Softball Wars

Running a Facebook page, we hear from parents, fans, coaches, umpires and players that color the entire gambit of softball players.

We have the 8U and 12U Rec ball players, who play for a few short months and have one game per week.  We also have the girls that practice several times a week, put tons of time in at batting practice and lessons, the Elite players and teams that travel across the country, and even the older athletes knee deep in scouting and recruiting for large SEC schools.

And yet, they are all bound together by the bright red seems of the fiber optic yellow softball.

They are all players.  All athletes, all students of the game. They all love the brick dust.  Sure, some more than others.  But one softball player is no better than another when it comes to heart and soul.  If you play for the largest feeder team in your area and another person plays for a local Rec league – Softball is For Girls, doesn’t differentiate.  You are still a softball player!

The Softball Wars need to stop.  In travel softball, you see it all the time.  One team, gets a superior status and then all the other teams in the area are frowned upon.  Suddenly, everyone wants to play for ‘such and such’ team and those that play for one of the other (millions) of teams is substandard. It’s just not true.  Some people don’t have the money to play high level ball.  Some parents don’t want to spend weekends, or all their time off cruising around the country to get to tournaments. Just because we may be different, even disagree – doesn’t mean that anyone is better than another.

The reality is, that as parents, fans, players, and coaches – each is entitled to different goals for themselves and their children. Having different goals, doesn’t make one person superior over the other.

It’s like saying that unless you grow apple trees in your own orchard, you don’t have the right to love apples.

Softball is For Girls is about the game of softball.  It’s not a place where only elite players are welcome.  It’s also not a place where we EVER want any player to feel like they are not good enough, or that they have stepped into a territory where they don’t belong.  This is a place to help you understand the game, ask questions, share in your tribulations and trials and find empowerment.

Ultimately, we at Softball is For Girls, just WANT TO SEE GIRLS PLAY!

We love all softball players…. Equally.  And we sincerely hope that all softball players, communities and families will embrace one another in the same way instead of getting caught up in these softball wars, or “I, my kid, my team is better than you, your kid, your team.”

If you truly LOVE the game, and are truly passionate – then you love everything about it.  There aren’t good teams and bad teams, winners and losers – there are just a bunch of different people with different aspirations who play fast-pitch softball from a different point of view.