The late Leonard Koppett was one of the best sportswriters ever. He wrote in his 1994 book, “Sports Illusion, Sports Reality: A Reporter's View of Sports, Journalism, and Society” that in his view, with all its pluses and minuses, sports in general came out to the good, not by a lot but by a clear margin.

After interviewing players and coaches I feel the same way about travel ball softball. It's more of a plus than a minus but I think the system could be, and should be, improved.

Droves of girls have college scholarships thanks to travel ball. That alone justifies its existence.

Those who play at the elite level, the Gold Division in California, get valuable exposure to a higher level of competition than they see during most of their high school careers. This serves them well when they play at the ultra-competitive college level.

The cost is steep but the potential savings if players land college scholarships are even greater.

The traveling - I think so, anyway - is ultra-extensive but it's the nature of the beast. And while it's true that most of the best softball players in the area play for travel teams out of the area, no one should hold that against them.

Many of the area prep softball elite play for the Oxnard-based California Waves. When you play softball at the level these girls do, you have to go where the best opportunity is - that is, if you can afford it. For many girls in this area, the Waves represent the best opportunity.

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If they can afford that opportunity. That's part of the rub.

Who knows how many stars have slipped through the cracks over the years because of travel ball's traveling and lodging costs, etc? If travel ball showcase tournaments are a player's only ticket to being seen by college coaches - and it pretty much seems to be - those that can't afford to play elite travel ball are apparently stuck.

If my daughters were high school age and in a position to play elite travel ball, I doubt we could afford the cost.

High school coaches who have stars playing for lower-level travel teams - or playing summer rec league ball - should be able to send footage and/or player stats to a college coach. They should make the effort to. A college coach should at least give such a player consideration.

There's nothing wrong with junior college softball. Junior college coaches, too, should make the effort to put the names of their best players out there for coaches at four-year schools.

When players are bumped out of the system because of the cost it doesn't only hurt those players. It also potentially hurts the nation's collegiate softball programs. They may not be putting their best possible teams out there.

The Waves' injury report, at least when I did the interviews, was more minimal than I expected.

Still, when a coach has to deal with more injuries in the last five years than he ever had to during his first 25, which has happened to Righetti softball coach Richard Cornejo, something is wrong.

Here's a suggestion: Re-think fall ball.

Fall ball is probably necessary for the serious softball player, but youngsters need to rest. They needn't go full-bore into summer ball and then go full bore into fall ball right after that. If resting and healing mean limited fall ball and playing in one less exposure tournament, so be it.

There are more than enough showcase tournaments out there for players to get the contact with college coaches that they need.

Cornejo said that he tells his players to play a variety of sports their freshman and sophomore years. “When they're juniors they can commit to a particular sport,” he said.

Cal State Bakersfield coach Kathy Welter - who had 1,009 career NCAA wins before the 2007 season began - said it's ideal for high school students to play a variety of sports. Cornejo's and Welter's are good philosophies to go by, but early specialization is more and more the rage.

I graduated from high school in 1977. I'm not going to wax nostalgic about the way the sports system was back then. It's more inclusive now.

After playing freshman football, I saw the light and was a specialist by choice. I ran cross country and track. Coaches of the other sports at school liked me well enough, but none of them exactly yearned for me to play for them.

Still, there didn't seem to be any pressure on anyone else to commit to a particular sport either and we were happy enough. A lot of guys at my school played the traditional big three - football, basketball and baseball. I haven't seen as much of that for awhile.

Welter said, “You don't need to pick every single (exposure) tournament. You just have to be at the right ones.”

The right ones. There you have it.

Can't people back off a little?

Sports writer Kenny Cress can be reached at 739-2237 or by e-mail to kcress@santamariatimes.com

August 10, 2008