The St.James softball program

[Anonymous]

The facility is very impressive but softball practices there in the winter only. Otherwise when they are outside the practices are at local school fields. I heard from STJ the upcoming 14u age group 2024-2025 will practice at Episcopal High school, which for us is a much further drive than their indoor location StJames location.

[Anonymous]

You should also look at Virginia Stingrays 14u if you haven’t already - great group of girls coming up.

https://stingraysva.org/

- signed, a Stingrays parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should also look at Virginia Stingrays 14u if you haven’t already - great group of girls coming up.

https://stingraysva.org/

- signed, a Stingrays parent

Do you have a sense of how many spots there are on that team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

It really depends on the school. Even some big schools still have trouble filling out the JV team and will take anyone that is athletic.

We're in MD, but our HS has over 2,000 kids and 2 freshman played varsity (though both played travel) and 2 girls made JV that have never played softball before (both very fast). I think only 2 girls were cut

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should also look at Virginia Stingrays 14u if you haven’t already - great group of girls coming up.

https://stingraysva.org/

- signed, a Stingrays parent

We just saw the Stingrays 12U team at Nationals this weekend (not sure if that's the team that is moving up to 14), but the coach was great. Supportive and positive. No yelling and the girls seemed to like her.

I got very good vibes from that coach and the group of girls. You can just sort of pick up on team dynamics and their dynamics seemed really good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We saw the 12u team in the fall, and it was....ROOOOUUUGGGHHHH. None of the pitchers were even getting close to the strike zone, and anything in the zone was getting crushed

I would hope they've gotten better by spring, and GC has them winning a few games this spring, and the games being closer, so that may actually be a good sign that the coach knows what they are doing and the that the girls are improving

But I would definitely see if there are some open practices to attend before making any decision

From what I heard they picked up (and are picking up) more talent. Not sure this reflects on the coaches.

You're not kidding. I just looked at their roster on the USSA website and looks like there are 4-5 girls that have been added this spring that were not on the team in the fall.

So, yeah, that's a coach assembling a roster, not a coach developing players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

No. I still don't want to spend my weekends at dumpy Hampton Inns in Salisbury, MD or rando town in PA. And we already are C. We don't need to leave town at all. I looked and there are 7 (SEVEN) weekends of local C tournments in Nova from Sept - Nov 2024. I guarantee our dumb coach will not sign up for most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

No. I still don't want to spend my weekends at dumpy Hampton Inns in Salisbury, MD or rando town in PA. And we already are C. We don't need to leave town at all. I looked and there are 7 (SEVEN) weekends of local C tournments in Nova from Sept - Nov 2024. I guarantee our dumb coach will not sign up for most of them.

Don't quit travel - just find a different team. I coach a B team for girls the exact same age and we only went out of town for two tournaments this year and that was just for fun! There is plenty of good competition in this area. You only really need to travel if you are looking to play A level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No idea, but their baseball program is atrocious. In general, I'd think a baseball or softball program that never gets on a field, won't be very good.

The baseball program has teams at several levels (two age groups have A and B teams) and they certainly aren't all "atrocious". I don't know about the softball program but the baseball teams play 20 plus games a season and several tournaments...on fields. Where else would they play? Not sure where you're getting your information from but it's wrong.

We’ve played them in tournaments and I know kids who came from the program. It was horrible. They practice indoors. They do have a tournament at their facility which was…odd. The st James teams are beaten like 20-0 in tournament games that I’ve been to with my kids. That’s what I mean by atrocious, and I have kids on an and b teams.

[Anonymous]

Our travel team was in a state of flux last summer and we didn't know if it would continue. So most of the girls went to the St. James tryouts - all ages tried out at the same time and everyone that I knew that tried out received offers (but none took them). There were about 150 girls at the very chaotic tryout.

We also took a year of private pitching and hitting lessons at St. James and can verify PPs comment that the front desk nor the admin people running the place have any idea what's going on in the batting cages. The lessons were excellent but we worked directly with the coach and not with St. James.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

No. I still don't want to spend my weekends at dumpy Hampton Inns in Salisbury, MD or rando town in PA. And we already are C. We don't need to leave town at all. I looked and there are 7 (SEVEN) weekends of local C tournments in Nova from Sept - Nov 2024. I guarantee our dumb coach will not sign up for most of them.

