Rankings

To honor the athlete… period.

Player rankings have been compiled for decades in boys’ sports—most notably in football, basketball and baseball—and I worked in these sports for several companies in this recruiting niche including Student Sports, BlueChip Illustrated, Rivals, 247 and ESPN.

I was asked to create and run a softball website earlier in my career and I brought in what was effective on the guys’ side, especially rankings for players. It’s designed to be a positive and, from my experience, it’s been pretty much received as such.

These fastpitch softball competitors work every bit as hard as their male athletic counterparts and similarly appreciate the outside recognition of their talent, accomplishments and projection into the future. Softball players are competitors and know that—on every pitch and on every play—someone will succeed and someone won’t. It’s the nature of sports and these athletes willingly accept and buy into that.”

To be top 100 or top 500 even when there are millions that play this sport… that is something to be very proud of and my hope is that someday those honored can pridefully share with their friends, family and perhaps even some day to their grandchildren that ‘I was one of the best softball players in the country and here’s proof!

As one softball mom commented recently about player rankings:

“It definitely motivates my daughter! She knows it doesn’t define her, but she definitely works towards moving up! Thanks for what y’all do for softball!”

A proud father of a top-ranked athlete added:

“I used to be against these top 100 lists, but I am now for them, not because of where my kid is ranked, but because it gives these kids yet another motivating factor and helps them see where they realistically stack up to some degree within reason and also to the extent of the strength of schedule they are playing.”

Individuals are ranked by grad class (i.e. 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 & 2029) and player rankings are focused in two areas:

1. national overall placement (1-100, 101-500)
2. national position rankings (P, C, CIF, MIF, OF, UT)

Each class is updated until the players sign with their collegs and then we move on to the next class.

This answer is easy: first and foremost, travel ball coaches.

Club coaches, we have found, are the best sources for information and here’s why:

1. they see the player the most on and off the field and can gauge on-field talent and coachability as well as off the field work ethic, comradery with teammates, attitude, energy, etc.
2. college coaches are not allowed by NCAA law to comment on prospective recruits and student-athletes.
3. parents and others close to the athlete off the field just may be biased (a little)!

To be blunt, why wouldn’t they?

It’s a resource and is NOT going to be THE determining factor if a player gets recruited and offered—the coaches must do the evaluating and ultimately make the call to offer or not themselves—but why wouldn’t they use every tool at their disposal?

We’ve heard directly from club coaches of how national championship-winning college staffs do use player rankings to evaluate talent and use as a resource when they go to events.

And, for the younger players, those in, say, middle school, coaches use the rankings to get an advantage in knowing who to invite to their on-campus softball camps.

Smart marketing and recruiting are what it is—get a prospect on your campus and you have much higher odds of getting her and her family heavily interested in your program.

First off, they’re not scouting reports or info gathered by a recruiting service to help the athletes get exposure and looks at by college coaches and scouts.

The rankings, at least here at Line Drive Softball, are heavily-researched media pieces in the same vein as something similar to the Gatorade State Player of the Year honors. For any typical rankings class, our staff will talk to well over 100 coaches and scouts to get feedback, opinions and perspective.

Of course, our staff gets out to events to see athletes in person and to talk to as many people as possible who know the good and bad of a player’s game. Is it foolproof? Are the NFL, NBA and MLB drafts perfect?!?

Nope but the cream does rise to the top and we humbly think we’ve done this long enough to get more right than wrong! Time will tell, but the fun is in the journey!