The LSC... Is it a has been?

[LSC Fan]

Yeah Volleyball in the Panhandle has been like this since the beginning.

A lot of the parents I knew when their kids were in school worked in healthcare and would work 12 hour shifts during the week so they can have the extra Friday-Monday for the travel days every weekend.

Girls miss a lot of school dances, football games, etc.

Its state or bust for several volleyball schools.

Volleyball might be one of the non-football sports where the extra stuff is worth the payoff. Volleyball and Women's basketball is the equivalent of football as far as the top sport on the women's side at many colleges meaning they get the most schollie dollars vs the other sports on the women's side. Not sure about softball, but I know Baseball, even at the big dog schools like the UT's, OU's, etc. a top prospect may only get a 60% ride which means at the D2 level that has to be way lower at even the top dogs. We have a family friend whose son was drafted in the second round (Missed the first round by two picks) and was committed to UT at the time and they only offered him 60%. But at the end of the day these kids that are getting a schollie for just 30% or less, is it worth dumping the thousands and thousands of dollars into the select/travel ball non sense?

[ASUPops]

This is worse in the baseball world. Year around baseball and these select teams pushing parents to specialize for what is a pie in the sky. I’ve known some parents that over four to six year period of time which would date back to middle school who’ve dumped probably four years of tuition and room/board into these select leagues and tourneys and their kid never played the game again after their senior year in high school. A lot of that was burnout. Ironically I’ve seen a lot of Moms push their sons this way and not necessarily the dads. Lol

100%

[ASUPops]

Yeah Volleyball in the Panhandle has been like this since the beginning.

A lot of the parents I knew when their kids were in school worked in healthcare and would work 12 hour shifts during the week so they can have the extra Friday-Monday for the travel days every weekend.

Girls miss a lot of school dances, football games, etc.

Its state or bust for several volleyball schools.

I call BS!

I went back and read Genesis 1 and found NOTHING about volleyball or the Panhandle.

[ASUPops]

Volleyball might be one of the non-football sports where the extra stuff is worth the payoff. Volleyball and Women's basketball is the equivalent of football as far as the top sport on the women's side at many colleges meaning they get the most schollie dollars vs the other sports on the women's side. Not sure about softball, but I know Baseball, even at the big dog schools like the UT's, OU's, etc. a top prospect may only get a 60% ride which means at the D2 level that has to be way lower at even the top dogs. We have a family friend whose son was drafted in the second round (Missed the first round by two picks) and was committed to UT at the time and they only offered him 60%. But at the end of the day these kids that are getting a schollie for just 30% or less, is it worth dumping the thousands and thousands of dollars into the select/travel ball non sense?

This is true as far a volleyball. Most if not all recruiters go watch club team games to recruit. More so than HS games.

[Brandon]

This is worse in the baseball world. Year around baseball and these select teams pushing parents to specialize for what is a pie in the sky. I’ve known some parents that over four to six year period of time which would date back to middle school who’ve dumped probably four years of tuition and room/board into these select leagues and tourneys and their kid never played the game again after their senior year in high school. A lot of that was burnout. Ironically I’ve seen a lot of Moms push their sons this way and not necessarily the dads. Lol

A local dad put all baseball related expenses on a credit card one year. He spent over $20,000 for just one son. He ended up signing with a Big 12 school out of high school and lasted one year.

[Predatory Primates]

A local dad put all baseball related expenses on a credit card one year. He spent over $20,000 for just one son. He ended up signing with a Big 12 school out of high school and lasted one year.

Yeah. Travel teams, camps, private coaches, and half the time they still get beat out by the kid who played city ball and 2 or 3 other sports while working at taco bell in the evenings.

[LSC Fan]

Yeah. Travel teams, camps, private coaches, and half the time they still get beat out by the kid who played city ball and 2 or 3 other sports while working at taco bell in the evenings.

Ever since this became a thing it does warm my heart to see a kid who went the “old school” route get to that mountaintop. Where we went off track with this as much as we complain about participation ribbons and all that jazz is puzzling and sick at the same time. I guess baseball moms think it is just too damn cute to post pics on the social media of their kid showing off his made in China ring nowadays vs the actual ribbons they used to get for winning some obscure tourney in Iowa or somewhere. Lol! And the only way to be part of the pack is to pay to play.

[OPSUALUM77&81]

The answer to the question is..... YES!

[Techster88]

Might be off on this assessment…. Seems like most of the California high school players that head east from the state straight from high school. are from the Private schools or the handful of high schools who have a national reputation. We see these high school in the national polls for what they are worth or on ESPN when they show high school games of the week, etc. Those who don’t head east usually stay in state and play at a four year or JUCO or at least stay in what would be considered the original PAC 12 footprint (California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington). That’s why we see a bunch of JUCOs from California on college rosters instead of them going directly from their respective high schools across the country.

