It's all great conversation! It just takes a lot of time, people and effort to change the culture and I'm not sure there is enough interest in today's NKY to do it. You'd have to start at the young ages and get a hold of the young kids before passion grows for other sports. Then once you have more interest at the younger ages, the culture can start to change. Friends get other friends involved and make it fun and you can swing the pendulum. As kids get older, they migrate towards competition vs fun. So you have to have a way to keep the really good players in NKY and create an org that can compete and get exposure. All of that is a long term plan and hard to execute without a very dedicated leader or group.

 

In order to do this, I think you have to accommodate the #1 softball killer, soccer. Soccer dominates the area for girls. I know so many girls that play soccer that would like to try softball but don't because the parents don't want conflicting sports. They let the child pick, and they always pick soccer because they are comfortable with it. I've been trying to get the softball start date pushed back into mid May to get more girls out, but no-one wants to to cram a full season into 1.5 months or extend into late July. I would almost guarantee softball numbers would go up if the season started just a little later (rec side of things).

In order to do this, I think you have to accommodate the #1 softball killer, soccer. Soccer dominates the area for girls. I know so many girls that play soccer that would like to try softball but don't because the parents don't want conflicting sports. They let the child pick, and they always pick soccer because they are comfortable with it. I've been trying to get the softball start date pushed back into mid May to get more girls out, but no-one wants to to cram a full season into 1.5 months or extend into late July. I would almost guarantee softball numbers would go up if the season started just a little later (rec side of things).

 

Agree 100%! Soccer is so easy to experience success early. As soon as you can walk, you can play soccer. Young kids fall in love with the ease of success and it's hard to get them back. Softball takes skill training. Most kids aren't strong enough to make a basket or hit it over a net at a very young age. To get recognition and excitement out of soccer, all you have to do is be able to run and kick. I'm not minimizing the skills of soccer at all...just saying it's easy to get excited about it at a young age. And the clubs get their talons in you and make everyone feel like they are the next star! So people stick it out and them find themselves behind in skills of other sports. With the couple really nice soccer Orgs in NKY, it's easy to see why there is pressure to play soccer.

In NKY, it's the lack of great organizations in softball. I think our NKY orgs are good for kids in the mid-range. One of the reason, softball just isn't a priority in NKY. Soccer, volleyball and basketball reign in NKY.

 

AGREE!!!!!

 

Softball in NKY (as a whole) is making small advances against the "big 3" V-ball, soccer, hoops. However, IMO, it will never catch the "big 3" in this area. The few NKY travel teams are doing a great job of getting the younger girls involved in the game, and we at NewCath will be seeing some of the benefits from this in a few years. However, some of these girls are also 2 and 3 sport athletes as well. The reason I think the 'Big 3" have a foot-hold in NKY, at least among kids that went to catholic grade schools, is that these sports have school leagues/or instructional leagues starting in 1st grade, while there are ZERO softball leagues until they get older, and those are slow-pitch. DLG who graduated last year and 2.0 a soph., played slow-pitch until 6th grade......but they had one hell of a coach.

 

The small schools are at a big disadvantage when it comes to numbers. We, NewCath, are very fortunate that we have talented athletes that can play a multitude of sports. Our current varsity roster has 1 softball only player, while the other 10 play 2 or 3 sports (and for 8/10 softball isn't there primary sport). Just this year we lost 3 varsity players to Select soccer. Like I've said before, "we don't have softball players, we have athletes that can play softball".

 

BTW, to answer the question, "Are coaches DUMB?", :idunno: but I'm one of the smartest people I know.

Edited March 5, 201511 yr by Lawnboy13

Keep in mind, fast pitch softball is still in its infancy in Ky. Not that long ago they were still playing slow pitch.

Keep in mind, fast pitch softball is still in its infancy in Ky. Not that long ago they were still playing slow pitch.

 

at least in NKY.

Hard to compete with the southern states who have the chance to play year round.

 

As much as anything, this becomes an issue. You play this sport in the spring, in a wet / cold region, at the end of the school year. Far and away the shortest high school season out there.

 

High school play alone won't get you there (typically), but when you are up against so many other factors it becomes less visible.

 

If you look at when the college season starts for softball versus high school, compared to when the college basketball season starts versus high school...dramatic difference.

 

Until high schools can figure out a way to fit a season into a 6 - 7 week quality window, it is likely not going to change with all the certification in the world....