Team hopping

We had one kid on the team. Loved being on the team. The group of girls was like something you never seen. They were very tight. We spent a lot of time building chemistry. Well her parents pulled her after fall. They felt she was a ss and I played her at 2nd and 3rd. She also pitched. She was struggling and they took her to a team that needed a number 2. On my squad she was the number 3 but had pitched more innings then anyone else. By early summer she wasn't pitching and was playing outfield for the new team. So her parents pulled her. Took her to team 3 for the year. We faced her in one game. late in the year. We destroyed her and her new coach left her in to take the beating. After the season she joined up with the girls that left me.. Her parents were close to the assistant coach. She lasted maybe a month before she quit. As of now I don't believe she is playing. This is a good kid whose parents have ruined things for her. Everyone now knows the mom is a huge issue. I don't know if they will be able to find a 5th team that will take a chance on their daughter.

You feel awful for these kids.

grcsftbll said:

I've noticed the insanity for sure. Some of these girls, I feel really sorry for them. There is no way THEY want to be on 5 different teams in a year. There is no way they want to make a group of friends, get to know them, become a team, then jump ship. There's this constantly chasing the next best thing mentality. I wonder if the kids of these parents make up a big chunk of the 70% who quit by age 13.

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I think you're right...most of the time it is the parents that drive the team jumping. And I think most of the time, you are better off without those parents. There are always programs that do more...practice more, play in higher level tournaments, provide better training, have more success, put kids into college...etc...and there are always going to be kids that are talented and driven and have a better chance at success in those types of programs. They should "jump teams". It's the kids that jump to other teams that seem to be on the same level...or even lower, but they promote themselves or the coach talks a good game...the grass is always greener type. Typically, they have an inflated sense of their kids abilities. Create the best environment you can, expect and ask for commitment.

Curious to know what we mean by team hopping. Does anyone look down on players who have played on 5 teams in 5 years? Mine has, but that's not why I'm asking.

Are you talking about players/families who leave mid-season? Or after the fall? Or players/families who play for a new team every year?

I'm slow to judge players/families that jump teams. I want to hear their story. Players jump because their former teams split or fell apart. Players jump because they age out and the rest of the team stayed back. They jump because they've out-grown their former team. They jump because some teams are just toxic and need to be abandoned. It's tough finding the right fit, and I'm not going to judge a player of family who has had trouble finding it until I hear more about it.

CoogansBluff said:

Curious to know what we mean by team hopping. Does anyone look down on players who have played on 5 teams in 5 years? Mine has, but that's not why I'm asking.

Are you talking about players/families who leave mid-season? Or after the fall? Or players/families who play for a new team every year?

I'm slow to judge players/families that jump teams. I want to hear their story. Players jump because their former teams split or fell apart. Players jump because they age out and the rest of the team stayed back. They jump because they've out-grown their former team. They jump because some teams are just toxic and need to be abandoned. It's tough finding the right fit, and I'm not going to judge a player of family who has had trouble finding it until I hear more about it.

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I agree with that. Mine was on 2 teams last year, you might remember. When the coach we left after fall lost the team and his daughter quit softball, I felt a bit vindicated. I know he told people we were team hopping, daddy-ball playing whiners. We weren't. He was a bad coach. We liked our spring team, but decided to go back to our old coach from 8U. His DD and my DD are best friends. My DD pitches, his catches. I feel like our reasons were valid both times. We left our spring team on good terms. If someone thinks we're team hoppers because of that, oh well. I'm always going to be interested in the story too. To me team hopping isn't changing teams each year. Lots of people do that, and it's why teams have tryouts every year. To me it's more like leaving multiple teams mid-season, or even mid-tournament (really! I know of 2 different girls who have done that in the past month! One was about playing time, I know; the other I have no idea why, could be a perfectly good reason but I can't imagine what a coach would have to do to make us walk away in the middle of a tournament). 5 teams in 5 years wouldn't even make me pause in itself. But 5 teams in one year? I'll still keep an open mind but that sure does seem excessive.

