Discussion on spring softball state tournament

[softballcoachchs]

School administrators will be voting once again to allow schools to choose the option to play districts in the spring. I can't understand why this hasn't passed yet. They don't make the boys choose between football and baseball, but yet the girls have to make a choice between softball and volleyball. Volleyball is a huge sport in southeast Missouri, and at my school, most girls choose to play that over softball. We barely keep enough kids to even have a team. I know this is true at several of the other area schools as well from talking with their coaches. There are numerous schools in the area, as well as some of the bigger ones, that only play spring softball. This gives them no chance to even compete. My AD told me of a coach from another school that attended one of the MSHSAA meetings. She has been associated with softball for 30 years, and has been a part of ONE district tournament. Why have a championship at all when only half of the teams compete? I would be interested to hear comments from both sides of the issue.

 

[MR Dog]

I coached softball for 14 years here in Missouri. It is untrue that half the schools are unable to play in District and state play. 399 of the 539 High Schools in the state play softball in the fall, which is a majority. The 539 is the number of High Schools that have girls basketball. Also many of the schools that play spring softball also play in the fall. Therefore, you can't look at the number of schools playing in the spring and have an accurate number. Having a second tournament would water down what the state tournament in the fall is all about. It is tough to have to make decisions but we have to make them all our lives. At our school the VB and SB teams compete for players. My own daughter chose VB over SB (I was the coach) because that was where her passion was. In the spring SB, girls soccer and track would have to compete against each other for players. How does that help? I am from Minnesota originally and we had to endure harsh spring softball. Moving to Missouri I found fall softball to be the intelligent choice because of weather. You can't please all the people all the time.

 

[TGPITCH]

Well said, MR Dog.