Tip #1- A series to help young players

Today will be the first Tip in a series of blog posts.  These tips are things that I have learned from experience and from the coaches that I work with.  Hopefully you will find them beneficial.  Not everyone will agree with all my tips.  I will just say that my family and I did not always follow the path that most North Carolina travel softball families take.  You are always welcome to leave a comment.

TIP #1-  Get your name out there.

Join some of the recruiting sites, like Berecruited or Softball Showcase or even CaptainU.  Most of them have listings that are for free and then if you want you can get a membership.  I have had visits with coaches in which they looked up my information on one of these websites before I came to the meeting.  Start a blog like I did to show your development and track what you have been doing.  I have had people view my blog from all over the world.  Feel free to ask me questions or comment.

The series will continue at least once or twice a week.  Some of the topics will be the following:

Videos
California
On your toes
weight training
Nutrition
Throwing
Attitude
Brain training
Thinking quickly
Mental game
research your future
Academics
Travel ball
and maybe more.

Just remember this is only how Alicia Daly did it and you may not agree with everything.

Hard work, it can be done.

Comment from Coach Michael Bastian,  The Fastpitch School @FastpitchSchool

Alicia Daly is one of the most impressive development stories of my coaching career! Information & work ethic. #Placement #TFS

 

Keep working hard to accomplish your dream.  Especially work during the off season when most of the other players are taking a break from the sport.  Work as hard in the classroom as you do on the ball field.

A Committment has been Made

The purpose of this blog has just changed.  It will no longer be about trying  to accomplish the dream of playing D1 softball but about helping and encouraging other young girls to accomplish their dream.

Alicia recently accepted the offer to play softball for and to attend Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.  Though she would have loved to have been signed in November, she took the advice of Coach Bastian and took her time to look around and see what comes her way.  She looked into many programs from all over the country, Florida, Minnesota, Montana and several local schools.  She had been talking with Coach Finley before she went to camp on February 1st.  She fell in love with the campus, atmosphere and softball team at Colgate University.  This week she accepted an offer to play for Colgate University and is very excited about her future.

In the near future we will posting tips that we learned along the way to help young girls get recruited. 

Schedule Updated 2014

I just updated my spring and summer schedule.  You can find it on the page above.

Recently my trainer took my BMI , which was 23.  He said that a professional athlete's BMI is around 19-16 so I am working harder to get mine down to that.

More updates to come soon.

So much to think about

We have been looking at all options and we hope this will help some girls in the future.  We have looked at Junior College programs.  There are some very good Junior College programs in Florida if you just need that extra training to get to the D1 level.  I found these two web sites that give you some great information about all the playing levels.  Athletic Scholarships  and another Athletic Scholarships2    These are both recruiting websites but have some very good information.  Most athletes say " I want to play D1" but do they know that there are three levels of D1, A, AA and AAA.  Even NAIA schools have a D1 level and a D2 level. 

There are some NCAA D3 schools that are very good and can compete with D1 schools.  You need to do your research, just don't take the first offer that comes to you.  You should visit the schools and if possible see a game.  We recommend looking at the area around the school as well. 

Videos of your games, training, practice are great tools.  They can help to show your development.

Gold Diamond results

Alicia had an awesome weekend playing with the Charlotte Magic, she had a batting average of .666 and an On Base Percentage of .777.  She was inches away from a home run, several nicely placed slaps and a line drive to left field.  She is looking forward to the Early Signing Showcase in Myrtle Beach the weekend of November 15-17.

Surf City Showcase pictures

We have been trying to upload a video of highlights of the Surf City Showcase to the Youtube page but need to convert it to a different file type.

At one point there were over 25 coaches watching our games on that Saturday.  Stiggy's Team TFS had given out over 50 flyers and had to have more made to give to all the coaches.

It was a very successful weekend.  Both Coach Van Brunt and Coach Bastian said that Alicia has developed over 150% since last year and she continues to develop.