Should DD change team?

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Apr 11, 2016
133
28
DD is 8 turning 9 and has been playing for a 1st-yr 10U travel team for almost a year. She played in 8U with them in the spring. The team is now playing in fall 10U division.

In January, her coach worried there wouldn't be enough pitchers when they move up to 10U. He asked us whether DD can pitch in the fall. DD was a strong batter and quick on her feet, so we wanted her to only focus on batting and playing SS. Pitching would only add lesson $ and time for practice. But DD wanted to pitch, so we found a coach that was 45 mins away and started lessons in Feb.

Yet, the team now has 6 pitchers! So far in 6 games, DD has pitched only 4 innings (and allowed only 2 walks.) Other pitchers have been giving up all walks (thankfully 5-run rule still applies.) Needless to say, the games were slow. With 12 girls on the team, playing perhaps 3 innings, DD only got to bat 3 times a game at most.

Knowing this coach, who is very nice, would keep all the pitchers in the spring even when they can't pitch. I am upset that DD has spent so much time working on pitching, not to mention $ we spent on lessons and time driving to and from lessons, DD ended up getting only a few pitching opportunities b/c the coach decided to add so many pitchers.

A 2nd-year travel 10U coach saw DD at her lessons and had asked her to play for his team. This 2nd team has only 2 pitchers and 9 players. She'd be their 3rd pitcher. She just started practicing with them 2 weeks ago.

Here's the dilemma: In spring, DD would have to pick one team. Hubby wants her to stay with the first team, while I am leaning toward the 2nd team because they are better and she gets more pitching time and at-bats. DD is torn, because she likes the girls on both teams. But she is starting to see how good the 2nd team is and is leaning toward that. She is also getting bored with these slow games with the 1st team. The difficulty for her is that the girls on both teams are friendly and she likes all of them!

I told hubby ultimately it's DD's decision. He said no, it doesn't matter since they are still 10U and doesn't want her to switch team after only one year. What would you do in our situation? To stay or not stay, that's the question...
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Probably not a right or wrong answer...did you actually promise to play for the 1st team this spring or only for fall ball if you gave your word that you would be there for the whole season I would keep that promise.

Well given your description you're DD pitched about one game out of six and only allowed one walk every two innings while the other pitchers let in 5 runs per inning. If this in fact true I can not imagine any coach worth his salt not starting to give your DD more innings, why would you want a walk fest when you can end innings quickly, other teams would likely do the same and things should start getting better, fall is usually a time to try new things. Why not simply sit down with the current coach and ask about your DD getting an expanded pitching role since she seems to be doing well and if the spring games are walk fests too then start playing better competition.
 
Dec 3, 2012
636
16
West Coast
Do you have much $ invested in the current team and how do the coaches compare to each other?

Our team had a 3 pitcher rotation last year, with the coach using 2 pitchers in almost every game so it kept everyone happy. 6 pitchers is way to many but if your DD stands out as the best one I would think that the coach might start to depend on her for more innings. Tough to know going in.

If she is going to get pitching and playing time with the older team then that sounds like the better path to take. There is also the benefit of playing at a higher level.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
Maybe since you were hesitant at first he's trying not to pitch her a lot? Talk to him first before you decide anything. In the end, if your kiddo wants to pitch she needs to be on a team where she'll get to. 6 pitchers is way too many for a 10U team, if they're all expecting pitching time. We have 5 but 2 are the clear 1 and 2, 1 is the clear #3, and the other 2 know they'll mostly be back up like if we get way up on a team. It was all communicated up front (with the usual work hard, earn a spot talk). Sounds like maybe the coach just needs to lay it out. If he wants to pitch every girl equally and your daughter really loves pitching, it may not work out on that team.

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Feb 4, 2015
641
28
Massachusetts
DD is 8 turning 9 and has been playing for a 1st-yr 10U

The difficulty for her is that the girls on both teams are friendly and she likes all of them!
A few things to consider...

The new team is better (likely) because they're a 2nd year team. There is a lot of growth from 1st year to 2nd year 10U's and your 1st year team may get there as well.

She's only 9. Are you ready to move to 12U in another year? Because the 2nd year team will move up. So if you're not ready to move up too, you'll be looking for a new team again in a year.

Most softball girls and friendly and awesome! Your DD will have to leave many teammates along her journey, but will always have them as friends. Sometimes she can stay together, and sometimes she needs to follow her own path.

