Riley Johnson

[lightelite]

Greece Athena Sr- Riley Johnson signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Syracuse University a short while ago today (11-11-11) at the Battery baseball/softball training facility. Syracuse has been a follower of Riley's for some time now and offered Riley last year while she was on an unofficial visit in which Riley verbally accepted the offer.

***Syracuse watched her play at various Showcases that she attended while playing for the Battery Lightning Gold. Syracuse has made it clear that they will also follow Riley and the team this summer to watch and provide input in what they want to see Riley work on and because they have interest in recruiting other Battery Lightning players.

Congratulations Riley!!!

Pictured:
Standing from left to right... Riley's sister Kelsey Johnson (Battery Lightning Elite), Fred Tillinghast (Owner of the Battery) and Jeff Cooley (Battery Lightning Gold- Head Coach)
Seated from left to right... Riley's mom Colleen Johnson, Riley and her father Curt Johnson

[THE ROOK PRO]

Greece Athena Sr- Riley Johnson signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Syracuse University a short while ago today (11-11-11) at the Battery baseball/softball training facility. Syracuse has been a follower of Riley's for some time now and offered Riley last year while she was on an unofficial visit in which Riley verbally accepted the offer.

***Syracuse watched her play at various Showcases that she attended while playing for the Battery Lightning Gold. Syracuse has made it clear that they will also follow Riley and the team this summer to watch and provide input in what they want to see Riley work on and because they have interest in recruiting other Battery Lightning players.

Congratulations Riley!!!

Pictured:
Standing from left to right... Riley's sister Kelsey Johnson (Battery Lightning Elite), Fred Tillinghast (Owner of the Battery) and Jeff Cooley (Battery Lightning Gold- Head Coach)
Seated from left to right... Riley's mom Colleen Johnson, Riley and her father Curt Johnson

Congrats and Good Luck at Syracuse!

[karhly]

You Made It !!!

[mrmiamih]

Good Luck as 2014 they come to the ACC and softball gets to play vs better teams

[sectionvguy1]

Greece Athena Sr- Riley Johnson signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Syracuse University a short while ago today (11-11-11) at the Battery baseball/softball training facility. Syracuse has been a follower of Riley's for some time now and offered Riley last year while she was on an unofficial visit in which Riley verbally accepted the offer.

***Syracuse watched her play at various Showcases that she attended while playing for the Battery Lightning Gold. Syracuse has made it clear that they will also follow Riley and the team this summer to watch and provide input in what they want to see Riley work on and because they have interest in recruiting other Battery Lightning players.

Congratulations Riley!!!

Pictured:
Standing from left to right... Riley's sister Kelsey Johnson (Battery Lightning Elite), Fred Tillinghast (Owner of the Battery) and Jeff Cooley (Battery Lightning Gold- Head Coach)
Seated from left to right... Riley's mom Colleen Johnson, Riley and her father Curt Johnson


What was the offer? Did she get an academic package as well?

Always good to hear because so mant people mislead others into thinking they are getting full rides.

[mrmiamih]

Softball if you get 50% , you hit the lottery

[cleareyesfullheart]

Softball if you get 50% , you hit the lottery

Except for top shelf pitchers.

[baltimore2]

What was the offer? Did she get an academic package as well?

Always good to hear because so mant people mislead others into thinking they are getting full rides.

It's nobody's business what the offer or financial terms are. It's a private matter for the family members only, much like your private finances.

Nobody misled anyone about a full ride here. Why are you bringing this topic up?

[sectionvguy1]

It's nobody's business what the offer or financial terms are. It's a private matter for the family members only, much like your private finances.

Nobody misled anyone about a full ride here. Why are you bringing this topic up?

No one said anyone was mislead by this example. It is good to talk about because people think sports like softball are offering full rides when that is just not the case. It is actually a great topic to discuss. I have seen plenty of kids take thier 25% offer & think it is the greatest thing ever, when reality is they still own $30,000 a year!!! Congrats to the kid & hope it works out for her.

BTW... anyone who wanted to know can find out the % each kid gets on a roster from the school, its not a classified piece of info.

[sectionvguy1]

Softball if you get 50% , you hit the lottery

Excellent point!

