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If you are even remotely associated with fastpitch softball, you know of Derek Allister and his wife Joann and what they have meant to the sport for the last decade and a half.
OnDeck Softball, which they created and have run since 2002 when the Allister Report began evaluating girls fastpitch players, is recognized today as the premier recruiting event company.
Their event structure–which includes dozens of OnDeck Softball Tryouts, Jamborees and Elite Camps produced annually–as well as the OnDeck Measurements (ODM) and other online resources have helped thousands of players get exposure and earn spots on college teams at all levels.
Many of their event alums have gone on to All-American careers at the collegiate level, played for Team USA and even earned NCAA National Player of the Year honors.
For more on OnDeck softball, see our video interview from earlier this year with Derek during the Irvine (Calif.) Tryout and click here to go to the OnDeck Softball website.
Few have a better vantage point of the sport than the Allisters and we asked Derek–a former college basketball coach with an eye for talent– what he thinks is the “State of the Softball Game” today.
Below are his thoughts…
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The Positive Direction of Softball
The growth of the game has been phenomenal. Here are several of the areas where softball is going in the right direction:
- Coaches’ salaries are up. Young coaches can actually make a living, and those coaches at the top of the game can make a really good living.
- Players are better, collectively, than we have ever seen in our 22 years in close contact with the sport. The players are more skilled and more athletic. There are also more of them who excel.
- The gap between the levels of play in the college game has shrunk as well. Coaches have great programs at non-Power 5 schools like James Madison, Louisiana Lafayette, Liberty, Loyola Marymount, etc. and that list seems to be growing each and every year.
- The gap between travel ball played on the West Coast and the rest of the country has shrunk too. The successes of the Beverly Bandits, the Georgia Impact and others has shown that great softball is being played all over the country. 15 years ago, the talent to some extent was deep in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Now, Georgia softball has exploded. Midwest softball is as good as it ever has been. While Chicago softball has been rising steadily, other areas of the Midwest are generating better and better play. Ohio is on the verge of becoming a real force in the game.
- While many talk about the shrinking numbers of young players playing at the beginning levels, I see the upper levels of travel ball exploding with talent.
- In 2004 at the WCWS, Oklahoma games would sell out, but other games would be played in front of crowds that only half-filled the stadium. Now the WCWS routinely sells out all games played.
- ESPN considers softball as one of its premier sports.
- Softball is back in the Olympics.
- Jessica Mendoza is a household name in the baseball world.
- The sport now has a legitimate Senior All American Game.
- There is a college post-season tournament other than the NCAA tournament.
I could go on and on, and all this is good!
The Problems Softball Is Facing
However, with the explosion of success, the building of beautiful stadiums, and the money that has entered the game, problems arise. And that distresses us.
So many of the problems I saw in the sudden growth in the men’s basketball now seem to be rearing their ugly heads in softball.
