Pre-districts for softball are very unconventional because of the interesting format that isn’t seen quite as often in other sports. Pre-district games, which take place prior to playoffs, are determined by putting all of the teams in the division in a hat, trying to get an even number of teams for districts. The one team that doesn't get picked gets a bye. Then, those teams play against each other to advance in the playoffs.
“Before your district starts, you play a pre-district game to place you with who you'll play next,” Brooke Barlage (‘28) said.
The goal of pre-districts is to weed out a couple of teams before they get into the actual playoffs. There are always different components to this, and it can be hard to schedule it because of the complexities.
“That's your pre-districts, it's 1,000% based on luck. There is no actual statistics or math or records or anything they have to get into it,” Lilly McCalla (‘26) said.
It could be valuable or frustrating for teams, depending on how well they played in the regular season, as the pre-districts are random. There are different scenarios where athletes believe that pre-districts are helpful or not.
“In school softball, I think it makes 100% sense the way they do it because it gives everybody a fair shot. Even though it's kind of unfair for those teams that are really high-seeded, maybe in their conference or in their district,” McCalla said.
Equality in sports is usually celebrated, but sometimes it can hurt the teams that worked hard all season and want an advantage going into the playoffs. Most players don’t worry too much about their pre-district games, though, because it doesn’t knock them out of the playoffs, giving it less risk.
“I mean if you lose your pre-district game, it'll place you lower and you'll play worse teams. So it helps to organize the region, so I guess it's good,” Barlage said.
Fortunately, the Bulldogs won against Fowlerville 4-1 on Tuesday, May 26th, moving them onto districts the following Saturday. The playoffs will continue through the summer, and the team has big goals moving forward.
“It'd be really cool to win a regional title. That's definitely something that is in the capacity of our team, and beyond that, I think in softball any day is anybody's game,” McCalla said. “It entirely depends on who wants to show up and play that day and give forth their best effort and energy and play with a purpose. So I think we have the potential to go as far as we're willing to go.”
Chelsea's sports are known for being highly competitive and the softball team hopes to continue further into the playoffs. To do that, they’ll need to be able to bounce back after having difficult spots in their games.
“As a team in general, just stay confident and don't give up, even when we're making bad plays and stuff, and just to have a grip,” Barlage said.
