Iowa softball
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I think there are only three sports at the University of Iowa that could legitimately compete for a National Championship with a roster composed of 100% Iowa prep athletes. Wrestling, volleyball, and softball. So if the above is Marla's true opinion, then she clearly is not going to succeed at this university and we will be looking for a new coach within two more years.
I agree 73chief. Add Iowa natives Chelsea Thomas (Mizzou), Cassandra Darrah (Wisc) and Jadyn Spencer (Alabama) to Iowa's roster this season and we are in the post season and likely make some noise. All would have been recruited before Looper was thee coach.
If Looper thinks she can build a program without Iowa natives then I don't see her being successful here. Iowa has always been the most successful (in any sport) when they keep the best players in the state and fill out the roster in out of state recruits.
I think we'll only have three Iowans on the roster - Hawley, a walk on, Starkenburg a red-shirt freshman pitcher and Meisel a freshman from Solon.
This past season was very disappointing. We had such a good pre-Big10 season and then it seemed like the wheels came off. Anyone know what happened?
If Looper thinks she can build a program without Iowa natives then I don't see her being successful here. Iowa has always been the most successful (in any sport) when they keep the best players in the state and fill out the roster in out of state recruits.
I think we'll only have three Iowans on the roster - Hawley, a walk on, Starkenburg a red-shirt freshman pitcher and Meisel a freshman from Solon.
This past season was very disappointing. We had such a good pre-Big10 season and then it seemed like the wheels came off. Anyone know what happened?
The state had less than 10 Division 1 recruits this year and virtually all of them are going to smaller schools/conferences. Looper's focus had better be out of state. I'm sure she wants to keep the best players in-state and going to Iowa. But if she wants to take the program to the next level, Iowa girls are going to supplement a team of out of state players. Not the other way around.
This post was edited on 7/21 10:38 AM by LinusPF
This post was edited on 7/21 10:38 AM by LinusPF
And how are we proving that softball is good in the state of Iowa (at least compared on a national scale)?
Paige Lowary, senior pitcher at Dallas Center-Grimes this year, is one of the best softball players I've ever seen in the state. She would have been a fantastic snag for the Hawkeyes, but instead she will be taking her talents to the University of Missouri to play for them.
I will say that Iowa does not produce the amount of high-caliber softball players that other parts of the country do, but there are always gems that show up rather often. If only the Hawkeye coach would see this. I'm not saying she should jump on every Iowa native that shows interest, but rather just don't miss out on the Iowa-raised girls who can do some damage in D1 athletics.
I will say that Iowa does not produce the amount of high-caliber softball players that other parts of the country do, but there are always gems that show up rather often. If only the Hawkeye coach would see this. I'm not saying she should jump on every Iowa native that shows interest, but rather just don't miss out on the Iowa-raised girls who can do some damage in D1 athletics.
Iowa doesn't have a large number of good players but the players named above are difference makers that we didn't get. Sort of like men's basketball. Iowa doesn't produce a large number of D1 prospects but if we would have been able to reel in the three that went to Kansas and the two that went to North Carolina in the last 20 years how much difference would that have made!
This.
Iowa is a small population state, and the true STUDS are few and far between, but the ones that are really, really good are elite players that can certainly compete at a national level.
See Haley Eckerman in volleyball, Kiah Stokes in women's bball, Chelsea Thomas/Paige Lowery/Jaydn Spencer in softball, etc. Hell, look at the exodus of top baseball talent that leaves the state every single year for major Southern schools and other Midwestern powers (Nebraska).
If the University of Iowa did a better job of locking up the very top in-state talent in every single sport, we would consistently finish MUCH higher in the overall Director's Cup and B1G standings than we currently do in just about every sport. As a graduate of the school it is just mind-boggling that we don't have anyone in a leadership position that is able to sell this vision to some of these homegrown stars. It's not like Iowa doesn't have anything to offer from an academic or quality-of-life standpoint.
This post was edited on 2/16 2:23 PM by hawks!78
My daughter is a 2015 commit from MO. We absolutely love the University of Iowa and Coach Looper and her entire staff. Iowa has a very proud history in softball & I believe Coach Looper will return them to national prominence. My daughter chose Iowa over some "power" programs because she loved everything about your great University, the coaching staff, Iowa City and the level of passion the fans showed during our visits there. Iowa softball will return where Iowa softball belongs, just takes some time.
