Softball Camp

Now that Danielle is in 8th grade, it's time to start thinking ahead to college recruiting if she's hoping to get a softball scholarship. It seems early, but according to some, we're actually a little behind, especially if she's hoping to go to a D1 school. I don't think Danielle really knows where she wants to go to school yet. She just knows she wants to go to college and she wants to play softball while she's there. Getting a scholarship to do both would certainly be a bonus.

We are kind of looking at this year as a warm-up for getting serious about the recruiting process next year. Softball camps are one way you can get your foot in the door at a school. Danielle isn't to the point where she's only selecting camps at the colleges she may want to attend or emailing the coaches to introduce herself beforehand, but she is going to go to some camps this year to get the experience and to further improve her skills. She attended the Elite Softball Camp at the Ohio State University yesterday. She was there for 7 hours with only a 30 minute break. She loved it!

She looked very good yesterday, and had a really good experience. Afterward another player's dad, who was a travel coach, approached Danielle to find out how old she was. He was disappointed she was a year too old for his team. Of course, she's already committed to a team, so that didn't matter. It's always nice to be wanted, though.

Here are some pictures and videos from yesterday.

Intro by the head coach and organizing the girls into teams for the day.

See that green dot in centerfield? That's Danielle. At tryouts and things like this, she tries to wear something really bright or neon to stand out. It works, you always know where she is and she's easier to remember.

Each team played a one hour game at the end of the day. Danielle had a beautiful slap between pitcher and short that made it to the grass on her first at bat.

This was her 2nd at bat. It was even more beautiful.

Running home. She had an amazing catch at left field, too, but I didn't get that one on video. It was pretty spectacular. Parents in the stands clapped.

She had a great day! It was a tiring day, too. She was in bed by 8pm. I didn't get a good look at her before work this morning. When she came through the lunch line today, I laughed when I saw her eye black tan line. :) She's attending another college camp in a couple weeks. I hope it's as good an experience as this one was.