[lightelite]

Your actually all right and bring very valid points. It is funny because from people on the outside looking in there is this notion that the Battery Lightning oversell Division 1 scholarships and/or full rides... Total BS. The events we play in and the guidance we provide helps open doors to a wide variety of schools of all Divisions. In the end only the players hard work, dedication and Talent will get them to the next level. It is true that most the scholarship money available is spent on Pitchers, Catchers and a big hitter. It is true that there is far more academic funding opportunity in girls softball than athletic. What playing at this level (ASA A /Gold) does is best prepare the girls for the level of play they will see in college. If they are so fortunate through contacting coaches that they come watch them play at any of the Showcases we attend great! If from that the college coach starts communicating with us about said player even better! If the program is funded and is so interested that they want to invest in her with athletic scholarship then wow! This was the case for Riley and recently Mackenzie with Syracuse and St Johns. We also have other players fielding offers from athletic scholarship to preferred walk on to simply recruited player. No matter how you shake it up the majority of the money ends up being academic and the player playing at this level often
comes into their college program best prepared to capture playing time and produce results.

Now I know with what is the 3 players from the Battery Lightning this year and last year that have verbally accepted or signed scholarships none of them have been for less than 75% athletic scholarships. That fact is extraordinary to be truthful and not the norm. There will be more and in our short existence with only a few graduating classes we are proud to have many playing in college especially when you consider less than 10% of kids playing in HS go on to play in college at any level. Riley and Mackenzie only add to the already impressive list of kids from Section V playing softball at not only the highest level but top conferences (Stacey Kuwik-Syracuse, Michelle Prong-Stanford and Maddie Reese-Arkansas to name a few).

[cleareyesfullheart]

No one said anyone was mislead by this example. It is good to talk about because people think sports like softball are offering full rides when that is just not the case. It is actually a great topic to discuss. I have seen plenty of kids take thier 25% offer & think it is the greatest thing ever, when reality is they still own $30,000 a year!!! Congrats to the kid & hope it works out for her.

BTW... anyone who wanted to know can find out the % each kid gets on a roster from the school, its not a classified piece of info.

Many times if they are offered 25%, like you stated, they are also offered 50% or more for academics. This makes their scholarship 75%, or more, and they do not owe the 30K you stated. There is nothing wrong with getting 75%, or more, no matter how it is packaged. That is why it is important for the student athlete to keep their grades up.

[lightelite]

Many times if they are offered 25%, like you stated, they are also offered 50% or more for academics. This makes their scholarship 75%, or more, and they do not owe the 30K you stated. There is nothing wrong with getting 75%, or more, no matter how it is packaged. That is why it is important for the student athlete to keep their grades up.

Well said! Few are fortunate enough to get such high stakes offers. Academics are so crucial and so much more important than anything. Keep in mind too that these athletic scholarships are annual contracts that need to be re-earned every year with efforts on and off the field and that is a lot of pressure.

It really all depends on what each student athletes individual objective is both academically and athletically. The process is very different for each player and hopefully kids make academic decisions and not solely athletic decisions which is something we preach loudly. What is hardest to set aside in the process is
the false sense of actual ability due to HS success and what we often call
"parent blinders". When you play where we play against the teams and players
we often see both players and parents can get a real gauge of how they stack
up. I know our trip to the nation's largest and most widely attended Showcase
by college coaches this summer will be both a great opportunity and eye opener (Colorado Fireworks). Either way a great opportunity for area players now and in the future to play in front of a wide variety of college coaches that no area events can provide.

[mrmiamih]

Keep in mind too that these athletic scholarships are annual contracts


not anymore, is in the works where schools can offer multi year to students

Softball actually gets more scholarships than baseball via title IX

[BCEagles]

:)

I think the fact that Riley has the opportunity to play softball at Syracuse is big enough to stand on its own. To me, I am equally impressed whether it's a full ride, 75%, 50%, 25%... What % of local players (or any players) are asked to join a D1 school/team? Regardless of the financial incentives, I say "Congratulations Riley - job well done!"

As has been said on this board many times over, for every skill you work on - double the effort with your grades. For every at-bat you get, spend a bit more time getting ready for that test. For every road trip you take to the next tournament, bring along your SAT practice books.

[cleareyesfullheart]

Keep in mind too that these athletic scholarships are annual contracts


not anymore, is in the works where schools can offer multi year to students

Softball actually gets more scholarships than baseball via title IX

I know softball gets 12 if fully funded, what does baseball get?

