2 SPORT ATHLETES ?

[coachkev]

I come to you HeyBucket heads for an occasional opinion on questions brewing in my mind beacuse I can almost always get a variety of answers and thoughts on my inquiry. I say thanks for the help to start this one.

I have a 14U (Just ended 12U) team here is So Cal and I want to know opinions on teams that allow or don't allow 2 sport athletes. Some questions I have are:

If your team doesn't allow them how is this presented to the family?
If you are a parent on a team that does allow them how do you feel about these players?
If you are a 2 sport athlete or a parent of do you catch grief for it?
Lastly is playing 2 sports at the same time a 12/14U issue only?

If you see any other pros/cons please feel free to include your thoughts.

[SSdad]

There was an interview with Pete Carroll. He stated that he will pick the 2 sport athlete over the single sport most of the time. 2 sports athletes are just that athletes, well rounded, etc.

Don't know where i saw it, will look for it

[SSdad]

Found it

http://www.youtube.com/v/1s7n3zYy3RY&rel=1

[pixsguy]

thats a big issue for me going into fall...daughter loves softball...but she gets better at basketball every year and she only plays during school season...if she could play some club b-ball this fall, she could take her game to the next level and be a serious 2-sport threat...but how do you convince both club teams shes committed to both without it effecting her playing time...espeially if she is new to both teams...

[coachkev]

All Hail to Pete!!!! GO TROJANS

But I just don't see the connection in school ball as seasons don't conflict. In our TRAVEL SOFTBALL world Soccer/Softball are happening at the same time and in my experience year round.

Also I would like to see a Trojan Football Player tell Pete he is missing this weeks game against the Bruins for a soccer game.

[pixsguy]

b-ball and softball dont overlap...i think they are the two sports that compliment each other the best...quick burt of speed...footwork...aggressiveness...eye hand coordination...

dd is gonna see if it can be done this fall...ill keep ya posted...if ya care...haha

[Martin]

Basketball and Softball DO overlap in a major way - both sports are recruited by colleges during the summer months. If your DD is good enough, she will eventually feel pressure to play AAU basketball during the summer along with her softball commitments. It will simply not be possible to play travel ball (and hence maximize skill development and recruiting opportunities) in both sports. It stinks, but there it is.

Football doesn't have travel teams (if they did, the players would be dead before graduating from highschool), hence there is no conflict for Pete Caroll. His football players are free to play other sports when football is out of season, and only the most anal of coaches would insist on participation in Highschool Spring Practice over playing baseball or running track.

[ZenMasterTao]

All club or travel sports in SoCal overlap. It doesn't matter if it's running club, volleyball, basketball, softball, lacrosse, soccer, etc... - they all overlap.

As a parent of a three sport kid, I let the teams know that there may be conflicts. It's a very simple thing, before tryouts even happen, I notify the coach that my kid plays multiple sports. If they aren't willing to accept it, that's OK, there are a lot of teams that will. We do our best to attend all the practices and games that we can. The funny thing - on almost every team we are on, it does seem that we usually aren't the ones who miss the most practices. Also, even if my dd is among the strongest players, the multi-sport thing always seems to be used against her by a vary small minority on a team.

It makes for a crazy family situation and we often wonder if this specialization, which is driven mostly by adults (parents), at younger and younger ages is a good thing or not in the long run. Part of me thinks it may burn them out and make girls especially prone to injuries at younger ages (look up ACL injuries among girl athletes - it's scary)....

As for it being a 12U/14U thing, unfortunately, it might end up being only at those age groups as time goes on. Kids are driven to be single sport athletes by coaches both school and club. New CIF ruling, HS teams can practice year round. I think that might have a very detrimental effect to the multi-sport athlete. I could see some coaches corraling the kids into one sport..

It's just different strokes for different folks, just be happy there are choices out there.....

[DonnieS]

>> It makes for a crazy family situation and we often wonder if this specialization <<

It does and thats one of the reasons I started our team 5 years ago, so that my daughters could play other sports and I could organize our softball schedule during the 'off season' around their other sports, but still keep in a couple of tournaments a month. Be fun this fall, both dds will be doing high school vball and how am I going to keep the varsityl vball coach happy about the girls still doing a little softball (McKinney, Huber, New Braunfels, Ronald McDonald, Katy Klassic), well maybe a lot of softball and a little bit of lying. And then comes basketball, that I do dread and then track.

[weekend4trvl]

All Hail to Pete!!!! GO TROJANS

But I just don't see the connection in school ball as seasons don't conflict. In our TRAVEL SOFTBALL world Soccer/Softball are happening at the same time and in my experience year round.

Also I would like to see a Trojan Football Player tell Pete he is missing this weeks game against the Bruins for a soccer game.

It is very difficult to run a travel softball team with two sport players unless it's travel lite. Nothing wrong with that if you make it perfectly clear to all girls trying out. Understand that your team probably won't be very good and triple crown is your nationals.What happens is a couple very strong TB players come to your tryouts and you want them bad so that you can win some games and then five weeks later soccer Suzie and Sallie come back from all-star season and take back the starting infield positions that you promised them. Now the strong TB players are crying bull$@it. If you are truthful with the families from the start your team has a chance.Not of winning,but of lasting the year.My favorite one is the girl from the very religlous family that takes off after the second of three games or can't stay for the post game meeting because of church(soccer),but still plays every inning at SS and the coach is the only one that knows the truth.