Sport Today

We'll see, won't we. I said from the beginning, "verbal commitments are
not chipped in stone."

For plainer English on USENET, Verbal Commitments Do Not Mean Shit.

For more plainer English, The Early Signing Date Does Not Mean not only
Shit, but Jack Shit.

Simply put, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIGN IN the 9th MONTH (NOV-EMBER) to be a
good player.

This comes from personal experience in the recruiting game, November,
Southern California. You folks back East do not know about this.

Learn.

Vince
http://members.aol.com/HillerSB

(firm commitments accepted there)

Actually, I do have to agree with Vince. There are a lot of great players that
 do not early sign. I did not sign early and my roommate at UNLV did not sign
 until August of her Sr summer. She got a full ride and started for us. So it
 is never too late. If a school wants you, they'll wait until the next signing
 period...not always but most of the time. Amie

Just messing with you people who live on the fringes of quality girls
fastpitch. While you're adding fuel to your wood-burning stoves, we'll be
counting in the 100s the number of college scouts coming to visit us over
Thanksgiving weekend.

As far as the necessity of signing early, I'd actually prefer that the
NCAA not have an early signing period. I can name you many players and
parents who were in utter panic when a letter of intent wasn't signed in
mid-November. Finger-pointing, yelling and screaming, tears, blaming the
coach, becoming jealous of player who DID sign early.

What is the purpose of having an early signing period? Only thing I can
think of is to help the spring coaches concentrate more on their season
instead of chasing around players during HS season. High school is pretty
worthless as far as recruiting goes, it's easier to watch many teams in one
place than two teams at some far corner of your county.

Watch the NFCA step on its feet and move the College World Series to the
last weekend of June. That'll cut out four weeks of recruiting in early
summer and put even more heat on people to sign in November.

Vince

We Californians could use a rest from Vince's meglomania. I hope none of you
 get the idea that the rest of of us here in the west condone his vulgar
 blathering and bragadocio.

Any of you people in Alaska (preferably Nome) or remote Montana want to adopt
 him? I've got papers drawn up and the men in the white suits are standing by
 down in Boulevard with a net. We've taken up a collection and we'll pay the
 freight for shipping his cage. All you have to do is guarantee you'll duct
 tape his mouth and make him wear boxing gloves 24 hours a da so he can't type. ;-)

yea vince you're right--made my head swim with all that sh-t. i may have beem
 around--but still got a lot to learn.--ok???

ed

why not just keep him here, after all, he does come up with some good ones once
 in a while. where is your sense of humor? isn't it just an opinion anyway?
 chill out! and have some fun with this stuff. he is correct, it is freezing
 outside of california, after all isn't that why we live here? i just went up
 to sacramento yesterday and watched a small college tournament, plus i watched
 some teams in the earliy afternoon at solano collage of the same day. i did
 have to wear a sweat shirt after the sun went down. ( only in calif )
john m

On the otherhand, here is a "small" list of "jack shit" reasons for
those of us fortunate enough to have signed early considering we've
gotten everything we'd wanted up front, ie; College, Location,
Scholarship, and most important of all, Academic Fit :

1.  No more trips!
2.  No more anxiety
3.  No more decisions
4.  Time to focus on current affairs
5.  Time to focus on High School Academics
6.  No more dissapointments
7.  Ability to truley enjoy the last year of travel ball without the
pressures of           needing to be seen
8.  No more SAT's (in most cases)
9.  Security in case of injury during the last summer of travel ball
10. Local recognition
11. Extreme sense of accomplishment and pride
12. Knowing when the music stops, your chair is reserved
13. Knowing that your hard work and commitment have led you to a
position in which a        "college program" belives you to important to
leave till the end

And so on, and so on, and so on. Congrates to the early signers! You've
worked hard! Enjoy!

John

Early college signing period also gives players an insurance policy.
If a player signs early and is locked into a university, if they
happen to get injured, which is becoming more common in the last
decade, they don't have to worry about being declined an offer by
a university because of an injury.  Of course, signing early also
limits a player if they have a great senior season and college
coaches are still out there, they may have passed up a better offer.
But in the end, signing early assures you of a scholarship if one
is provided, and the coach already starts to possibly put you in her
lineup and shapes her spring season around your arrival in the next
season (Say, moves a certain player into a diffrerent position, so the position is open the next season).)
.  Politics in college always happen regardless.  
The only backfire I see to signing late is that players are often nervous
when playing summmer ball when scouts are around, that may affect the
'team' part of the team.