The Super Competitive World of Female, Fast Pitch Softball

Female, fast pitch softball participation rates in the United States and worldwide are at an all time high. Over 1.6 million girls participate in youth softball on an annual basis. According to the 2014 High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), 573,535 girls participated in fast pitch softball at the high school level. This is fantastic news for the sport of female, fast pitch softball. However, the greater the number of  participants, the greater the level of competition for playing time at the high school and college levels and the greater the competition for coveted college softball scholarships. Unfortunately, talented players get overlooked every day by college recruiters and coaches. If you want a chance at the limited number of college softball scholarships, YOU MUST create, develop, maintain and publicize your “SOFTBALL BRAND NAME” and effectively market you’re playing skills to college recruiters and coaches.

College Softball Participation Rates

The NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA (Junior Colleges) reported the following softball player participation rates:

NCAA Division I --- 5,285

NCAA Division II ---4,905

NCAA Division III --- 6,964 

NAIA Division I --- 1,920

NAIA Division II--- 1,948   

NJCAA (Junior College) Division I --- 3,291

NJCAA Division II --- 1,353

NJCAA Division III --- 965   

Number of Schools Offering College Softball

NCAA Division I--- 289

NCAA Division II--- 265

NCAA Division III--- 381

NAIA--- 198

NJCAA Junior College Division I, Division II, Division III ( combined) --- 339

Total --- 1632

Softball Scholarships Available At Each Collegiate Level

NCAA Division I --- 12 scholarships (per school) 

NCAA Division II --- 7.2 scholarships (per school) 

NCAA Division III --- 0 scholarships  

NAIA --- 10 scholarships (per school)

NJCAA Division I and II --- 24 scholarships ( per school)

NJCAA Division III --- 0 scholarships

The total scholarships listed above pertain to schools that are fully funded with large athletic budgets due to lucrative football and basketball revenues. Unfortunately, most college softball programs are NOT FULLY FUNDED, which makes a softball scholarship a highly valued commodity.  

College coaches will avoid “overbearing parents” in the athletic recruiting process at all costs

Posted by recruiting-101.com | August 25, 2014 .

As I have mentioned many times and in a number of different articles, college coaches try to find out the most that they can about each recruit that they are after.  If a scholarship offer will come to the table, the majority of coaches do an in-depth background check that allows them to learn as much as they can about the situation of each athlete they are serious about.

But when they do this background check, it is not just 100% about the athlete.  The coaches also look into the family life and what they may be dealing with over the next four or five years.  And in some situations, overbearing parents may be enough to turn away college coaches and have them look for another prospect.

Really it is a fine line to walk being a parent who wants to promote your kid and at the same time not being overbearing.  On one hand, marketing your son or daughter to college coaches really is an essential part of the recruiting process in any sport.  But if you think your child is a Division I athlete and they are not, then some may think that you are being unrealistic because it is your child.  This happens all the time.

A few years back I heard a good story about an athlete who is a talented basketball player.  He works hard and does the right things to make him successful on the court.  But his mom is a completely different story.  Following one game where her son didn’t get enough shots, she screamed at an assistant coach about it.  This was in public and their team had won the game that night.  Again, it is a high school assistant coach.

There was a college coach there that night from a school that had recently had some success on the court.  They were looking at recruiting this kid but the college coach saw all this drama in fold right in front of his eyes.  He saw this overbearing (Crazy may also work here) parent yelling at a coach after their team had won the game.  Right then and there, the college coach told the head coach that he was no longer interested in the prospect and left.

If that was the only Division I school that was recruiting this athlete, then the years of work and dreams of playing at that level may have been out the window as well.  Obviously not all parents are this overbearing.  This is easy to avoid.  Minor things you should think about is how you talk about their coach, if you tell others that offers are coming and they don’t end up being there, and things along that line.

I obviously get a chance to talk to a lot of parents and many are wide eyed and excited to go through the recruiting process.  Usually these are the ones who don’t do a ton of marketing because they are just unsure about what they should do in the process.  That is why they visit this site, right?

I completely understand that no matter how hard you try, you are not going to be able to take away the bias when evaluating your kid.  In the eyes of parents, it is nearly impossible.  This is the kid you raised over the last 18-years and to evaluate them accordingly without bias is nearly impossible.  But you can’t push it too much.

Recently I have been in contact with a parent who doesn’t seem to get the recruiting process.  He thinks he does, but he really doesn’t get it.  His son is a Division I athlete but there is only one offer and it is by a low, low major school.  The dad has been telling people this summer that his son will have more offers and this school or that school is going to offer the next day.  Like I have said before, don’t believe the offer is there until the official paperwork is in your hands.  Too many schools give verbal offers and never come through.

This parent also tries to do rankings and things along that line but his son is always ranked too high.  The bias is there.  While I am unsure how he acts around college coaches, his misunderstanding of the recruiting process could end up hurting his son in a big way.  Anyways, being the overbearing parent will turn off college coaches.  These coaches want to focus on basketball and not dealing with parents about playing time, carries, or shots that their child is getting each game.  For you parents, keep that in mind!