Inside Pitch: Father of an Elite Prospect Talks Pros & Cons of Early Recruiting


No topic is more heated in softball right now than Early Recruiting and today we have a unique perspective: that of a father whose daughter is going to a Top 25-ranked program.

He requested anonymity for obvious reasons telling Extra Inning Softball yesterday, “Here are some of my thoughts on early recruiting.  This is OFF THE RECORD.  Please feel free to use any of these thoughts but do not attach my name to them…”

We’re honoring his request to stay nameless—wherever you see parentheses (xxx ) it’s where we’ve removed anything that might identify him.

Nevertheless, being the parent of a recruit who has committed pretty young to a Women’s College World Series-type program, he has some interesting viewpoints and predictions he think will happen if the pending NCAA legislation passes in April…

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There has been much said about early recruiting and its damaging effects.

As parents of an early recruit, it is painful for (my wife) and myself to hear comments about overbearing parents who push their kids to do something at a young age and naive teenagers who do nothing but dream about wearing college logos on their chest.

High transfer rates are quoted and early recruiting is blamed as the sole cause.  Anybody who knows anything about the life of a college athlete knows that is totally ridiculous: there are a myriad of reasons that athletes transfer including lack of playing time, a coach being fired, problems with teammates, academic problems, injuries, pregnancies, etc.

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Division I softball recruiting occurs in the sophomore and later years.  There is just a small percentage of D-1 softball athletes that are recruited prior to the sophomore year currently.

The proposed rule changes will only really affect the few who are elite athletes and are committing to WCWS contenders.

These rules will only put off softball offers and commitments for a one-year period for the vast majority of athletes.

I saw the NCAA survey numbers.  There was only a 23% response in softball, which is pretty good for a survey like that.  But then they take the survey results and extrapolate it across the entire population of D-1 softball athletes.

And they included the sophomore year, which in reality is when most of the recruiting happens.  I wouldn’t call the sophomore year “early.”  The numbers of kids committing before the sophomore year are not big numbers in the grand scheme of things, like 10-15% of all D-1 softball players and 2-4% of total (D-1, D-II, D-III & NAIA) softball players.

These young commits are the “elite of the elite” and a vast majority of these athletes are going through a long process where pros and cons are evaluated ad nauseum by parents, coaches and the athletes themselves.

There are four softball states that produce a lot of talent: California, Florida, Georgia and Texas.  Most elite players that get opportunities with WCWS contender schools come from one of those four states or through elite club organizations like the Beverly Bandits (Midwest) or Birmingham Thunderbolts (South).

Every year, largely because of the current early recruiting process, there are a few kids from other states who get the opportunity to be recruited by a university that is a perennial WCWS contender.

Once these kids get recruited, they often leave their home state and then play with club teams like the Thunderbolts, Bandits, OC Batbusters, Firecrackers and Athletics, among others, to help them adequately prepare for college.

With the impending change in recruiting rules, I believe that fewer kids from the other 46 states will get the opportunity to play for a WCWS qualifier school.

Those schools will begin to rely even more heavily on club coaches from the Big Four softball states to provide them with referrals of high school age talent.

They will call the coaches from California, Texas, Georgia and Florida, where a huge pool of players and several very competitive club teams reside.

If my kid had not committed to a WCWS contender, she would not be playing for the (elite club team she’s on).  I would not have moved her to a (top) team in hopes that it would prepare her to get recruited by a WCWS contender.  [Editor’s note: his daughter is not from one of the Big Four states he mentioned].

It happened—we realized she had the talent—and she wanted to commit so we allowed her the decision she chose to grow that talent.

In the future under the new rules, I can see that a weaker softball state player would potentially have to join a high-level club team before committing in hopes that they would get recruited by a WCWS contender several years later when the athlete is a junior in high school.

I believe that is the true effect of the rule it that you will see an even larger percentage of California, Florida, Georgia and Texas athletes attending WCWS schools.

Athletes from other states won’t have a clear path to those WCWS schools unless they join club teams in the Big Four States or a top club team well in advance of their recruitment.

It is going to be an unfortunate by product of the rule change.

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Agree or disagree with these opinions? Write us at [email protected] to give us your perspective.