- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
We started in 9U with travel as well. It was FUN. The parents were pretty chill, the tournaments and games were fun and mostly pretty relaxed. In 10U things got crazy.
Tryout Season (aka Silly Season)
- Thread starter CMMom1740
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
We started in 9U with travel as well. It was FUN. The parents were pretty chill, the tournaments and games were fun and mostly pretty relaxed. In 10U things got crazy.
Top_Notch
Screwball
- Dec 18, 2014
- 522
- 63
My DD started travel at 8U. Her first 4 years were spent on the same team with the same core of 8 girls. These girls were like sisters by the end. For various reasons, DD has moved on, but there are still 5 together on the same team for next year! At that age I think to just make sure the parents are good and the coaches teach your daughter. They are so fresh at that age that they'll need to learn just about everything. It wasn't until 12U that we thought the coaching may have been less than what we were looking for along with not everybody having the same goals in softball as we did, so that is why we switched. Still friendly with most of the group, but I think some are mad at us for leaving. I've found that in time, those wounds will heal too.
Now school has been back 2-3 weeks, we have entered the 'desperate' phase of tryouts locally. Teams are starting to look for bodies versus players. Coaches are living in hope that a miracle pitcher will turn up or that they can wait it out until some other team's parent's crack under the pressure of 'not having enough' and give them a call.
What the coaches should be doing is merging teams - but of course they all have around 8 players so that makes a merged team's roster 15 or 16 and too large or they have to leave someone out... and they probably still don't have pitching. Oh and their egos are getting in the way.
What the coaches should be doing is merging teams - but of course they all have around 8 players so that makes a merged team's roster 15 or 16 and too large or they have to leave someone out... and they probably still don't have pitching. Oh and their egos are getting in the way.
- Jul 16, 2018
- 120
- 18
- Apr 16, 2013
- 1,113
- 83
The plus, I'm able to peruse my local boards and find out what teams NOT to try out for next season.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Sooo true. My DH head coached our DD's team last year (not by choice, really) and he tried to combine with a couple of different teams. He was even fine not being the head coach, which he didn't really want to do in the first place. He was happy to assist and let them take the lead. Nobody ever wants to do it. It's like even bringing in an assistant coach they don't know well, along with players they didn't hand pick, is giving up too much control. There were a couple of teams that, with our top and their top, could've been really good. But none of the coaches seem to want to do it. It's like it's admitting failure to them or something. To me it just seems logical - if you've got 2 teams with 6 really good players, and the opportunity to join with 5 or 6 other really good players, why would you rather scramble around desperately for a bottom 6 instead? Makes no sense to me.
It seems as if they'd rather muddle through the season pissing off parents, getting blown with subs and pick ups, and then when those 6 core players leave the following season they don't understand why. I'm still seeing teams around here advertising they're still looking for a starting pitcher. Gonna be a loooong season for them.
- Jul 14, 2018
- 982
- 93
The dreaded coach's ego. We've got two local teams that folded the first week of August. They were good teams -- solid players, happy families, always competitive. In both cases, they were looking to fill 3-4 spots and when the coaches didn't like the quality of the players who showed up to tryouts they just walked away from their teams. Heaven forbid they should have to spend some time on development or lose a few games. They left a number of families scrambling to find a place to play.
- Nov 18, 2013
- 2,258
- 113
And it always works out so well picking up girls with disgruntled parents that quit their current teams year after year.
Me too. One team in particular that I'm aware of is still searching for an "elite" pitcher throwing high 50's and an "elite" catcher with consistent pop time below 2.0 seconds. And they WILL play the tippy-toppest A schedule. Um, not without an ace pitcher and a starting catcher, you won't.
