- Jun 12, 2015
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I'm watching with a distant kind of amusement as fall ends and the movement begins. I've noticed a few girls who over just the first year of 10U have been on 3+ teams. Even significantly more than that. And yet teams keep taking them - big name teams. I imagine in 10U, the studliness of the players still beats out the lack of stability. Every coach wants that ace pitcher or catcher (the big team hoppers seem to be in those 2 positions, at this age anyway). I suppose they're hoping that even though it's her 8th team of the year or whatever, that this will be the one that sticks? I always hear that nobody takes team hoppers. Doesn't seem to be the case yet though. I'm thinking in 12U and 14U as things equalize and the girls who developed early move towards average, they will be less in demand?
On the flip side, what can coaches do to prevent this? DH is AC on a solid B team. We've played B this fall, will dip our toes into some A this spring and see how we fare. We've got a lot of potential on our team. Both DH and HC seem to have a good eye for talent. And they genuinely care about the girls. I would love more than anything to keep as many of them together as possible. So far, we haven't had any drama; great parents, it's awesome. But I just know, as we get better and start getting noticed some (assuming that happens) the bigger name orgs will come after our girls. Is there any way to battle that? We don't have a big name. Our org is relatively big in baseball but new to softball, only has 2 teams. Our team is a start up this year. Just curious if any coaches with a high retention rate would care to share their secrets
On the flip side, what can coaches do to prevent this? DH is AC on a solid B team. We've played B this fall, will dip our toes into some A this spring and see how we fare. We've got a lot of potential on our team. Both DH and HC seem to have a good eye for talent. And they genuinely care about the girls. I would love more than anything to keep as many of them together as possible. So far, we haven't had any drama; great parents, it's awesome. But I just know, as we get better and start getting noticed some (assuming that happens) the bigger name orgs will come after our girls. Is there any way to battle that? We don't have a big name. Our org is relatively big in baseball but new to softball, only has 2 teams. Our team is a start up this year. Just curious if any coaches with a high retention rate would care to share their secrets
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