[RunItUpTheGut]

In the early years of fastpitch, if you had a pitcher that threw hard and could throw strikes, you would dominate all but a handful of teams. Hitters have caught up with the pitchers. As for the Laurels, all the points that have been made are true. More emphasis on travel ball, good starts at an early age, and the numbers game. There's one ingredient that hasn't been mentioned. Good old hard work! The offseason doesn't exist, except dead period. Open field, winter conditioning and many,many other things have contributed to their success. And don't forget good coaching. Yes, they Laurels are big schools and have many built in advantages, but you don't dominate like they have without coaching and hard work.

Good point on the first comment. When softball first picked up steam, especially in this area, it was all about having that dominate pitcher. Its really all it took until players and coaches started to evolve.

As for the second comment, I think its safe to say there are many other teams in this region that work just as hard. Its the system at North and South that have allowed them to be successful. I haven't hardly posted on the softball forum as there hardly any discussion going on, but ive been a fan of softball since the early 00's and have watched a lot of teams over the years and hundreds of games but as I stated before, other schools players just do not have the option to play summer ball, and as you know, for whatever reason, high school coaches cant be involved in summer play. While weve got basketball coaches taking players to 50 camps every summer, baseball and softball coaches hands are tied and they cant do anything about it. Difference with Laurel County is they have plenty of coaches devoted to summer ball and travel teams. Most of the other schools only person who would do it would be the coach, and they cant.


Look, I agree its amazing what North and South have accomplished in softball, and even baseball for that matter. Im not taking away from that success. But to dismiss other teams struggles to compete with them simply because of good coaching and hard work is just not true. And the fact remains, Its easier to find girls to play summer ball and to find more talent when your picking from 1500 girls instead of 150. Im a big school guy too. I don't root or know anything about one single small school, but to act like it should be expected that a team like Barbourville, Pineville, Williamsburg, and Lynn Camp to compete with North and South on a yearly basis just isn't reasonable. Schools like that could have the best coach in the state and work there tails off harder than anyone and it wouldn't matter when North and South still run rule them.