Posted by: CoachZee (zuchlewski@buffalo.com) on Thu Jan 9 06:31:20 2003

I have a 12 year old daughter that player hardball for 6 years and was also very competitive. She played on all-star teams, pitched and was even taller than her team mates to the point where other coaches were challenging her birth certificate. She played her first year of FP softball last year with rec ball and travel. I wish she would have made the move sooner. She fought me on moving to softball but she really loved it.

In hardball she was the only girl on the team and on one summer league, the only girl in the league. I would love when coaches pulled their players in because a girl was batting only to have her put it over the outfielders head.

Its great watching her strike out boys but the with the boys (at least at that age) she was an outsider. Once she moved to softball she made a ton of friends between three teams.

The bottom line is that a girls only future is in fastpitch, my daughter had more fun, she still excelled and she made more friends.
Other than not having my ego satisfied by having my daughter outplay boys, there hasn't been a down side. Make the move now.