The nature of the beast is that the better players will end up on the marquee teams in 14U and 16U. By 18U there are very few teams that are not marquee. Coaches should not take it personally. Teach fundamentals and sportsmanship and enjoy watching the fruits of your labor at the older age groups.

JAD said:

By 18U there are very few teams that are not marquee.

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In North Carolina, where we've documented the number of teams, there are about 75 18U teams compared to about 175 14U teams. So the numbers clearly shrink, and the local teams that grew out of the rec programs and church leagues have vanished or failed to stay together. But I wouldn't say that there are very few teams that are not marquee at 18U. Unless you're defining marquee very broadly as anybody who enters a showcase and stays in hotels and has players who want to play in college. It is hard to find teams at 18U that just want to play ball locally. But there are still dozens of teams around here that I would not call marquee.

CoogansBluff said:

In North Carolina, where we've documented the number of teams, there are about 75 18U teams compared to about 175 14U teams. So the numbers clearly shrink, and the local teams that grew out of the rec programs and church leagues have vanished or failed to stay together. But I wouldn't say that there are very few teams that are not marquee at 18U. Unless you're defining marquee very broadly as anybody who enters a showcase and stays in hotels and has players who want to play in college. It is hard to find teams at 18U that just want to play ball locally. But there are still dozens of teams around here that I would not call marquee.

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Maybe they are out there more out there than I realize and I am just not seeing them. When we play the 18U Gold events it seems like we see the same 12-15 teams every week and a couple of the better 16U teams playing up. Are there B-level tournaments at 18U?

JAD said:

Maybe they are out there more out there than I realize and I am just not seeing them. When we play the 18U Gold events it seems like we see the same 12-15 teams every week and a couple of the better 16U teams playing up. Are there B-level tournaments at 18U?

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This really should be it's own thread, but I'll bite. There aren't any B level tourneys. There are B level field complexes though. There is definitely a pecking order in the 18U World. We played in the Texas Gold Cup last weekend and you have to be a Gold qualified(or indoctrinated into the softball Illuminati) team to play on the marquee fields against the marquee teams. You can't just call yourself the Hittin' Kittens Gold team and expect to get on those fields. 24 Gold Level teams and 28 other teams scattered on two other field complexes.

I have a friend who's DD plays on a really good 16U team. I think they have lost only 8 games in 2016, but I also know who they are playing and what fields they are playing on. He said the parents are grumbling about playing better competition. What good is it to kick butt when no one(college coaches) sees you doing it?

JAD said:

Maybe they are out there more out there than I realize and I am just not seeing them. When we play the 18U Gold events it seems like we see the same 12-15 teams every week and a couple of the better 16U teams playing up. Are there B-level tournaments at 18U?

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I don't know if they're called B-level per se, but there are 18U/16U (aka 'high school') tournaments every weekend in N.C. (USSSA or TopGun) that attract teams that are mostly players staying sharp for high school ball, or maybe they are semi-showcase teams with only a few true small-college prospects. You'll sometimes see some of the marquee 14U teams playing up in those so they don't have to travel so far every week to be challenged.

Moving to the big name org at 10u/12u is a lazy (albeit tempting) approach to choosing a team. You get a pass on your first team, after that parents should learn to be proactive in finding the right teamS before tryout season. My attitude is to choose the best team fit and take it yr by yr at this age and help her enjoy the sport.
My DD had the opportunity to join a new big name org team (college connections...blah.blah.blah) with coaches that I knew and respected but we ended up choosing a closer no-name team with coaches and players that was a better fit for what MY DD needed THIS year. My thought is that if she is good enough and desires to play college then she can make the big name teams later when the other kids burn out or she just beats them out.

Of course there are just people that buy cars every 3 months so is it a surprise they move their kids on different teams just as often?