team clasifications

Looked up our first summer tournament that is coming up in a couple of weeks to see who has signed up. A team that we played a few times last year is signed up for this tournament. They won the other tournament we were in with them last year with DD's team taking second. They didn't lose a game that weekend. They beat us 5-0, and 8-0 with the 8-0 being a short game. This is USSSA tournament and this team is signed up again this year as a 16U-B. Last year playing like classed teams, they were 13-1.

Do sanctioning bodies, in the case USSSA ever look at a team and go, Ok you were 13-1 in B class games.....time to move up and register as an A class team????

They do if the local or state director has any integrity. Kind of pathetic to see teams playing down in class B or a lower age group just to trophy hunt. Then they wonder why their kids never get to the next level. My 18U team could play 16U but my parents would never even suggest it. They now that it is Go Big or Go Home.

Il softball fan said:

Do sanctioning bodies, in the case USSSA ever look at a team and go, Ok you were 13-1 in B class games.....time to move up and register as an A class team????

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I think they mostly look to see if the check clears.

Way back in 8U we were classed as "C" mostly because we had no clue if we were any good or not and finished 2nd at a tournament. The next tournament we were in they moved us from the the C bracket to the B bracket based on our 2nd place finish so anecdotally some tournaments will move you but I think by and large you just go where you register.

At 16U they are probably just starting this season in earnest after HS ball so I would imagine they would give things a month or so to settle out maybe 2 or 3 tournaments...they might have lost a few girls from last year you never know.

Yeah, didn't really think about them losing players or what ever. Guess we will see.

In North Carolina this year, every N.C. team that plays a game in the state is ranked. The rankings are very good because they include results of every tournament organization, and the ranking model is solid and doesn't just award points for playing a lot.

If all states had this, you wouldn't need A, B and C. Tournaments could make judgments week to week based on who signed up. A, B and C are all myths anyway, IMO. In N.C., for example, there are 150 teams in both 12U and 14U. There is no natural divide in that 150 to distinguish A, B and C.

Beast and Destroy

In our area the tournament directors that specialize in bronze or copper tournaments (C-level and All Stars) will try to prevent sandbagging, but most of the TDs who do gold and silver tournaments do not do much policing.

There are a lot of teams that end up in softballs "no man's land". They are better than most B-level teams, but cannot compete with true A-level teams. If they play a B-level tournament they will be the odds on favorite to win it, but if they play an A-level tournament they will probably go 2-n-out....

It is still very early in the season, are you perhaps playing in an "Open" division? Real teams, that are worried about advancing their kids, do not play down. Except for perhaps in the fall, when they are using up last years cash and have a few kids that earned the money and are going to age out.

My dd 14u team falls into the A/B middle ground. Last weekend we played in an A tourney. We finished 2-4 but considered it successful because we are so young, start a 12u aged pitcher and stayed competitive in most games. All girls except one is from same school district and only one is a high schooler. This weekend we are in a local B town tourney and the competition is, to say the least, underwhelming. We should sweep the tourney. We alternate A/B rest of summer and finish in a national B level tourney in Destin, FL. We play ASA, NSA and USSSA. Biggest difference in A/B so far is depth of talent. We have 2 pitchers and neither is an "ace". Our players aren't handpicked either. In our area you very seldom see a team trophy hunting but it does happen. Worse incident I heard of last year was a nearby A team getting second in tourney and throwing trophy in garbage as they left the field.

Trophy hunting, blech. A friend of my DD's played this weekend in what was mostly a B/C tournament (ASA). One team signed up that was A-level, big name, and I think gave up 1 run all weekend. Undefeated for sure. Why??? For FB bragging rights apparently, though I think when coaches do that it only makes them look bad so they really should be more embarrassed than bragging. We are classified A but first year and we lose a lot. We've played teams with way, way, way better records than ours, against A teams, who have themselves classified as B. There seems to be no real oversight of this, the coaches just pick whatever designation they want.