@DD 2024 posted:Yeah, so ...
I know it's a lot. I've never actually added it up. I'm too afraid. One of the other parents on the team said he was in about $30k, and with covid the team had to travel quite a bit more to play (we live in CA), so I'm guessing $40k, it could be closer to $30k. But still.... I have a hard time explaining it. But so do 14 other families!
FWIW, this is a national-caliber team which draws from about a 50-mile radius around their home field. No fly-in players. 10 mins from our house to practice. But, they truly do need to travel to find competition. Way less softball teams in the world than baseball teams. They also have a private indoor facility that's available at any time (each player has a key) and they have team practice outdoors 2-3 days per week. Paid coaches as well. Only one team at each age group. Couple younger players are on scholarship because there's a multi-millionaire dad on one of the teams. But the guy who owns the org wants to keep it small, so there's no B or C teams that supplement the A team costs.
My sense is that softball is more expensive than baseball simply because they play way more games. Not unusual for our team to play 3 weekends/month, 2 requiring plane rides, one within driving distance. In summer, we play almost every weekend.
Glad to hear that baseball won't break the bank! Not sure I could stand another year of this. (Daughter is off to college in the fall.)
Softball recruiting changed a couple years ago - colleges can no longer verbal 7th graders. First official contact is 9/1 junior year.
And you are right - it's an equivalency sport. 12 scholarships, usually pitcher, catcher, CF and shortstop have a full ride. The rest are broken up into 16 half scholarships, with the other half frequently made up of academic or need-based money. Rosters are usually 16-18 players, usually 4 pitchers; inflated this year due to covid.
I sorta get most of that, DD, but I was in California for many years and had friends with P5 recruit daughters playing tons of top level travel. So many of the better teams in the country were based in SoCal so an org could play most of their tourneys there if they chose.
Sounds like your daughter is in a good place so congrats!