You wrote that she only pitched because they needed a pitcher. Your first decision was not to pitch to focus on position play and hitting. This is still a valid approach and you've not invested years and years into pitching. Let the others pitch, and maybe she'll also get more field time in the process. That's unless she's got the bug and wants to stay with it of course.

There's no right or wrong, just have to consider pros and cons and go with it. There will be many bigger decisions to make in the future and this won't matter in 3-4 years.
 
Dec 8, 2015
249
18
Philadelphia, PA
I will concur with another poster, the difference between 1st year 10u and 2nd year 10u is night and day. Last year our 1st year 10u team won 4 games all year, this year we've won 5 of our first 6 and have beaten 3 teams that beat us last year (the kids from the other teams aged up).

As to your pitching question, I think on my DDs 10u team every kid is a pitcher. For the Fall leagues I don't mind much if the coach splits the circle time evenly. You need to see how kids handle pressure in games...live batters, teams cheering, parents yelling, base runners stealing. There are some kids who hit every spot in practice and then throw the ball all over the place in games. Pressure does different things to different people. By the time tournament season starts it should be pretty apparent which kids are the top 3 or 4.
 
Apr 11, 2016
133
28
Thanks everyone. Based on your feedback, the 2nd team definitely is the way to go. Now I just have to convince hubby. For years, her private coaches have been suggesting that she plays up. She can definitely move to 12U with the new team next year. The only reason we held her back 'til now was her height. She is only 4'2", so we want to make sure physically she can play against bigger players. We've been focusing on her footwork and speed (she loves being the fastest kid on the team despite her height), to avoid getting injured by hard hits.
 
Last edited:
Dec 8, 2015
249
18
Philadelphia, PA
Thanks everyone. Based on your feedback, the 2nd team definitely is the way to go. Now I just have to convince hubby. For years, her private coaches have been suggesting that she plays up. She can definitely move to 12U with the new team next year. The only reason we held her back 'til now was her height. She is only 4'2", so we want to make sure physically she can play against bigger players. We've been focusing on her footwork and speed (she loves being the fastest kid on the team despite her height), to avoid getting injured by hard hits.

This will give you some prospective of her 1st team, and that's why I am leaning toward the new team. Yesterday they played 2 games. First game against another 1st-year 10U team, one of our pitchers stepped up, and by the end of 3rd inning, DD's team was winning 8-5. The coach had a decision to make-use a pitcher who was consistent or use a wild-card. He decided for DD to pitch, and she gave up no runs, winning the game.

The 2nd game was against a 2nd-yr 10U team. We were the away team. Our first pitcher stepped up, and by top of 2nd inning we were winning 2-1. You'd think he'd use a pitcher who's proven to not give up runs (a.k.a, DD). Instead, he pitched his daughter (since she didn't pitch in the first game.) She pitched mostly balls, including hitting 2 batters. She was near tears and instead of pulling her out, she finished the inning by giving up 5 runs. Top of 3rd inning, score was 5-6, and he decided to use the last pitcher in the rotation who has been 50/50. She started giving up lots of walks. Again, instead of pulling her out and putting DD in, he let her finish, giving up another 6 runs (last pitch was so wild it gave up 2 runs). Game over after 3 innings since our 2 pitchers used up most of the game time, and we lost 5-12. If he pulled the struggling pitchers out, we actually would have a chance to beat a very good 2nd-yr 10U team. If DD is struggling, I'd want him to pull her out so she could regroup. I understand it is the fall, but I heard the assistant coach said they've already written off 1st year as a loss. That's great, except we are a travel team and we'd be spending a lot of money to not win.

I read your post and I fear you may be a bit caught up in winning. It's 10u. Winning is nice, but you should put development first. Go to the pitching forum and I'm sure you'll hear more than one person tell you that the #1 stud at 10u usually isn't the #1 at 14u, 16u or 18u. With the way age divisions are set up, kid who are born late in the year are sometimes playing against kids who are 2 or 3 years older than they are. At 10u, that difference is HUGE but the older you get the more equally developed the players become and the physical advantages go away. It's a marathon, not a sprint. When you make your decision, don't sacrifice some short-term wins for some long-term development.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
Having just finished up first year 10U, I completely agree re wins and losses. Our coach in the spring said right up front we'd mostly lose, due to playing mostly second year 10U teams. My DD got to pitch against some of the best batters in the state. We won very little, but she grew a ton as a player and a pitcher.

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