Where on the other hand, it’s not too uncommon to find a Texas kid or more on the roster of someone you wouldn’t think a Texas kid would end up and from a high school that is not necessarily a football player factory like a Galena Park Northshore, DeSoto, etc. They come from the blue collar schools out in the middle of the sticks if you will. That’s why I think our JUCO system is not the factor it once was as those kids who once would’ve stayed in state to try to get on a roster of any school from the big boys to Sul Ross’s is a smaller player wirh those schools. I recall the day even TAMUKs roster used to be filled with Blinn, Trinity Vslley, and Kilgore transfers and now the Cali JUCOs outweighs the Texas JUCOs.

I know this is not how well D2 schools are recruiting but I was going over a lot of Texas schools to see how recruiting was going. I saw where SFA and Tarleton are both top ten recruiting classes in FCS. Tech has not been recruiting well in years but this year was one of the best. I guess it really depends on who is the coach how well they recruit and what each school has to offer.

[Brandon]

I guess baseball moms think it is just too damn cute to post pics on the social media of their kid showing off his made in China ring nowadays vs the actual ribbons they used to get for winning some obscure tourney in Iowa or somewhere. Lol! And the only way to be part of the pack is to pay to play.

I think that's an incredibly huge part of it.....Sunday night Facebook tournament pictures.

Some youth tournaments are "won" by playing fewer games than a MLB team had to in order to win the World Series. Youth baseball should be based on leagues, but there is not as much money to be made that way or not enough ego material for parents.

[LSC Fan]

I think that's an incredibly huge part of it.....Sunday night Facebook tournament pictures.

Some youth tournaments are "won" by playing fewer games than a MLB team had to in order to win the World Series. Youth baseball should be based on leagues, but there is not as much money to be made that way or not enough ego material for parents.

Sunday night Facebook Tourney pics. LOL! Yep they are a dime a dozen on my feed starting sometime late next month around here until October from the baseball moms I know or the baseball grandmothers....

The tourney circuit has about cannibalized the leagues. Used to be PONY league was the answer to Little League because some thought LL was too conservative on little things like allowing kids to steel base on the pitch instead of waiting for it to reach the catcher. Now Pony is almost nonexistent in my area and it used to be big. LL is still around and somewhat strong, but only because some of those same select league kids will play in LL so they will get picked for All Stars. My area's Junior League Little League team which is comprised of 13 and 14 year olds has made it to the Junior LL World Series in Michigan and won the US Championship four or five times since 2014 and won it this year as well. Every kid on that team played Select Ball. Kind of disgusts me they allowed it, And here is where the early arm issues develop. When one of mine played LL which was also about the time the select league started getting strong around here, you had kids that were playing league ball and going from that game to a select in a matter of minutes and no one would pay attention to things like pitch counts. A number of those kids had arm issues when they got older and had to have the TJ surgery.

[LSC Fan]

I know this is not how well D2 schools are recruiting but I was going over a lot of Texas schools to see how recruiting was going. I saw where SFA and Tarleton are both top ten recruiting classes in FCS. Tech has not been recruiting well in years but this year was one of the best. I guess it really depends on who is the coach how well they recruit and what each school has to offer.

Tech might be finally getting over the curse they've been under since the now late great Pirate was framed and dismissed by Kent Hance and Craig James. We shall see.

To think Tech almost lost to Houston Baptist and SFA under Kliff and whatever that other guys name is from Utah State is something. Kliff and his sunglasses and pretty hair might be looking for a job in the college ranks soon. Too bad WTAM filled their vacancy as he might be a good fit!

[Runnin' Cat]

Read this article today re: TCU and their concentration on TX for recruiting. I think their approach works well for what they do; identify talent and potential, then concentrate on developing it.

I think this has been a staple for CWU and their program. They get a lot of 185 pound HS LBs that turn in to solid defensive players later. I think this TCU approach could be a big thing for the non PNW and NM teams in the LSC...

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...otball-playoff

[Techster88]

This is worse in the baseball world. Year around baseball and these select teams pushing parents to specialize for what is a pie in the sky. I’ve known some parents that over four to six year period of time which would date back to middle school who’ve dumped probably four years of tuition and room/board into these select leagues and tourneys and their kid never played the game again after their senior year in high school. A lot of that was burnout. Ironically I’ve seen a lot of Moms push their sons this way and not necessarily the dads. Lol

Junior Tennis is even worse than Select/Elite/Fill in the Blank youth travel baseball.

some parents send their kids to live at Academies and home school. Newks Tennis in New Braunfels uses the local HS. Players train every day and do three tournaments a month.

[Techster88]

Read this article today re: TCU and their concentration on TX for recruiting. I think their approach works well for what they do; identify talent and potential, then concentrate on developing it.

I think this has been a staple for CWU and their program. They get a lot of 185 pound HS LBs that turn in to solid defensive players later. I think this TCU approach could be a big thing for the non PNW and NM teams in the LSC...

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...otball-playoff

Not sure how TCU recruits now. They used to try and recruit smaller Texas HS players 2,3,&4A. Their thinking was if we get the best of all the smaller school players we can be competitive. There is a lot of talent at the smaller schools.

Seems like TCU kinda took over what SMU was and could’ve been. That ship appears to have sailed.