Did your daughter have a Mizzou offer? If so, what made her pick Iowa over the home state school?
My daughter could've have gone to MU but she didn't feel as wanted as she did at Iowa. She grew up a MU softball fan but she really fell in love with Iowa and the coaching staff. She had other offers to Oregon and Arkansas plus many others but she's in love with Iowa. She wants to be apart of rebuilding Iowa into a National power again. As a family we love the passion shown by the fans. Coach Looper and staff has created a family atmosphere and the results will come.
It's interesting that Iowa fans are concerned about keeping kids instate because we have the same concerns here in MO. MU wants kids to come play for little to no scholarship money and kids are leaving for other programs because of it. What's the passion for most Iowa softball kids towards the University of Iowa?
It's interesting that Iowa fans are concerned about keeping kids instate because we have the same concerns here in MO. MU wants kids to come play for little to no scholarship money and kids are leaving for other programs because of it. What's the passion for most Iowa softball kids towards the University of Iowa?
First and formost I'm glad your daughter has decided to come to Iowa. I hope she has a wonderful experience.
As far as the passion among Iowa prep softball players for the University of Iowa softball program, I will say that it has been in steady decline for the last 5 years. Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa State all poach the majority of the elite level talent from the state. Five to six years ago that would have been unheard of. No coach at the University of Iowa in an equivalency scholarship sport who does not build the base of his/her roster with Iowa prep athletes will succeed long-term at this University. With below average facilities and fan support in the majority of sports, fielding teams with majority out-of state rosters is simply not feasable. The math just doesn't add up. This is why Looper is not really seen by many fans as the person to build the program long-term. Her first three seasons have done very little to convince people otherwise.
The good news for your daughter is that I believe her experience at Iowa above and beyond the sport she plays will be much better than what she would have experienced at Mizzou, and that is not intended to be a knock on that University. I just simply think the top to bottom educational, social, and extra-curricular experinece at any B1G school is simply on a different level. Also, Looper just got an extension on her contract so she will be here for your daughter's entire 4-5 year career regardless of win/loss record, so that should be reassuring to your daughter.
This post was edited on 2/18 9:16 AM by 73chief
Chief,
Thanks for the response. There is no doubt in the mind of my daughter or my wife and I that the University of Iowa is the perfect place. We are beyond excited about it. Hopefully this season will turn around and they can make it back into the tournament and the passion for Hawkeye softball will get back to the golden days. As you are aware I'm sure, what we've been told is there are plans to build a new stadium and pump some money into the program. IMO softball is becoming a very important part in a successful AD. The exposure the game is receiving on TV is getting bigger every year. It's fantastic advertisement for a University.
Thanks for the response. There is no doubt in the mind of my daughter or my wife and I that the University of Iowa is the perfect place. We are beyond excited about it. Hopefully this season will turn around and they can make it back into the tournament and the passion for Hawkeye softball will get back to the golden days. As you are aware I'm sure, what we've been told is there are plans to build a new stadium and pump some money into the program. IMO softball is becoming a very important part in a successful AD. The exposure the game is receiving on TV is getting bigger every year. It's fantastic advertisement for a University.
As long as they win a national championship...I don't care where the talent comes from.
Of course if we're not...then yeah we should be getting lots of Iowa kids.
Of course if we're not...then yeah we should be getting lots of Iowa kids.
I think a big hurdle from an outsiders view of course is that the HS softball season and it's length is big hurdle for Iowa kids. They miss out on the summer travel ball season and most of the big national tournaments where coaches can watch them go up against the nations best. I had a chance to talk with Paige Lowary dad a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed our talk. They are good people.
How do you all think Coach Looper could recruit the state better? For the record I'm a big supporter of keeping the best talent instate regardless of sport and at every University. The community needs to feel a sense of ownership in a program and that comes from watching homegrown talent succeed.
As for my daughter she grew up a MU fan but when she visited Iowa city she just knew it was where she needed to be. I have to be honest, I was floored by the University and Iowa City myself. I never envisioned my daughter going anywhere but MU but even I knew she belonged at Iowa and with Coach Looper.