[mrmiamih]

11.7 for baseball

[blueeagle]

Riley's signing, MacKenzie Cleary verbal to St. Johns, recent Section V grads at D1 programs (Stanford, Arkansas,Niagara,Cansius,Liberty etc.) should help in the future for those looking to play college softball at any level. With that being said it is still important for those with college softball aspirations to get their name out.

[mrmiamih]

Now all we need is SU to field a baseball team, as they will be only ACC school not to have one

[cleareyesfullheart]

Now all we need is SU to field a baseball team, as they will be only ACC school not to have one

Yes, they are the only non baseball team in the ACC but this is a softball site and i know they are the same, softball is not baseball

[mrmiamih]

I know that

SU is going to be up against it in softball vs ACC teams


FSU and others are strong as anything and ,SU will not have the luxury of playing those northern teams anymore, so they need to step it up big time

[cleareyesfullheart]

I know that

SU is going to be up against it in softball vs ACC teams


FSU and others are strong as anything and ,SU will not have the luxury of playing those northern teams anymore, so they need to step it up big time

It's not like the ACC get 6-7 into regional play like SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10 (12 now, but USC doesn't play softball so PAC 11).
Last season ACC had 3 teams reach regional play and the Big East had 4. I feel the Big East is on the same line from a softball stand point as the ACC.
PAC 10 had 7, SEC had 7 and the Big 12 had 8 team qualify.

[mrmiamih]

Go Look at # of schools playing softball in ACC vs Big East

8 teams play in ACC'


13 Big East

so Big east should be more in


Big East is only on par with ACC in 1 sport only: Mens Hoops and that changes come 2014

[cleareyesfullheart]

Go Look at # of schools playing softball in ACC vs Big East

8 teams play in ACC'


13 Big East

so Big east should be more in


Big East is only on par with ACC in 1 sport only: Mens Hoops and that changes come 2014

I would put Big East softball, Cuse, Louisville, ND,DePaul, on par with the ACC. This will not be true next year.

The number of teams in a conference has nothing to do with qualifying for the NCAA's. It has to do with record and strength of schedule. Beating a bunch of no bodies will not get you in unless you win your conference and then you get an automatic bid. So all things being equal, all conferences still gets one AQ and the rest of the field is at large bids to teams with the record (quality wins) vs. quality teams.

[lightelite]

Riley's signing, MacKenzie Cleary verbal to St. Johns, recent Section V grads at D1 programs (Stanford, Arkansas,Niagara,Cansius,Liberty etc.) should help in the future for those looking to play college softball at any level. With that being said it is still important for those with college softball aspirations to get their name out.

Softball recruiting is as much selling yourself to the school/program as anything. It normally requires a combo of contacting coaches (e-mails, letters, phone calls, school visits and camp attendance), a well done profile and skills video to accompany said contacts and from there the hope that these attempts generate enough interest that the coaches come to see you play. This is why we are against the "mass canvass" recruiting services that often contact schools similar to throwing darts blind folded. It is important to have a plan even if said plan only narrows your search down to what ends up being a still large number of possibile schools. We have had countless examples of college coaches approaching us about a player "contacted by a recruiting service" and the player has no interest in the school. All that accomplishes is wasting the valuable time of a coach and we are left to apologize for the confusion. Aside from that a skills video can make or break a players recruiting. Coaches get 100's of these a week and if the video is poorly done or the skills are not done extremely well displaying above average competence I can assure the interest will be reflective of that.

Once all this is done now you have to make sure your are on a team that attends some of the larger showcase events. ASA A/Gold Showcases being the best chance as coaches are often at these in large quantities. That doesn't mean that you can't play for a typical travel team and still be recruited but the already stacked odds are stacked even greater in this case. I know a couple years ago there were a few girls that played for a local travel team that chose to moonlight on a couple Gold level teams from outside the area recognizing the lack of exposure in their local teams schedule. It worked out for them in the end but it is highly suggested by many experts that if you are fortunate enough to get on a Gold Showcase circuit team then do it. Expand your recruiting possibilities so that there are options regardless of what level of college athletics that may be. It took some time but now after 4 years of sacrifice our area finally has an organization recognized and respected in the circuit which should be a great help to future area players much like the recent examples seen here.