You are 100% right. C level stay in NoVa or Central MD. there's a tourney almost every other weekend.

That's a coaching problem. He thinks he (and the team) are better than they are. The competition is decent around here, even at the C level. No need to go to PA and DE or Ocean City, more than once per year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

No. I still don't want to spend my weekends at dumpy Hampton Inns in Salisbury, MD or rando town in PA. And we already are C. We don't need to leave town at all. I looked and there are 7 (SEVEN) weekends of local C tournments in Nova from Sept - Nov 2024. I guarantee our dumb coach will not sign up for most of them.

You are 100% right. C level stay in NoVa or Central MD. there's a tourney almost every other weekend.

That's a coaching problem. He thinks he (and the team) are better than they are. The competition is decent around here, even at the C level. No need to go to PA and DE or Ocean City, more than once per year

100% a coaching problem and we are trying out for other teams but they all only have 1-2 spots open and my kid is an average batter. Since they all only seem to want "a strong bat" so far we've had no luck. I'd honestly be fine moving her back to rec but she would be embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More general softball question. Middle schooler who loves the sport, plays rec, rec+, all stars. Wants to play in high school in this area. Can anyone share success stories of making JV team as freshman w/o doing travel?

According to the (multiple) high school JV coaches I know and high school players, at most FCPS schools that would be very typical, especially for a rec+ player. Even at Lake Braddock, which has a very good program, I heard of years where they only cut one girl from JV and that was because she literally refused to run at all for practice. There are FCPS schools where you don't have to play travel to make varsity even, but they are fewer.

This is really good info; thank you. DD lives and breathes softball, but for various reasons, travel just never worked out (plus rec league is strong, great friends and coaches, etc.). As HS nears though, it's hard (for her - and privately for me) not to question path when you see travel happening all around. While I know nothing is guaranteed, it's good to know this is a common path to play in HS, starting on JV.

Travel in this area is SO needlessly expensive and time consuming, especially for kids not looking to play in college. We just finished a year of travel (7th grade) and as a parent I thought it was terrible. There is all this pressure for private lessons, and team goes to all of these away tournaments to get creamed, even though there are tons of tournaments right here in Nova. My DD is above average and loves the sport but is not turning any heads. I am 100% sure she can play JV for our HS and likely Varsity, if not Freshman year than at least by Sophomore year because our team isn't great and its not a huge deal at our school. I'm REALLY hoping she will agree to quit travel once HS starts. Yes I could MAKE her quit travel now, but she feels is what she needs for HS and she has had some terrible friend issues in MS so I'm a softie.

Honest question: would it be different if they weren't getting creamed? And I get it. Getting whooped sucks. Winning is much more fun.

Which means your complaints with travel might change if she joins a different team, or goes down a level (if she's B, switch to a C team).

No. I still don't want to spend my weekends at dumpy Hampton Inns in Salisbury, MD or rando town in PA. And we already are C. We don't need to leave town at all. I looked and there are 7 (SEVEN) weekends of local C tournments in Nova from Sept - Nov 2024. I guarantee our dumb coach will not sign up for most of them.

You are 100% right. C level stay in NoVa or Central MD. there's a tourney almost every other weekend.

That's a coaching problem. He thinks he (and the team) are better than they are. The competition is decent around here, even at the C level. No need to go to PA and DE or Ocean City, more than once per year

100% a coaching problem and we are trying out for other teams but they all only have 1-2 spots open and my kid is an average batter. Since they all only seem to want "a strong bat" so far we've had no luck. I'd honestly be fine moving her back to rec but she would be embarrassed.

That sucks.

Have you tried asking the question? To see if other parents feel the same way? I live in MD, so most of our tournaments are in Central MD, and we do a few in NoVA.

But if we lived in NoVA, I would not understand driving to PA for a tourney when the fields, facilities, and competition are all top-notch, right at home.

I bet other parents feel the same way. It's usually those PA and DE teams driving to Loudoun for the tournaments, not the other way around