VT4Natty

At times

They don’t okay the gane. Go to a different tournament.

Basically telling your team you won’t win

Hopefully not true. Guess we will find out tomorrow.

Tourney starts tomorrow at 10am so extra day before the Hokies roll in. Beautiful weather and great softball in a beautiful location! WooHoo

And last years backups transferred.

I am not sure this application is the best. If you look at the SEC and some of the other big time athletic programs including softball, most of the dollars (and it’s big dollars) is directed into a non profit organization that is then used indirectly to further reward athletes existing players, recruit future players, etc. I do love the NIL that rewards all members of the teams but still the big programs are putting it more into a fund that can be utilized as needed. I am not sure this fund does alot for recruiting and not sure if it helps with retention as the dollars are lower in total. That was the basis of my question. Again I applaud the girls for putting it out there but unfortunately VT is well behind in the NIL game and playing some catch-up in all sports. Thank you for your insightful thoughts as it is a valuable post.

I don’t understand the purpose here for donors? I get it for the players but it just seems like things are broken. Not the players fault per se, but wow

Softball used to have one too under Coach Thomas. I don’t think the logistics are as complicated as you make them sound but understand your points. It just seems like another missed fundraising opportunity ** Edited by VT4Natty at 2/6/2023, 8:08:48 AM

There used to be one and it was a lot of fun.

As discussed previously, there is a Huge opportunity for VT if we charged for season tickets and single game admission Copied and pasted from an article discussing the athletic fund surplus at Arkansas: The GIST: The University of Arkansas is hitting it out of the business park. On Friday, the school’s athletics department announced an operating surplus of $8.19 million in FY 2022, outpacing its pre-pandemic totals. The revenue wins come courtesy of ticket sales, which saw huge gains across Arkansas' women’s sports teams. The details: Last year’s surplus beats the $7.87 million Arkansas counted in FY 2019, and the school raked in $7.5 million more in ticket revenue in 2022 than in 2019. An impressive $630K of gate receipts came from women’s sporting events in the last fiscal year, compared to $260K three years earlier. Arkansas’ women’s hoops team lead the way with $256K in ticket sales, a number on pace with recent figures — Power Five schools averaged around $300K in women’s basketball ticket revenue in FY 2020. Softball ranked second in ticket sales for Arkanasas’ women’s sports teams but saw the most revenue growth from 2019 to 2022 as sales went from $8K to $147K, an increase of 1741.8%. Yes, you read that right. The context: As women’s softball surges in popularity across the country, the Razorbacks also benefited from two stellar seasons — they won the SEC regular-season title in 2021 and 2022 and hosted NCAA regional and super-regional games. Nine of the team’s all-time top 10 attendance figures are from 2022, with six coming from last year’s NCAA championship. Zooming out: Arkansas’ earnings report is just the latest example of women’s college sports’ meteoric rise and also bolsters softball’s case as a college heavy-hitter. We’ll say it again and again — if you monetize women’s sports, good things happen.

As a former player for them, she should have known what to expect but yes wow it was as very bad from what I have been told including on field event in front of some of the players. This will be the Swifts last year as I will be shocked if their contracts are renewed.

On this board when someone posts anything critical of the program. They are heaped upon even when the reality suggests otherwise. And you are as big as a part of the problem as I am. So yes let’s see….

Which was the point in his post to start all of this. I dont care about OSU, Maxwell etc but that’s what started this thread. OSU didn’t just make it to supers for example they won their supers including one on the road (at FSU) and both at home qualifying for three consecutive WS I believe. VT and Coach D have fallen short both on the road and at home, both times after needing to only win one of two games to make it. Not quite the same comparison there. Hopefully we find a way to get over the hump but clearly we haven’t yet.

My only other point is that you and others think there is nothing bad that you can say about the program even if it’s accurate. This board in particular is filled with rose colored glasses more so than most of the other boards here. I am excited to see where the Hokies go this year. Excited to see how Emma handles being the ace. And frankly per this string it would be cool to see VT have as much consistent success as programs like OSU. ** Edited by VT4Natty at 1/19/2023, 3:15:28 PM

OU hasn’t lost multiple games in a row for the last several years. It’s them and everyone else. Much like UGA in football and Bama before them. OSU has beaten OU each of the last two years - once with Eberle and then Maxwell last year to win the Big12 championship. So clearly they are getting closer to OU. The better measuring stick is WCWS appearances. OSU has gone to 3 straight. Unfortunately VT has been short in those same years. So still not understanding the shot to Maxwell or OSU. Or anyone else that has made the WCWS the last several years.

** Edited by VT4Natty at 1/13/2023, 6:54:31 PM

Did anyone go to UT in 2018? Plenty of seats available and should be again this year. Another secret is to donate enough and then the team will comp your tickets :-)

Thank you for sending the link.

Oklahoma Florida State Oklahoma State Florida UCLA Alabama Clemson Northwestern Interesting list. Lots of very good teams out there for the 2023 season. Should be a lot of fun to watch these great players on all teams. February will be fun! May will be outstanding

And turns out she is better for it. She is poised for a great season and everyone in the country including her coaches knew she was illegal last year. This year should be great to see her pitching (and excelling) within the rules

Charts! Not only is there great freshman talent, but it’s great to see that VT WBB is the transfer destination of choice. Coach Brooks gets it and wish some others did as well. This team has a legit shot at final 4 and then some!

It’s going to be a great year!!!

They showed last year they can compete at the highest levels and have a process in place and have increased their talent and depth. The separation the top 10 in WBB is much less than that in softball IMHO.

I wish for changes that most of you don't see or understand but I will continue to hope those changes happen to properly position VTSB towards long term success. And doing it the right way. I look forward to VTSB being the transfer destination of choice showing that our culture and the player development capability is at its highest levels. I look forward to ACC championships (which is winning the ACCT) and mostly I look forward to WCWS appearances and then maybe a natty. So I will be less negative but not necessarily blindly positive. Go Hokies!

This board / its members doesn't want anything critical posted here. The fact is that in four years there has been very little development in the pitchers with the refinement Rochard the possible exception out of the whole bunch. Gillis doesn't even call the pitches the last few years and now Mack is gone. The elite teams do it differently. Meanwhile we have posters that want to cry about playing time which is truly not the case. It's about lack of Development and probably certainly some culture differences. Same point as before

The Kool aid is running out which you will experience soon. VT WBB is poised for our first national championship and I will be there. The charlatans for softball will be exposed as Super regional appearances aren't close to winning a natty. It means top 15. Wake up!!!

Napoli - nope. Hewitt -- nope Jacobson -- nope Osborne - nope Rosenberry - nope So that leaves Eberle, Rochard, and Lemley. Eberle improved every year at VT and them became an All American at OK State (developed under Tincher big time, maybe some Under Gillis, and then starred at OSU). Rochard came in highly heralded and then blossomed junior year (maybe some development or was just de facto the ace). Lemley came in highly heralded and performed well except against better teams and clearly was knowingly illegal and they chose not to change her. So those are the facts under the Gillis/D regime.