How do you all think Coach Looper could recruit the state better? For the record I'm a big supporter of keeping the best talent instate regardless of sport and at every University. The community needs to feel a sense of ownership in a program and that comes from watching homegrown talent succeed.
As for my daughter she grew up a MU fan but when she visited Iowa city she just knew it was where she needed to be. I have to be honest, I was floored by the University and Iowa City myself. I never envisioned my daughter going anywhere but MU but even I knew she belonged at Iowa and with Coach Looper.
crankermo - Glad your daughter is attending Iowa. My feelings about the Iowa high school softball season being mostly in the summer are that the high D1 players are going to get noticed regardless. Case in point are the four players mentioned in the above posts and there are others. There are also regional and national tournaments held outside of the Iowa HS season where some top Iowa HS players compete. This situation actually should make it easier for Iowa to keep in-state talent but unfortunately neighboring states have snagged three top level pitchers recently: Missouri (Thomas and Lowary) and Wisconsin (Darrah). I am ready to let this season play out before judging Looper but I have my doubts about a good ending.
How do you fix it? By telling the national traveling tournaments to piss off....baseball, too, and especially. Play high school ball and stop wasting your money, America.
It's a complete myth that the summer high school season hurts Iowa players.
We produce quite a few elite prospects in both softball and baseball (considering the relatively small population base of our state), it's just that these players by and large are not choosing to continue their careers at the University of Iowa.
I'll put the quality of Iowa high school play in softball up against any of the neighboring states, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Iowa colleges also have tremendous success at the JUCO and DIII levels. Kirkwood CC in Cedar Rapids won 50 consecutive games last year and finished in the top 6 at the national tournament against a bunch of Southern and Western schools, and their roster was composed almost entirely of Iowans. Both Luther and Central made the DIII World Series. I believe it was the 3rd straight trip for Luther, and Coe made the national championship finals just a few years ago. Almost the entire roster of these teams is composed of Iowa high school players.
This post was edited on 2/22 2:26 PM by Doug McKenzie
We produce quite a few elite prospects in both softball and baseball (considering the relatively small population base of our state), it's just that these players by and large are not choosing to continue their careers at the University of Iowa.
I'll put the quality of Iowa high school play in softball up against any of the neighboring states, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Iowa colleges also have tremendous success at the JUCO and DIII levels. Kirkwood CC in Cedar Rapids won 50 consecutive games last year and finished in the top 6 at the national tournament against a bunch of Southern and Western schools, and their roster was composed almost entirely of Iowans. Both Luther and Central made the DIII World Series. I believe it was the 3rd straight trip for Luther, and Coe made the national championship finals just a few years ago. Almost the entire roster of these teams is composed of Iowa high school players.
This post was edited on 2/22 2:26 PM by Doug McKenzie
Crankermo - I agree that pitching is different than other positions as far as getting recognized. For the other positions we have four D1 softball schools in Iowa that have ample opportunity to watch Iowa HS players during their season. The ones that stand out get recruited by those schools as well as D1 schools in neighboring states. I am guessing most of our best players would not be heavily recruited by schools like Arizona and UCLA even if they played travel ball all summer. There is enough good HS pitching in central Iowa that you could tell if a position player could possibly hit D1 pitching and you could certainly tell if they could play defense.
Hawks,
I'm well aware of the top notch kids in Iowa. My question is why didn't Chelsea Thomas end up at Iowa? That can't be blamed on the current staff. The only reason MU got her was because of a tape. As for Paige Lowary I'm sure the current staff was behind the 8 ball when it came to her recruitment. In your opinion why aren't the top Iowa kids going to Iowa? MO kids are leaving MO at an alarming rate also. The girls that stay in MO are getting little to no money to play @MU. We have kids going to a lot of bigtime programs and honestly MU could care less. So I understand the frustration with Iowa kids going elsewhere.
What can be done differently to keep Iowa girls home? I will be honest and say that I wasn't aware of Iowa's past success until we toured the facilities and read the rock at the field. It's very impressive and you combine that with everything the University has and Iowa will regain their spot in softball.
I'm well aware of the top notch kids in Iowa. My question is why didn't Chelsea Thomas end up at Iowa? That can't be blamed on the current staff. The only reason MU got her was because of a tape. As for Paige Lowary I'm sure the current staff was behind the 8 ball when it came to her recruitment. In your opinion why aren't the top Iowa kids going to Iowa? MO kids are leaving MO at an alarming rate also. The girls that stay in MO are getting little to no money to play @MU. We have kids going to a lot of bigtime programs and honestly MU could care less. So I understand the frustration with Iowa kids going elsewhere.
