Did your DD just start with rec? Lots of programs around here have a summer all-star rec league you can try out for (in May/June). That's travel lite and a great chance to see if they like playing on most days, if they like tournaments, etc. If they want to pitch, private lessons are a must: they will not get enough from youtube. Private hitting lessons would also be a good idea before tryouts. And start watching college ball: it's not impossible to start softball later (mine started at the end of 5th grade and now plays travel) but it takes a long time to gain softball IQ.

All that said: it's a long way from a few practices to high school ball. My kid plays 4-5 days a week and would play all 7 if she could. But she has friends who dropped out after realizing they wanted to do other things. Encourage the love of the game but take it a season at a time.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. We are currently renting but looking to buy. Likely to end up at Madison, Oakton, or Marshall. Currently zoned for Madison and like our neighborhood, but definitely plan to buy before high school. (Would not choose house based on this, obviously).

Anyone know about those schools?

This is as of summer and was told to me by a Fairfax County high school varsity softball coach (not at Madison): If you don't make varsity as a freshman at Madison, you won't make varsity there at all. Probably the most competitive program to make outside of Bishop O'Connell.

I think Marshall and Oakton are less competitive, but not the least competitive in Fairfax County. Other relatively more competitive schools include Hayfield and Lake Braddock, which cut several players from their JV team this spring.

Madison has a new coach and two (non-freshman) girls made Varsity this year after playing JV. Still very competitive, but just commenting on the comment from another coach above.

PP here and thanks for the update. I'm only passing on what I heard, so it's good to have someone with more concrete knowledge.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. We are currently renting but looking to buy. Likely to end up at Madison, Oakton, or Marshall. Currently zoned for Madison and like our neighborhood, but definitely plan to buy before high school. (Would not choose house based on this, obviously).

Anyone know about those schools?

This is as of summer and was told to me by a Fairfax County high school varsity softball coach (not at Madison): If you don't make varsity as a freshman at Madison, you won't make varsity there at all. Probably the most competitive program to make outside of Bishop O'Connell.

I think Marshall and Oakton are less competitive, but not the least competitive in Fairfax County. Other relatively more competitive schools include Hayfield and Lake Braddock, which cut several players from their JV team this spring.

Madison has a new coach and two (non-freshman) girls made Varsity this year after playing JV. Still very competitive, but just commenting on the comment from another coach above.

Anonymous wrote:OP. We are currently renting but looking to buy. Likely to end up at Madison, Oakton, or Marshall. Currently zoned for Madison and like our neighborhood, but definitely plan to buy before high school. (Would not choose house based on this, obviously).

Anyone know about those schools?

This is as of summer and was told to me by a Fairfax County high school varsity softball coach (not at Madison): If you don't make varsity as a freshman at Madison, you won't make varsity there at all. Probably the most competitive program to make outside of Bishop O'Connell.

I think Marshall and Oakton are less competitive, but not the least competitive in Fairfax County. Other relatively more competitive schools include Hayfield and Lake Braddock, which cut several players from their JV team this spring.

OP here. We actually went and watched two of these schools play each other. One crushed the other. She also had her first game and loved it even more. She is watching YouTube videos to try to teach herself how to pitch. A neighbor saw her in the yard and said she knows a girl who is a great pitcher and she will put me in touch with her mom. (But I think the "great pitcher" might be quite young???)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly depends on which school. Some schools need players badly and anyone can make the team. Other schools have very competitive teams and the rosters tend to be filled with high level travel players.

Good rule of thumb... the higher the socioeconomic status of the school the hard it is to make teams. The 3 OP mentioned are very competitive.

Maybe for lacrosse, etc. but for softball it’s the opposite. The better teams tend to be lower socioeconomic areas and farther from the city.

Even at the competitive schools, it is not as bad as soccer!
6th grade is still early. If she’s serious, she will want to joint a club team sometime in middle school. Another idea is to ask around to see if there is a HS girl that can give her some lessons. My daugjter used to do that for some ES girls. And figure out where the batting cages with softball pitch are (there aren’t many). It’s hard to get good at batting unless you spend time in the cages.

Oakton doesn’t have JV this year

Marshall not competitive.

Madison--good luck.
The coach scouts all incoming freshmen to see what kind of travel teams they play on. They put over 20 kids on both varsity and JV and most never play. If you don't make varsity as a freshman it is most likely you will never get on Varsity and thus most of those kids drop softball junior year.

Oakton--Has improved the last couple years. Not intense. Will definitely make JV if have any softball experience. Not sure how they work cuts for varsity upperclassmen. Pitchers and catchers most valued so i would suggest getting into one of those positions now.

Anonymous wrote:Truly depends on which school. Some schools need players badly and anyone can make the team. Other schools have very competitive teams and the rosters tend to be filled with high level travel players.

Good rule of thumb... the higher the socioeconomic status of the school the hard it is to make teams. The 3 OP mentioned are very competitive.

Not sure about the others but Madison used to be extremely competitive. I believe they’ve either won the state championship in recent years or at least made it pretty far into the playoffs.

OP. We are currently renting but looking to buy. Likely to end up at Madison, Oakton, or Marshall. Currently zoned for Madison and like our neighborhood, but definitely plan to buy before high school. (Would not choose house based on this, obviously).

Anyone know about those schools?

Truly depends on which school. Some schools need players badly and anyone can make the team. Other schools have very competitive teams and the rosters tend to be filled with high level travel players.

My 6th DD just started playing softball. Hasn't even had a game yet--just a couple of practices and she absolutely loves it. Saying she wants to play in HS. Around here, I feel like you need to start earlier in any sport to play in HS, but maybe the softball teams are not great?