Early commits and the booming business of showcases are robbing the spirit of softball.

Do you ever wonder what the aftermath of early verbals and showcases will be? Do you ever wonder if the quest for college scholarships has trumped the love for the game? What are the repercussions of allowing players to jump from team to team? Does winning matter anymore? 

Today’s softball athlete is better, but I don’t believe the game is better. Showcases hurt the game of softball and help the world of recruiting. Call us hypocrites for covering showcases but we're trying to cover softball as best we can because we love it and diehard fans love it. At the end of the day, what are teams participating in showcases playing for? The ultimate goal has shifted from winning to now college exposure and verbal commitments. I’m not here to say that it’s right or wrong. It is what it is. With no rule changes, there will be no behavior changes. Everyone’s guilty of being sucked into the vacuum of early recruiting and showcases.

The Paradox of Showcases

PGF and other organizations have tried the tournament model and found that some teams would leave before the semi-final or final game. When teams leave a tournament early, it hurts the legitimacy of the tournament. So when you take a tournament director's perspective, showcases are a logical choice. Ideally, teams want to play five to six games over the weekend. Playing five to six guaranteed games is way more appealing when you know what time you play your first game to last game. From the showcase business side, showcase directors capitalize on the need for games and fill their pockets while they do it. Say what you want, showcases fill a need.

The problem emerges with the culture and values that are cultivated as a result of a showcase format. Participating in time limit games with zero game scores posted diminishes the value of winning. Is a game really won or lost when it was never completed? If teams play under time limit with no real winner with no trophy or plaque, what are they playing for? How will a coach know if a player can perform under pressure if the game doesn't mean anything?

Organizations like Scenic City and PGF are taking steps towards fusing showcase and tournament style. Offering five guarantees playing three pool games and heading into double elimination. Finally! However, this does mean that some teams will be excluded. To be invited you're going to have to win your way to enter.

The Paradox of Parenting

Parents, the world did not give you a manual to parent your child and is arguably one of the toughest jobs in the world. You shape young humans with your values, disciplines, and everyday interactions. What do you do when your daughter knows how to get out of every uncomfortable situation that’s not “fun” for them? What do you do when your daughter is not happy with the coach? Is it more important to be liked by your daughter or teach her a hard lesson that may result in temporary suffering? Now, I’m not a parent I’m simply an observer. Our most basic human needs are to connect, feel loved, feel liked, and to feel accepted. Sometimes as a parent it’s difficult teaching children lessons you know will cause them to suffer. Your parent primal instinct is to protect your children from all harm and suffering of any kind. Do you see the conflict? You love your child and she loves you back. Your daughter tries to get out of uncomfortable situations by telling you that they’re unhappy and suffering. You protect them from that suffering by letting them leave a team or uncomfortable situation.

Megan Willis, catcher for USSSA Pride, told me a story that stuck with me. When Megan was 11 or 12, she wanted to leave her Arizona club team to play for the Firecrackers. Mike Willis, her dad said, “Megan, if that’s what you really want to do then you have to tell your coach yourself.” Trembling with hesitance and anxiety, Megan walked up to her coach and told him that she was leaving the team. At the time, telling her coach she was leaving was one of the hardest things she had ever done in her young life. That moment taught her a valuable lesson. Mike taught her that you must have enough respect for people/coaches that invest time in you to take accountability and responsibility for your actions.

Recruiting Wars

The race is on for recruiting top athletes. With no changes in the recruiting rules, there will be no change in behavior. Nothing is going to stop early recruiting unless there are serious NCAA parameters put around the issue. Because of the competitive nature of schools and threat of job security, college coaches are practically forced to join the early recruiting pool. What is it like to gamble on a player that still has four years to develop before going to college? Some schools attempt to place better bets by committing 10 to 11 players knowing that a few of them will get dropped if they don’t pan out in the next two to three years. It’s messed up. But how do you secure your bets? You place them on better horses and cut your losses.

De-Commits

A young girl dreams of playing Division I softball, she works her butt off year after year. No Division I school recruits her. The girls commits to a Division II school at the end of her sophomore year. She develops into a solid player. The summer after she commits, a Division I school takes a sniff. She takes an unofficial visit to the Division I school, the Division I school offers her 15%. The girl de-commits and takes the Division I offer. If you’re the player, you’re stoked that your dream is coming true. If you’re the Division II coach, you’re upset. If you’re the Division I coach, you’re on to the next one. How do we address disloyalty and a broken promise?

Without question, there should be consequences for de-commits and withdrawing scholarship offers. Some coaches are advocating players lose one year of eligibility for de-committing one year prior to signing the National Letter of intent. Schools lose that scholarship percentage for withdrawing a scholarship offer one year prior to signing the National Letter of Intent. I would like to see regional qualifiers played to get into big showcase tournaments.

What worries we most about the current state of softball is losing the meaning of why we play. What are your thoughts? How can we bring back the value of winning? What changes do you think need to be made?