jonriv wrote:You have received some great advice, yet seem to ignore it. Here's mine...........
To start with I think you need to get your priorities in order. I might make more sens to focus on the following for to focus on the following before making the leap to Olympic Exposure:
1) making it on progressively better travel programs
2) making and starting on High School team
3) getting into and playing at a good college program
4) Starting at a good college program
5) excelling at a good college program
It is great to dream and in the past the existence of an Olympic team sparked a lot of interest in the sport, but there needs to be some recognition of the difficulty(some might say impossibility) of what you are attempting. The numbers are daunting! There will be 15-25 slots on the Olympic team. Your player will be competing with the following:
1) 31,000 current college players at all levels(around 5000 on scholarship)(probably less than 100 that would be in contention)-that's less than 1%
2) Over 200 players in the National Pro Fastpitch at any given time- add to that American players playing overseas in professional and semi-pro teams- as well as on US based club teams
3) 235,360 High school players
4) 2 million youth softball players
5) All of those players that might continue to play now that their olympic dream has been reignited
6) past Olympic players that are now pro that might want to get back in the mix
The task is daunting!
You forgot the 5 million parents of youth players who think their kid is Olympics material, of which 4,999,999 keep their electronic mouths shut because they realize the odds of making the team are daunting and that there are actually a shitload of kids who play the game better than their kid.