Would love to see all schools have freshman teams and or middle school teams but this area is just to far behind. IMO fastpitch is a great game but when you have pitchers that can not throw stikes or girls that dont have the basic skills it is really hard game to watch. Until someone steps up and puts together a good rec league for girls to develop and move on to travel then HS I am not sure it will ever get much better.

 

I am not sure the area needs great coaches to get better just more people that are willing to put the time and effort in. There is a lot of softball that is like baseball but just like in every sport you have different coaches teaching it different ways that does not mean it is wrong. My daughter has been lucky enough to play at a very high level and been to a lot of college camps and played against a lot of Cal. teams. Not all of them do things the same. Mike Candrea from Arizona sells videos teaching hitting one way than has his players hit another way.

 

Very little defenses in softball are like baseball. Maybe just the way the cut offs but IMO very little is like baseball. I coached softball in college and played in Texas amongst very good ASA Gold teams. They might not coach all the same but fundamentally, they coach the game the same way.

 

Also, I feel there are not good coaches in NKY for high school softball. I do not think most coaches can coach all aspects of the game properly. When I mean all aspects I mean, pitching, catching and hitting. I do agree with you if you do not have a good pitcher the game is terrible and this is a complaint with a lot of people especially for those who used to play slow pitch or still play it in the leagues and people try to get them to play fast pitch. Like I said I think every coach should get certified at certain levels like club soccer coaches do.

Would love to see all schools have freshman teams and or middle school teams but this area is just to far behind. IMO fastpitch is a great game but when you have pitchers that can not throw stikes or girls that dont have the basic skills it is really hard game to watch. Until someone steps up and puts together a good rec league for girls to develop and move on to travel then HS I am not sure it will ever get much better.

 

I am not sure the area needs great coaches to get better just more people that are willing to put the time and effort in. There is a lot of softball that is like baseball but just like in every sport you have different coaches teaching it different ways that does not mean it is wrong. My daughter has been lucky enough to play at a very high level and been to a lot of college camps and played against a lot of Cal. teams. Not all of them do things the same. Mike Candrea from Arizona sells videos teaching hitting one way than has his players hit another way.

You are right on about the 9th. Only Notre Dame fielding a freshman team? The 8th and 10th have Freshman teams at almost every school and most of the schools are much smaller. It starts with the rec leagues, the kids need to be getting some basic instruction at the 7-10 age range and it's just not happening and the high school coaches do not want the responsibility of teaching skills that should have been learned at a much earlier age.

I'm not real sure Volleyball is stealing much talent from softball. How many more v-ball players are there at your school that could play softball than vice-versa. I would say at our school there are just as many or more girls playing softball only that could be v-ball players than volleyball only that could play softball. If you take out the 2 catholic schools in the 9th, volleyball isn't much better than softball.

 

 

True...good point

Here is my opinion on this and only my opinion. Many schools believe in playing all the sports you possibly can during the school year so this means 3 different sports. If you look at the girls who are getting college scholarships (Div I & II) from Northern KY most girls may play 2 sports but for the most part it would be 1 in high school and then they play year round for their club team. I just do not think there are many kids who can be really good playing 2 or 3 sports in high school. Coming from the outside (only been in NKY for about 6 years) it amazes me how far behind skill wise NKY is when it comes to fastpitch softball. I do not think you can blame volleyball or soccer. I think you have to blame the schools and the leagues for not promotiong the sport. Until the leagues realize Knothole or USSSA softball is not where you will see the college coaches softball will never be good up here. Also, until girls realize you can receive college scholarships playing softball I do not think the interest will be here. I know a lot of kids take pitching lessons or even hitting lessons. I am wondering how much these kids are paying because for the most part these people who are "teaching" are "teaching" it wrong. I have never seen any college pitcher be able to pitch bent over. I think these high schools need to have a freshman fastpitch team no matter how bad or good the girls are. This is the only way this great game will start excelling in Northern KY. The more girls you have playing the more girls who will want to start playing. I know of only 3 schools in NKY which have a freshman team, Notre Dame, Campbell County and Bishop Brossart.

 

I will say a lot of girls will not play due to the coaches. Even though Campbell County is not in the 8th or the 9th they had 50 girls tryout when I do not think they had 30 kids the past previous 3 or 4 years tryout each year. They got a good coach who teaches the game the right way and treats the kids well. He does not coach softball like baseball and this is how most coaches up here teach the game. I think each coach who coaches fast pitch should have to take the ASA classes for coaching and get ranked.

 

This is my 2 cents.

 

Another reality is that most HS in NKY just made the jump to fast pitch in the last 5 years because they held on to slow pitch until KHSAA made them switch.

You are right on about the 9th. Only Notre Dame fielding a freshman team? The 8th and 10th have Freshman teams at almost every school and most of the schools are much smaller. It starts with the rec leagues, the kids need to be getting some basic instruction at the 7-10 age range and it's just not happening and the high school coaches do not want the responsibility of teaching skills that should have been learned at a much earlier age.

 

NDA does have a frosh team and the feeder schools have a fastpitch team in every grade (at least Pius and BS). That is not by mistake...the head coach is promoting fast pitch from ground up.

Very little defenses in softball are like baseball. Maybe just the way the cut offs but IMO very little is like baseball. I coached softball in college and played in Texas amongst very good ASA Gold teams. They might not coach all the same but fundamentally, they coach the game the same way.

