- Jul 9, 2021
- 14
- 3
Here's my thoughts.We are also in Central Illinois (Peoria) and at the lower levels like 10u or 12u there are plenty of tournaments. This age cutoff thing is throwing a monkey wrench in our team and organization not just because of what we want to do as coaches, but because parents don't want to move their kids up uless they have to (which makes sense, some of them are very undersized and will get killed in 12U) so we are still deciding. But I'm not worried about enough games to play, there will most likely be HOI (which will be 10-14 games) and almost all of the tournaments we have played this year are just unsanctioned but have plenty of teams and plenty of competition. I'm sure being officially sanctioned as USA or USSSA is really important at 14U-18U but it just seems like a big headache to me now. By the time kids are 14u, the extreme size differences are mostly gone (unless they are just never going to be big kids) and it might make sense to just skip the second year in 12U (under the USA rules) and move up to 14U and be fully able to qualify for any tournament.
BNGSA guy, in the HOI email chat, there was someone from your organization VERY adamant that BNGSA would not be changing their age cut-offs and would be sticking with USSSA. Has that been decided?
People are all worked up that the Illinois 10U USA State Tournament only has 2-3 teams registered, well the USSSA state tournament only has 5 (and is at a nice park Louisville Slugger), so neither one is looking real good on attendance if you ask me.
Not a fan of tournaments, so I'd rather just schedule double headers and round robins. Tournaments are so spread out, by the time you get to the 2nd day, it's pretty much which team just wants to be there. Double headers allow you to pick and choose your competition, so if you want a challenge it's there, if you want to play teams your level, you control it. You can split the ump fees, play 4 games in less than 3 hours a day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Those four games cost you maybe $200, you played your 4 games, but it didn't take 48 hours to do it. Then you affiliation doesn't matter, if it fits your team to be USA and keep most grades together, then do that.