Hertzog: Lessons learned in battle between high school and club ball
A lot of good discussion has come from my column about the suspension of Spring-Ford sophomore pitcher and Pa. Player of the Year Bri Peck for the team’s PIAA semifinal after violating the team’s pitching rule with her club team.
It brought the topic of high school play versus club play to the forefront with a high-profile case where the relationship between the two went from simmer to boil. But that’s only one part of the discussion.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, PA Prep Live is home to game stories and feel-good features. But Tuesday presented an unusual occasion, with a pair of controversies around southeast Pa. softball teams. Aside from the Spring-Ford situation, there was plenty of discussion in Chester County and beyond when a pair of West Chester East seniors missed their state semifinal to instead go to Senior Week.
The circumstances around both were decidedly different, and arguably different in spirit, yet they’re bound by the result of the actions of few affecting a collective.
One reader, Chris Roop, presented a valid avenue of discussion on Twitter Tuesday night: “My question is what authority does a public school district like Spring-Ford have in telling a student athlete on what they can and can’t do when they are not in school or participating in an activity for the school’?
The question is an important one: Does a school really hold jurisdiction over a student-athlete outside of its tutelage?
Instinctually, it would seem if a player determines he or she needs the extra gameplay afforded at the club level during the school season – whether it be for reps, exposure or otherwise – he or she should be allowed to do so.
But when competing on a school team, an extra-curricular activity, it comes with a set of rules and regulations determined by the coach and his or her staff that the student-athlete signs in the preseason. These rules are determined team-by-team and reviewable by a school’s administration.
To play is to comply.
Most things in life comes with a set of terms and conditions and this is no different.
One area athletic director I spoke to suggested that to relitigate this premise is to create a slippery slope. All teams have rules such as no drug use or requirements of traveling to and from games with the team in the interest of the safety of student-athletes. At its core, that’s exactly what any pitcher rule or club restriction is. Not universal, but not uncommon, the rule for softball pitchers isn’t rooted in pettiness, it’s rooted in protection from injury and overuse.
One area softball head coach, who guides teams at the high school and club levels, had a player whose high school team was a PIAA quarterfinalist suffer a multi-week injury during club batting practice last weekend. Had her high school team advanced, she’d have been out. Injuries happen and taking measures to minimize those chances makes sense.
Not all scholastic sports face the conflict between club and high school play like softball. Basketball does not, nor does football. Commenters spoke to ice hockey facing frequent conflicts. Soccer has limited conflict although an important club tournament for girls, the WAGS tournament in Maryland, annually takes players away for a weekend as the high school postseason begins.
Softball finds itself in similar company, albeit when there are fewer teams but bigger stakes in high school play.
The chief culprit is the schedule. A club team having an important regional qualifier the weekend before PIAA tournament games does a disservice to all parties, and obviously creates compromising positions.
Another person to join the conversation was someone uniquely positioned as an expert on many sides of the topic. Heather Rush is a former Spring-Ford pitcher (2005 graduate) who played for longtime coach Tim Hughes, is a former Division I player at Troy University and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and currently coaches Division III Mitchell College in New London, Conn.
In fact, Rush broke the exact same pitching rule in 2002 that Peck violated last week, and Hughes suspended her for a District 1 playoff game.
“I didn’t abide my freshman year. We won PAC-10s that year and he’d asked us not to pitch. I wasn’t the starting pitcher, but he’d asked us not to pitch,” said Rush, who had forgotten the incident but was reminded in recent days by her father, Terry, who still lives in Royersford. ”We were at a tournament in Sellersville, it didn’t mean anything but we were in the championship game and my travel coach wanted to put me in. I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna win this tournament.’
“And I sat out the district game, and we ended up losing.”
I wrote in Wednesday’s column, “It’s always accepted that high school sports are about the life lessons greater than wins and losses.”
For Rush, it truly was, then and now.
“I was wrong. I didn’t listen,” said Rush. “I was in the wrong and after that I never questioned what (Coach Hughes) did or even thought about breaking that rule, because it’s not about me. It’s bigger than you. It’s a bigger picture.”
Many of those lessons learned during her time at Spring-Ford and under Hughes are applied in her coaching at Mitchell College, her first head coaching job after assistant jobs at Chestnut Hill (where her sister and fellow former Spring-Ford pitcher Mandi Rush attended), Drexel and Providence College.
“I absolutely use those teachings in my coaching now,” she said. “I tell my kids this, ‘No one is going to remember who pitched that year and who had the winning hit in 10 years, but they are going to remember that the team won.’ That’s what (Hughes) really instills, that it’s bigger than you and that it’s a bigger picture.”
She’s seen the rapid change in the world of college recruitment and club teams’ involvement in the process firsthand.
“There’s been this change in the recruiting culture and the amount of pressure that’s put on these young athletes and that can directly affect their headspace,” Rush said. “A lot of young athletes feel the pressure and the need to commit when they’re freshmen or sophomores for fear that the opportunities will be gone.”
There’s value in the debate between scholastic and club play because both have merits.
“I understand that travel ball is important and that these young women pay a lot of money to play. I know that it’s a big sacrifice for families,” Rush said. “But I also understand that the high school programs, the coaches aren’t being paid beyond a stipend, they coach high school ball because they love to do it.”
From a college coach’s perspective, the virtues of high school play are fundamental to building a team at the next level.
“Travel ball has become all about recruiting, all about showcasing instead of playing for a trophy and competitive drive,” Rush said. “Sometimes we get them (travel only players) and they’ve never really fought for anything. But if you’re on your high school team there’s some pride with that.
“I’m proud to have played for Coach Hughes and proud to have accomplished what we did. I was a die-hard travel player but something about high school ball, it’s hometown pride and it provides the opportunity to bring something big home with a very unique experience.”
Lost in the some of the story reactions is the realization that the enhanced pressures are beyond what any adult had to ever deal with as a student-athlete.
“It’s a lot, they play all the time, they don’t get to play multiple sports because their life is invested into one sport,” Rush said. “I can honestly say I would not want to be a high school athlete right now trying to be recruited.”