 

Also, I feel there are not good coaches in NKY for high school softball. I do not think most coaches can coach all aspects of the game properly. When I mean all aspects I mean, pitching, catching and hitting. I do agree with you if you do not have a good pitcher the game is terrible and this is a complaint with a lot of people especially for those who used to play slow pitch or still play it in the leagues and people try to get them to play fast pitch. Like I said I think every coach should get certified at certain levels like club soccer coaches do.

 

I agree coaching is not very good in the area. I think it is going to take some time for the girls and there parents in the area that are playing a decent level of travel ball to go through HS and college then come back to the area and give back as coaches. It would be great if people went and got certified but I think it helps more if they get out to these high level tourneys and see how other good teams do things. There are a lot of good certified club soccer coaches in the area and some really bad ones too.

I agree coaching is not very good in the area. I think it is going to take some time for the girls and there parents in the area that are playing a decent level of travel ball to go through HS and college then come back to the area and give back as coaches. It would be great if people went and got certified but I think it helps more if they get out to these high level tourneys and see how other good teams do things. There are a lot of good certified club soccer coaches in the area and some really bad ones too.

 

I agree about the certification. My point was in that statement and I probably did not say it is for those who are just starting out coaching fastpitch they would learn quite a lot at these certification classes. I also agree with you about the high level softball tourneys. I would recommend to anyone to take a vacation in Denver around the 4th of July. They have over 200 16 & 18 under teams from all over the country playing there and you will see some high level softball. I am just not sure where around here you find good high quality softball tournaments on the weekends

I think the last people to get any blame should be the High School Coaches. It appears to me that some people are looking for Mike Candreas at every school in Northern Kentucky. Where are you going to find them? How many teachers at each school do you think have any background in Fastpitch Softball? When we do get someone that wants to try they get blasted from the parents because they can't turn a kid that has never played the game into Chrystal Bustos overnight. There are basically 2 people that can coach softball in this area, a kid that played the game and is willing to coach and a parent that became interested because of a child. For whatever reason there just aren't that many of the first and not a lot of the other that have the time. What I want out of a high school coach is someone who will be enthusiastic about the sport and the team, treat my kids with respect, ignore all the silly parent drama, and give them an atmosphere that is enjoyable. I will take my kids to the cage when it's cold, to the field when its warm and they will have a basic knowledge of the game when they get to the high school coach. I think most of the blame has got to be placed on the parents. Spend a little time working with your kid. It doesn't take any special skills to play catch with a kid, demand more from the rec leagues and get out and help if you have the time.

There's a lot more to coaching than just going to a class and getting certified, or knowing one or more parts of the game.

There's a lot more to coaching than just going to a class and getting certified, or knowing one or more parts of the game.

I agree, it seems to be that the parents think that at each practice the coaches should be spending 30 minutes with one on one instruction with their kid. It just doesn't add up, with the limited practice time due to weather and sharing the gym with basketball and baseball, evaluating players and then working on game situations leaves very little time for individual instruction at the high school level. Once again, this comes down to parents and recreation leagues getting the players ready.

:ylsuper::ylsuper:

I agree, it seems to be that the parents think that at each practice the coaches should be spending 30 minutes with one on one instruction with their kid. It just doesn't add up, with the limited practice time due to weather and sharing the gym with basketball and baseball, evaluating players and then working on game situations leaves very little time for individual instruction at the high school level. Once again, this comes down to parents and recreation leagues getting the players ready.

It all starts with the parents, if a girl wants to get better the parents need to take the time to work with the child or a least find a trainer that can help if they can find the time and money. The point about coaching in the area comes from HS coaches that have told me that their first fastpitch game they saw was the first one they coached. That would not happen in the other sports in the area. Everyone wants their child to have a good time in no matter what sport they play, but if we are talking about why this area is behind that is one major reason.

 

I would like to see more girls sign up and play tee ball with the boys at a young age, they could always move to fastpitch when they are 9 or 10.

It all starts with the parents, if a girl wants to get better the parents need to take the time to work with the child or a least find a trainer that can help if they can find the time and money. The point about coaching in the area comes from HS coaches that have told me that their first fastpitch game they saw was the first one they coached. That would not happen in the other sports in the area. Everyone wants their child to have a good time in no matter what sport they play, but if we are talking about why this area is behind that is one major reason.

 

I would like to see more girls sign up and play tee ball with the boys at a young age, they could always move to fastpitch when they are 9 or 10.

 

I know a lot of leagues in California and Texas have this type of structure for their softball leagues do not quote me exactly on the ages but I know it is pretty close:

 

6U - t-ball

8U - coach pitch

10U - girls pitch but once it gets to a certain count (I cannot remember the count but I think it is a 2 strike count

12U - girls pitch

 

I agree with everyone it should be the responsibility of the parents to get the girls going in the sport however, IMO, the high school softball has a responsibility as well. I know there are a couple of high school coaches who go to the youth leagues and do clinics. This promotes the high school but also helps with their program as well and helps the leagues.

Don't forget, NKY also has clung to slow pitch for years and only recently has the program been dropped at schools like Simon Kenton and Dixie. When the state dropped sponsorship at KHSAA schools from the north still want teams to field. We are way behind!

 

There are soooooooooo many select (at least they think they are) in basketball, volleyball and soccer that kids simply cannot follow the 2 sport process this time of year.

 

High School basketball ended tonight for Simon Kenton and the fast-Pitch team has been working out for 3 weeks. I am forcing my daughter to take two weeks off to work her arm into shape and get some private hitting lessons in before she goes out in the cold. Their first game is 3/25.

Holy Cross takes on Connor today at Connor in a practice game. Will the young Indians be able to keep up with the defending 9th region champs.