Did you know that there are 952 NCAA schools that sponsor the sport of softball; 276 in Division I, 268 in Division II, and 408 in Division III? In North Carolina alone, there are 13 schools that sponsor the sport, including 10 of the state’s 17 state universities. The schools in NC with softball teams are: Appalachian State, Campbell, East Carolina, Elon, Gardner-Webb, NC A&T; State, NC Central, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Wilmington and Western Carolina.
Softball is considered an equivalency sport which means scholarships are generally partial scholarships split among different participants. A scholarship may cover tuition, fees, room, board and books. Division I softball teams may award up to 12 scholarships per year for a total of 3,312 scholarships.
In Division II, softball teams may award up to 7.2 scholarships per team each year. That means there are 1,969.6 opportunities to receive athletics scholarships at the Division II level.
Division III institutions do not award athletics scholarships, rather each institution awards student-athletes based on demonstrated financial need. Parents will need to check with the admission offices and athletics departments of each Division III institution for additional information on scholarship opportunities. In all, there are many scholarship opportunities available each year for collegiate softball players.
What is the best way to get the attention of a college coach? Terry Jan, secretary for the University of Michigan softball staff said, “the best way to contact us is by sending a letter with a video that shows highlights of the individual student.”
Veronica Wiggins, head softball coach at Florida A&M; University, and a member of NCAA Division I Softball Committee said, “prospective softball players need to be on traveling team, similar to the AAU basketball teams, to get exposure and experience, because softball coaches don’t really go to high schools anymore to evaluate players, but rather go to different tournaments throughout the summer to evaluate talent.”
Wiggins added, “If a high school student-athlete sends an introductory email, with a summer schedule of where she will be playing, the college coach can add that player to the list of prospects to evaluate.”
Wiggins agrees with Jan that a skills tape is a good way to get the attention of a college coach. “Softball coaches aren’t like basketball coaches in we don’t want to see game tape. We want to see five minutes of skill for that individual position, base running and hitting.” She added, “If you are a pitcher, we want to see all of the different pitches you can throw.
When asked what academic profile is used for prospective student-athletes, Alyson Habetz, Assistant Coach for Alabama Crimson Tide, the current SEC Champions said “we use a sliding scale.” So the higher the grade point average, the lower the standardized test score, and vice versa. Habetz added that “we like for a prospect to have over a 3.0 GPA.”
Coach Wiggins said “a minimum grade point average of 2.5 in NCAA core courses is what she specifically looks for in an academic profile.”
In Division I, Alabama has led in home attendance for the past two years with an average of 1,890 fans per game in 2008 and 2,090 fans per game in 2009. Angelo State topped the average home attendance for Division II schools with 332 fans per game in 2009, while Midwestern State averaged 258 fans per home game in 2008.
For 2009, the Atlantic Coast Conference Schools led the nation in earned-run average with 2.42 and strikeouts per seven innings with 6.85. The Southeastern Conference led in fielding percentage with .967, with the Southwestern Conference leading in stolen bases per game with 1.49. The Pacific 10 Conference led in batting average with 292, scoring with 5.35 and home runs per game with 1.11.
The NCAA softball championship begins each year with 64 universities competing for eight sports in the Women’s College World Series [WCWS] in Oklahoma City, OK. In 2009, the Washington Huskies of the Pacific 10 won their first championship. As of 2009, only one team east of the Mississippi River has won the WCWS (Michigan in 2005).
The American Softball Association of America http://www.asasoftball.com/youth/index.asp.
In NC, there is an AAU fastpitch program and you may get more information on it at http://www.ncaausoftball.com/index.asp. Also, the NCASA hosts fastpitch tournaments in the state and you may get more details by visiting http://www.ncaausoftball.com/index.asp.
For general information on the sport of softball look up Softball Magazine (www.softballmag.com), it covers a broad spectrum of information on the sport of slowpitch and fastpitch softball that includes professional, NCAA and grassroots softball played by youth and adults. It is printed quarterly and distributed throughout the US and Canada and available by subscription and newsstand.
After Exploring Softball, try Exploring Golf.
Sources: NCAA Division I Manual, NCAA Division II Manual, 2010 NCAA Sports Sponsorship, telephone interviews with Terry Jan, Veronica Wiggins and Alyson Habetz, http://www.asasoftball.com/youth/index.asp.,
www.softballmag.com