What can be done differently to keep Iowa girls home? I will be honest and say that I wasn't aware of Iowa's past success until we toured the facilities and read the rock at the field. It's very impressive and you combine that with everything the University has and Iowa will regain their spot in softball.
Simple. Massive financial committment to the program which would include a completely new competition stadium with indoor training capabilities. Basically see what has been done at Indiana and that needs to be duplicated at Iowa.
Hey, scholarship money and how it is effectively distributed amongst the roster in an equivalency sport is always going to be an issue for any coach. The math simply does not work out for long term success if you are not able to field a team with a core base of in-state players willing to take a little less. How do you get those in-state players to stay at home for maybe a little less money? Facilities and winning. When the original stadium that is now Pearl Field was built back in the early 1990s, it was probably the top facility outside of the then Pac10. As with most facilities at Iowa, they do not keep up with the Jones and become obsolete almost as soon as they are completed. Add in the fact that the facility has been completely destroyed by two significant floods within the last 20 years and it does not bode well for your ability to sell a major facility advantage to recruits. In addition, programs like Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Mizzou have all within the last 10 years made a significant committment to playing top-25 softball. Both in facilities upgrades, coaching salaries and recruiting. Iowa did not make that same committment.
Gayle Blevins was able to overcome many of these obsticles simply based on the close to 30 year relationships she had with the Iowa High School softball community. She was able to get the vast majority of teir 1 players in the state to build the core of her roster. She would not get 100%, but definitely the majority. She then worked the connections she had on the west coast and was able to land alot of California girls who either got lost in the scholarship shuffle at UCLA, Stanford or any of the other U-Cal or Cal State schools, or the ones who simply had a desire to get away from home for college. That formula won alot of games for Gayle along with some B1G Championships and College World Series Finals appearances. It also didn't hurt that as recently as the late 1990s the B1G, the Pac10/12 and a few select schools in the ACC and Big8/Big12 were really the only schools that focused strongly on softball. Twenty years ago, SEC softball did not even exist. Now along with the Pac12 it is the dominant league.
Looper so far has either decided not to dominate the Iowa Prep ranks in recruiting or has not been able to win over the gate keepers in the coaching ranks. Regardless, a Marla Looper lead Iowa softball program is no longer considered a destination program for the elite high school talent int he state. That was not the case 10 years ago. If Marla does not find a way to do this, she will not be successfull long-term at Iowa in my opinion. The media guides in multiple equivalency scholarship sports at Iowa are littered with the names of former coaches who didn't make it very long becasue they thought they could succeed without recruiting the in-state kids. My fear is that Looper will find herself on that same list 4-5 years from now.
73,
Great post I agree with the financial commitment being paramount to the success of the program. From what we were told the financial commitment is coming. I don't want time to fly by to quickly, we still have another year of HS before my daughter gets to Iowa but I'm very excited to watch the Hawkeyes. We are planning on making a couple trips up there to watch this spring.
Great post I agree with the financial commitment being paramount to the success of the program. From what we were told the financial commitment is coming. I don't want time to fly by to quickly, we still have another year of HS before my daughter gets to Iowa but I'm very excited to watch the Hawkeyes. We are planning on making a couple trips up there to watch this spring.
Crankermo , to answer your question about Thomas and how she ended up at Missouri there is a former fast-pitch pitcher living in south central Iowa that played men's fast-pitch with Earlywine back in their younger days. He alerted Earlywine that Thomas was a prospect and evidently Earlywine checked her out and was impressed. I am a big Blevins fan but she missed the boat on this one and did not recruit Thomas. Keep in mind that in HS Thomas threw hard but hadn't really developed any pitches and could occasionally have control problems. She also didn't really have any major offers that I know of besides Missouri. I'm not sure if the same guy recommended Earlywine to look at Lowary but they were together at the state softball tournament watching Lowary her freshman year. Lowary sort of came onto the scene in the Iowa coaching transition and who knows if Blevins had stayed if she could have signed her or if Looper had been here a couple of years if she could have landed her.
