Softball · Issue No. 15
Is D3 Softball Actually Worth It, or Just a Fallback?
Week of September 14, 2026
A parent wrote in: "My daughter has offers at the D3 level but keeps saying she'd rather wait and hope for something bigger. Is D3 actually worth taking seriously?"
Our answer: According to at least one coach who's built a national runner-up program at that level, absolutely — and here's the case he makes.
Ask most youth softball parents what "making it" looks like, and the answer usually involves a Power Four jersey. Kevin Griffin, head coach of the NCAA Division III national runner-up Belhaven Blazers, has spent fifteen years watching that assumption cost families real opportunities.
Take Kennedy Carruth. She pitched four years for Griffin at Belhaven and is now his pitching coach. In a fall exhibition against LSU — a full Division I SEC program — Carruth held her own. Griffin is blunt about it: he believes she could have pitched for almost any program in the country. She chose Belhaven anyway, and left with four championship rings.
Or take Morgan Frye, who played first base at Berry College — another D3 program — before transferring last year. She's now at Ohio State, and by Griffin's account, she's been one of the best hitters in the Big Ten. A player two years removed from Division III softball, thriving in a Power Four conference.
Neither story is a fluke Griffin stumbled into. It's the result of a deliberate strategy. Roughly 70% of his roster over fifteen years has come through junior college transfers rather than incoming freshmen — largely because JUCO transfer scholarship money, especially through the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, can make a D3 education genuinely affordable in a way most families don't realize going in. He also recruits patiently: rather than chasing eighth and ninth graders still convinced they're Division I–bound, he waits until a player's junior or senior year, when reality has had time to set in about which programs are realistically recruiting them — and often finds better fits that way.
None of this is an argument against chasing Division I softball if that's genuinely where a player belongs. It's a caution against treating every level below it as a fallback rather than a real destination. A program that develops players, competes for championships, and sends its own alumni on to power-conference success is not a consolation prize. For a lot of families, it's the better bet from the start.
From an interview with Coach Kevin Griffin, Belhaven University.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 15, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.