already committed), and usually pick a school by the end of the fall and winter softball season.
Speaking of recruiting, Kasey Kane states, “Recruiting definitely takes up a lot of time, and you are not always going to get scholarships from the schools that you want to go to, but it is still really cool to get offers. In the end, it is worth it and you feel like you have accomplished so much”.
The High School softball season can be a nice break from recruiting for many athletes. It is a short season where athletes have the chance to play with the girls that they go to school with, and it is a season to have more fun with. Club Softball can feel really stressful and serious, whereas the High School season can feel relieving because it is a nice change of pace.
By the end of the fall and winter season, most High School teams have started preseason workouts in order to get a head start on the season. This also allows coaches to have a better look at who will make what team after tryouts, and it is a great way for the girls to get to know each other.