3-10 to open the season - Unless I'm missing something whatever they're doing doesn't seem to be working.....
Obviously this season hasn't started the way anybody wanted but let's see how it plays out. IMO the conference schedule is set up for them to make some noise. The program was trending upwards until the latter part of last season. I'm not in tune with the Iowa softball scene but I've been around the top levels of travel ball for several years and we've been on a lot of college visits and nothing impressed us more than Iowa.
When Blevins was the coach she only carried two pitchers and another player who "could" pitch if needed but was not recruited as a pitcher. Thomas was not in the class when Blevins was looking for a pitcher. I guess Earlywine clocked her with a radar gun and she threw at 72. He recalibrated the gun had her rethrow and it was at 72 again. She had an offer that day. Iowa didn't offer and ISU gave her a partial scholarship offer late according to a reliable source.
Linus,
I heard the same story about Earleywine and Thomas. What blows my mind is how Iowa either didn't know about or care to offer Chelsea. In MO if you are throwing even mid 60's you are going to be offered by MU in a heartbeat.
What do you feel Marla needs to do to keep the top kids in state? MU picked up another Iowa pitcher in the 2017 class Loren Rice that's already throwing in the 70's.
I heard the same story about Earleywine and Thomas. What blows my mind is how Iowa either didn't know about or care to offer Chelsea. In MO if you are throwing even mid 60's you are going to be offered by MU in a heartbeat.
What do you feel Marla needs to do to keep the top kids in state? MU picked up another Iowa pitcher in the 2017 class Loren Rice that's already throwing in the 70's.
From what I heard the pitching coach at the time, Amanda Scott, tried to get Blevins to take a look but she wasn't interested for some reason. Chelsea wanted to play at Iowa very bad, again from a reliable source.
As for keeping Iowa talent....first I think it's harder to keep all the instate talent today verses 10 years ago. Travel ball is so prominent that the best Iowa talents are seen by many more coaches across the country when 10 years ago they were really only seen by local coaches. Just the state of travel ball will make it tough to land all talent in the state.
I can understand losing Lowery.....Looper was very new to Iowa and she got an offer from Earlywine who is very charismatic and has had more recent success. It's more disturbing to lose Chloe Miller to Wisconsin and a SS to Minnesota (blanking on the names). Losing Rice is understandable, too...on a river city and will attend HS in Illinois.
Like someone else posted to recruit Iowa you need to network the HS coaches and make a strong presence. UNI has had some very good teams and Drake and ISU are better than in the past so it is not as easy to recruit against them.
It appears Looper is getting some good talent....we need her to recruit a dominant pitcher. I've heard really good things about Riding (I live in the DFW area and know HS coaches who speak highly of her).
As for keeping Iowa talent....first I think it's harder to keep all the instate talent today verses 10 years ago. Travel ball is so prominent that the best Iowa talents are seen by many more coaches across the country when 10 years ago they were really only seen by local coaches. Just the state of travel ball will make it tough to land all talent in the state.
I can understand losing Lowery.....Looper was very new to Iowa and she got an offer from Earlywine who is very charismatic and has had more recent success. It's more disturbing to lose Chloe Miller to Wisconsin and a SS to Minnesota (blanking on the names). Losing Rice is understandable, too...on a river city and will attend HS in Illinois.
Like someone else posted to recruit Iowa you need to network the HS coaches and make a strong presence. UNI has had some very good teams and Drake and ISU are better than in the past so it is not as easy to recruit against them.
It appears Looper is getting some good talent....we need her to recruit a dominant pitcher. I've heard really good things about Riding (I live in the DFW area and know HS coaches who speak highly of her).
I've also heard great things about Riding. She had 427 Ks last season in HS so that bodes well. It may not seem plausible but I truly feel Iowa is going to be a National program again. Like I said earlier our entire family fell in love with everything about Iowa.
As far as Thomas is concerned yes she threw mid 60's in HS but you had to speculate on whether she would develop pitches and control. Obviously Earlywine thought it was worth a gamble and he was correct. There have been more than one HS pitcher in Iowa that threw that hard and didn't get a D1 scholarship offer.
One out of three games at Texas is better than I was expecting so I'll take it. I hope we can get a win at Texas State before the real season begins. I was hoping the lack of runs so far this season was just a slump but it is quickly becoming a lingering problem.
