nkysoftball

When is all "A" state tournament?

Leg up for Grant in the 32nd with wins over SK and Walton back to back.

You may get to see this match-up somewhere in the All-A tournament as well.

Some scrimmages I have heard: Walton over St. Henry, Ryle losses to SK and Brossart, all scores were close. Looks like good parity in Northern KY this year.

Holy Cross has a pretty good group of players, they should have a good year.

I would think they won't....Conner may go deep in their pitching staff and even it up a little.

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.

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.

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.

Not trying to take anything away from Walton they are a very good team, but they have never won the 32nd and last year was their first runner-up in quite a few years.

It is yet to be seen what the added pitching distance will do. I think the added distance will hurt a power pitcher and help a finesse pitcher. None of these pitchers are power pitchers.

In single elimination regional tournaments a team can ride a hot pitcher to a championship. I think that gives St. Henry,Ryle,Boone,NCC and Conner the best shot. All have pitchers capable of dominating the tournament.

Not sure why you think the 9th is down. Only 1 player at Conner and Ryle graduated. I think the 9th is as deep and as good as it ever has been.

You are right I don't think Kenton even offered a fastpitch program until maybe 3 or 4 years back. Makes it hard to compete with areas like London, Hopkinsville and Owensboro that are really serious about softball.

Not sure I would call the Boone County youth league outstanding. Compared to other parts of the state it is not very good. Other parts of the state have middle school programs and facilities for the girls that are far better than what northern Kentucky has. The 2 large schools in Kenton County(SK and Dixie) have been on par with the 3 large Boone County schools as well. For whatever reason softball just never has really caught on in Northern Kentucky like it has the rest of the state, while at the same time Soccer and Volleyball are top notch here.

Pretty safe predictions. Any darkhorses?

I agree they are solid teams. When was the last time someone other than Clark or Montgomery won this region? It's only 3 weeks good to see a little softball talk.

Scott will be better as well. Do you really think anyone other than the top 2 has a chance?

Mike Epstein, but it is pretty expensive. They have a website you can check for camp times.

Kind of a catch 22 for SK, the aggressive D is what makes them good, but the lack of depth is going to hurt.

Is she the catcher?

I see where your going with this, but there is nobody in Independence that would prefer to go to Louisville over a home game with Ryle.

Not trying to be argumentative, but don't you think the fact the game was played in Louisville between 2 Louisville schools has something to do with attendance figures being higher? My guess is outside of Louisville any random high school football fan from Pikeville to Paducah would prefer 2 Louisville teams not play for the Championship.

You are implying that Ryle and Simon Kenton are on the same level, Ryle is much closer to Conner than Simon Kenton.