College softball-particularly at schools with scholarships or at highly competitive non-scholarship programs-is rapidly becoming much like a job market. There are over 900 four-year colleges in the U.S. with teams. If each school graduates or loses an average of three to four players per year, that means there are roughly 3,000-3,600 new position openings each fall. Of those 900 plus colleges, fewer than half offer softball scholarships. (All may offer some time of financial aid, but less than 50 percent have athletic-based aid.)

There are over 18,000 high schools with softball teams and this number is growing. There are also over 400 junior colleges with teams. So if each high school graduates an average of four to five seniors annually, and each JC graduates an average of six or seven sophomores, there are over 100,000 potential college players entering the "softball job market" each June.

Of course, many of these high school and JC graduates may not actually enter the market because they may not be going on to four-year colleges; or if they are, they may not want to play softball there. But if even a third of these athletes want to continue playing softball in college, that could mean as many as 40,000 student-athletes would be competing for those 3,000-3,600 positions. That means there's only about a one in six chance any given athlete will get one of those softball "jobs." In other words, for every player who finds a college softball team to play for, there will probably be five or six others who don't.

Of course, just as in the job market, some athletes have a distinct edge in the recruiting game. A blue chip job candidate i.e., someone with proven skills/track record/ experience in a particular field or someone with high visibility-might be heavily recruited by many high profile employers. This applies to softball as well. The blue chip athlete who is nationally known and who gets lots of exposure may have lots of top collegiate programs pursuing her.

But these "blue chippers" don't necessarily represent the majority of players. So what gives "the average Joe" an edge? Go to the library or a bookstore and look through the many "how to" books on job hunting. All have tools you can use to help you successfully stand out from the crowd-in other words, they tell you how to get the job that everyone else wants. Some of these resource books might describe a successful job hunter in these ways:

- Someone who knows what she wants from a job -i.e., someone who has identified her needs and goals.

- Someone who is realistic about her skills, ability, and experience in relation to the jobs being offered. (If you only apply for a job as a CEO of a big banking conglomerate when your skills/education/experience are better suited to copywriting in a small advertising agency, you may find that not only are all the bank CEO jobs closed to you, but by the time you figure out you're looking in the wrong place, all the copywriting jobs may be gone too!)

- Someone who has mapped out a plan for finding a job.

- Someone who is not afraid to be assertive and who is willing to put as much work as is necessary into finding the right job.

- Someone who has developed good networking skills -i.e., someone who knows how to use all the resources she has available to her.

- Someone who knows you won't always get the first job for which you interview, and who is willing to keep on looking when others have given up.

Unless you are being heavily recruited with real scholarship offers from schools you feel will meet your needs, you should plan an aggressive college search the same way you would plan an aggressive job search.

Begin to identify your needs and goals by your junior year in high school. Make sure you will be "qualified" for the softball "job" you want by knowing what academic experience you need. In other words, if you want to play at a Div. I school, you must meet specific NCAA academic guidelines; Div. II, Div. III, and NAIA schools also have their own set of qualifications. Determine what types of athletic skills and experience are required to play at different levels of college competition. Find out where your skills can get you the best "job" possible.

Find out what other successful "job hunters" did. Talk to college players, college coaches, travel coaches, and anyone else who might have advice. (Take what you hear with a grain of salt; you may have to sift through all advice carefully to find the tips that will be useful in your college search.)

Now let's look at how to begin your college search.

Employment counselors understand the significance of making a good first impression. Know what to put in your resume and how to write a letter to a coach that will get his or her attention. 

- Since they usually spend only a couple of minutes looking at a resume, if it's too long or there's too much material, most of it won't get read. For softball, this means don't send a three-page resume, five letters of recommendation, and 12 pages of newspaper clippings.

- An applicant's resume should be short, neatly typed, and easy to read with the most relevant or important information easily accessible to the reader. This means your academic and athletic experience has to be prominent. (If you have doubts about your ability to develop a good resume, ask for help from someone who's done it or from your high school English teacher.

