SBDad10

I'm sure they are a solid team. I don't know anything about out of state teams. Who are they ranked by, MaxPreps? I don't put much stock in their rankings. It's garbage in, garbage out. They reward teams that put stats on their site. Not an accurate picture of who's actually good or not.

Last day of season. I don't see anything else remotely challenging on the rest of their schedule.

I thought East Carter was upgrading the schedule this year?

Woodford run ruled Male last week 12-0 and is still behind them.

Just heard Woodford 12 Male 0 in 5 innings tonight

Let's save some of this warm weather for March! Yesterday would have been a perfect day for an early season ballgame.

Hard to argue against Scott. The one thing we know is that one top-5 team will not be going to state.

EJ has several nice players, but they lost 5 or 6 seniors and I hear they will be pulling middle schoolers up to varsity this year. They should still be a good team especially with a top notch pitcher but I doubt they will be as strong as the last couple of years.

Looks like Kaylee Tow (MNH) officially signed with Alabama There are at least 3 KY girls signing with UK this year too.

Early signing period ends Wednesday. Which seniors signed and with what schools?

Don't know, but his daughter graduated last year so maybe that explains it.

I don't think I've seen Kendall Smith, C, from Warren East listed above. She should be included.

What does McCracken have in the circle? They lost 3 senior pitchers. That's got to be a question mark going into the season.

I thought EJ lost half their team to graduation? I know they have a top notch pitcher and a couple nice pieces but I don't think they have much else. They'll be very young. Boyle should give them a serious run for the region. I hope EC plays a tougher schedule. It will give everyone a better idea of what they have and prepare them for later in the year.

How many high school softball coaches practice their teams through the summer? I'm asking an honest question - I have never heard of any, but that doesn't mean it isn't going on. If this was a huge problem, then you'd see coaches pressuring kids to practice/play outside of the 2 week dead period during summer. I've never heard someone say that their kid has high school practice during the summer. Also, we're talking 2 weeks. How does that stop year round sports and coaches pressuring kids to play the other 50 weeks? If my kid gets 2 weeks off during the summer it's OK, but if she decides not to participate in voluntary workouts in September, there's no pressure then? Since the goal of high school is education first, wouldn't it make more sense to have a dead period while the kids are in school, so they aren't pressured into practicing instead of concentrating on classwork?

You guys are saying that hardly any high school coaches coach travel ball. OK, so the ones that do are typically pretty high level. They aren't going to be forcing anyone to play who doesn't want to play and who isn't good enough to contribute to a high level team. This is a solution in search of a problem.

I'm not saying don't have a dead period. I'm saying the dead period for spring sports should not penalize the players by imposing the dead period during the most critical competitive season outside of high school. Have them take 2 weeks off in January, or December, during the holidays. That's effectively the same thing for spring sports as forcing football coaches to not have practice during the couple of weeks leading up to the beginning of the summer season. There is no pressure to play. Kids that want to play are going to play regardless, and the kids who enjoy softball but don't want to make it a year round sport won't play.

The high school softball season doesn't begin until February. The break thee kids should be taking is in the pre-season - just like football and basketball does. I'm glad you need a break. Take it. If the girls are going to continue playing during the summer regardless of whether the coach is allowed, then the rule serves no purpose. Remember, this is to keep coaches from forcing girls to play. No one is being forced to play anymore! This rule isn't "protecting" anyone! The rule may be about high school, but it only impacts travel ball and the development and recruiting of players. It hurts the players to have their coach be forced to sit out a third of the summer season. That's not debatable.

Meaning they run a far less chance of being seen coaching during dead period if they are playing out of state than if they were coaching around Kentucky, I assume. Here's the problem with what you're saying - the rule no longer serves the purpose it was designed for. If you read the purpose statement for the rule, it talks about football and basketball being forced to start seasons early and losing summer break, and then talks about an issue starting in the MID-90s where high school coaches were forcing kids to play year round in other sports. It's no longer the 90s and this is no longer a new thing. EVERYONE plays year round now, and it's not because high school coaches are forcing them to. You say this is the exception - if it's the exception, then the rule isn't needed. You say you can play elsewhere - funny, this board has been discussing how few travel organizations there are in KY, and here you are pushing kids to go play for teams in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, etc. Gee, I wonder why we can't build Kentucky-based travel organizations? You say this isn't a big deal because the team can play without the coach for 2 weeks. This here proves the rule no longer makes sense. If the purpose is to give kids rest from coaches pushing them to play and not being able to go on vacation, and these teams play without their coaches during dead period anyway, then please explain to me what problem this rule is solving? NONE. These kids aren't being forced to play, they want to play and do so whether or not the coach can coach them. So what's the purpose of this rule? I've read on here similar comments about not really needing coaches. The fact is, if you're playing on a team where your coach doesn't matter, you need to find a better coach. Many of these kids are playing high level travel ball against teams from across the country. They're not just playing to play, they're competing for the opportunity to play in the top tournaments in the country. Yes, they need their coaches.

The main competitive season is June/July. Showcases are simply that, college coaches want to see players competing not playing 75 minute drop dead games with free substitutions. You can only get to the best competitive national tournaments by qualifying. Dead period ruins that. And I still contend that the typical high school player isn't affected by this rule. It only hurts the top tier players who don't want a rest during the summer. They rest in December (or should).

I'm not talking about a high school coach coaching his entire team, or high school coaches who aren't involved in high level travel ball and very involved in recruiting. I'm talking about coaches who coach a team of high level players, a couple of which happen to play on his/her high school team. These are kids who are going to play all summer because they want to play and want to be recruited, not because the high school coach is playing their high school team all summer and they feel pressure to play. The reality is, Kentucky players have about 6 weeks to play summer ball. To play at the top level tournaments, you must qualify. That gives us, at best, 3-4 weeks to qualify. 2-3 of those weeks are disrupted when a coach is forced to sit out, or certain players can't play because of who the coach is. It's a terrible system and hampers Kentucky players from getting seen at the biggest tournaments of the summer - ASA, ASA Gold and PGF. There's no reason to force rest on players who do not want rest, or to hurt their teams by forcing coaches to sit out qualifier and showcase tournaments. Rest comes between Thanksgiving and December. The rule doesn't fit a lot of actual travel team situations or the recruiting calendar, and does nothing but hurt the top talent in the state.

The rule itself is fine, but applying a rule initially meant for football to other sports at the same time as it applies to football is stupid. It's supposed to give kids a break before their sport begins so coaches don't extend their seasons. Summer is prime baseball and softball recruiting time. Keeping kids away from coaches for 2 weeks of an already short summer recruiting season hurts the kids. And the dead period falls 6 months before the season starts for them.

Only restriction in Kentucky that I'm aware of is dead period June 25-July 9 every summer. Coach can't coach, watch or talk to their own players except limited circumstances. Stupid rule that penalizes the girls. Spring sports should have their own dead period in winter.

You have to travel to see consistent A competition. And name only tells so much. I've seen a couple of Sluggers teams the past couple years that tarnish the name and aren't in the same zip code as the team at the top of that organization.

There are like 50 cities in Ohio with a population over 30000, and less than 10 in Kentucky. This isn't that hard to understand. I bet Texas has more travel organizations than New Mexico, too.