A resume should include brief autobiographical information-education, experience, etc.-but the primary focus should be on the experience, skills, training, etc., that will help you succeed in this particular job,

For softball "job," it's also important that you understand why tightly edited skills videotape that shows you at your best may be the most important component of your marketing package. While coaches would love to scout every recruit and have the opportunity to see her competing in a number of games, the reality is that many coaches have to decide whether or not to go see an athlete, and sometimes even whether or not to recruit her, based solely on her video. If you get to the winter or spring of your senior year and you haven't made a tape, it will be very difficult for coaches to give you serious consideration unless you live within easy commuting distance of their school, and they have the time and inclination to try to see you in a high school or junior college game.

Many career counselors will tell you "follow-up, follow-up, follow-up" is an important part of a successful job search. So one key to finding the right college team is your willingness to keep the ball in play. In other words, say you've started contacting coaches and you've made your tape. Should you just sit back and wait for these coaches to show up at your front door with a scholarship in hand? Absolutely not. If you sent out a resume or applied for a job and you didn't hear back, you certainly wouldn't assume you were hired. If anything, you'd probably think they didn't want you. That might be true, but it's also possible they lost your application, or they're interested but talking to a couple of other candidates, or there could be a temporary glitch in the hiring process-maybe the job funding hasn't come through or they're considering promoting from within the company.

In the job market, the smart job-hunter would call the prospective employer to thank them for considering her and to let them know she was very interested in the position. The same principle applies to a successful college search. Most coaches love it when athletes call them! Even if a follow up phone call means you hear that they're not really interested in you, it keeps you from missing out on some other opportunity because you were waiting around for school X to get back to you.

Don’ get bogged down at this point in the college search. A lot of people don't follow up with letters and tapes or phone calls because they're afraid the coach will think they're pushy or they don't know what to say. Or sometimes, they're arrogant; they feel like since they made the first move, it's up to the coach now-e.g., if the coach really wants their athlete, he or she will call. These families often get well into the spring of their player's senior year before they realize she's missing the boat. Only when they see other kids finding schools and teams and begin to understand that time is running out will they "get with the program."

I understand how disconcerting it can be to talk to a coach and be rejected over the phone. It may be easier to live in fantasyland where nothing ever happens, but you never get bad news either. But determined job seekers will tell you they often get turned down, and in today's market if every rejection causes you to run and hide, you may be unemployed for a long time.

Remember, you can look at the glass as half-empty or half-full. With over 900 college teams out there, even if four hundred schools chose not to recruit you for one reason or another, you would still have over 500 possibilities left! So even though discouragement may be part of the process, it shouldn't keep you from reaching your goal.

If you really want to play softball in college, make sure you and your parents don't waste one minute sitting around talking about how great a player you are; don't compare yourself to other athletes and assume just because they got a scholarship, you're bound to be offered one. Finding a job might be the most important thing in your life once you graduate college, so make your college and team search a practice run. Develop a plan of action; investigate all opportunities and listen to all suggestions; be assertive and willing to work hard; and, most importantly, never give up.

 Bottom line / Ultimate Goal.

If you meet these three criteria:

And after you've found the school and team that is right for you, you will know you've got what it takes to live a great life after softball.

1. You, the athlete, want to play softball in college because you love the game and want more than anything else to continue competing. You must want to play for yourself, not for mom or dad, your coaches, or because your friends are doing it.

2. You and your family are willing to do whatever it takes to find a team, including putting lots of work into your college search if necessary.

3. You and your family are willing to look at lots of different options-i.e., you should consider all types of softball teams and find the one that offers you the chance to make a contribution while at the same time allowing you to get the education you need.

You can write me c/o CSC, P.O. Box 9167, San Rafael, CA 94912 or e-mail me questions to csc@hooked.net. I will try to respond as quickly as possible. Cathi Aradi is the author of Preparing to Play Softball at the Collegiate Level,