Starting a 12U Travel softball team

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Mar 15, 2018
1
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I have a coach and assistant and almost enough girls to start a full team. What are the administrative steps for starting a travel team? How do we find practice fields?

Thanks for your help!
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
Everything is going to depend on what goes on in your local area. Find out who controls the local fields, then try to make a deal with them to use the fields on certain nights. If lights are needed, find out the cost and how you will be billed. Get insurance for the team through USA, PGF, NSA, etc. Buy uniforms or tell the kids how much they owe you for uniforms. Then, add helmets and bat bags if you want the team to match (not required but your team will be taken more seriously if you do). Get a bucket of balls or two, a few bownets, screens, bases (if the fields you are using don't come with them), find out what your team has to do to maintain the fields, buy a scorebook, find a parent who can score (this shouldn't be a problem), then come up with a set of team rules that everyone has to follow. Schedule a friendly or two to see what you have before scheduling any tournaments. Then, pray and hope that everyone pays the dues that they promised to pay.
It's a huge responsibility and I wish you the best.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
First of all, forget the practice field right now. You need to figure out a budget first and foremost. You need to figure in uniform costs a minimum of 2 shirts, 2 pants, 2 pair of socks, possibly a belt, bat bags/catcher's bags, batting helmets, sanctioning costs for the different sanctions you want to play tourneys under, insurance if you're not getting it through a sanction, costs for getting your coaches certified and background checked per sanction if required and facility fees if you can find a indoor facility if in a cold climate if you need one. Next, if you don't have at least 2 dozen good balls, a ball bucket and carrying case, a Bownet or equivalent, a god hitting tee, a quality first aid kit, athletic tape and underwrap, a foldable gardeners/sports wagon to carry it all in from field to field in between games, figure that in also. Last but not least, you'll need to find an outdoor practice field. Many local urban, township and local parks will give you a permit for a nominal fee. All you'll have to do then is schedule it. Many local school systems will let you use their fields for free with school board Approval and insurance on the players. If you have no luck with either of those, look towards your local veterans associations. A lot of them have Sb fields,,,some in more disrepair than others and some in perfect playing condition. We made a deal with the American Legion in the next small town over that we would maintain the field if they let us use it. We now use it for free and they absolutely love it because many of us go in for dinner and drinks after practice which increases their revenue. We also hold 4 team friendly's and many stay to eat afterwards. They love it so much that they're actually considering adding another field so that we can have small age specific tournaments during the season.

But in reality, there's even more to it than that. I gave you the practical side of it. If there's on piece of advice I can give you at this age (other than already mentioned) is to take on parents and not the players. By this I mean, you can teach the players their skills. However, you can never teach a disgruntled parent manners and tact...especially in today's societal climate.
 
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Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
Don't mean to sound snarky. Don't... You will be much better off trying to get your DD on an established team. Trying to start a new team without a full team and no to little experience is a recipe for disaster. As for practice facilities, inquiring with your local park district is a good place to start. If you need indoor facilities you'll have to do some searching. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

The amount of parent issues can be limitless. You don't have the backing of an established organization. That can make things difficult with tournaments and facilities. I'm willing to bet you don't have a good handle on the costs of running a team. There are soooo many things that happen off the field financially many people are caught off guard. Do you know what you are going to do with the team? What level will they play? Will they do any out-of-town tournaments? The costs can be $5K or they can be over $35K for a season for the last team I coached, and we didn't attend a national tournament because we were a 1st year 12U team.

I've been coaching for the last 14 years without a DD on the team. I know I would not try to form a brand new 12U team without any support from an organization. I've seen countless mommy/daddy teams come and go over the years. Some make it less than a season. Some until the DD ages out. If you have any good players on your team the strong and established teams will try and poach them. Heck, even the the not-so-strong teams will try and poach your best players.

Again, for your sanity and your DD's, work with her to make her the best she can be.
 
May 15, 2016
926
18
you can never teach a disgruntled parent manners and tact...especially in today's societal climate.

Amen to that. I wish coaches could tryout the parents before accepting the kids on the team. I am not joking. I wish the head of our organization had seen some of these parents on the sidelines of their daughter's previous team before accepting them onto the team my DDs play on.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
If you can find an organization it'll help. They can sometimes help with field time, budgeting, have resources for uniforms, etc. Just be very choosy. DH started head coaching this year, also 12U (after several years of involved AC'ing). He was sort of pushed into it, and he loves it, but it's also way more stress than we'd have guessed. The org we started with in fall was...well, let's say not a good fit. We switched and things are so, so much better with real support and good communication. Fall was pretty much a nightmare but spring is going much more smoothly. Others have laid out a lot of the things you will need to do. You also need to decide if you like having any free time at all, and how you feel about dealing with one adult drama after another. And we have mostly really great parents! It's not always the parents. It's been quite a wild ride so far.
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
A ton a great advise above... I did exactly what you're talking about doing. In hindsight, I'd have just joined an established program. I was offered HC opportunities with several well known programs, but I was fixed on starting a new team where I wouldn't have to follow orders or others peoples schedules. The advantages are much greater and your work load is much less (and cheaper) to either join an established team and offer to assist it, or possibly become the HC of an established program, and since you're new, it'd be that programs development or prospect team (they have their A team and you'd coach the new B team for example)
Team name recognition is HUGE when recruiting new players. Girls want to play for the "winning team" or at least a team name with a history of success. It took about 4 years of only getting sometimes sub par players to play with us, because the girls we really wanted, wanted to play for the big name teams. After 4 or 5 years, we finally had scrapped our way to the top and beat enough "big name teams" that we could recruit a higher caliber of player...
Its also cheaper to play tournaments with a program who has 3 or 4 different teams participating as they'll get a group discount. The program will lend you balls, nets, and will already have established relationships for field or indoor facility usage. Consider my advise...
 
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Jan 30, 2018
252
0
SE Michigan
I have a coach and assistant and almost enough girls to start a full team. What are the administrative steps for starting a travel team? How do we find practice fields?

Thanks for your help!

Please say you don't live in Southeastern Mi, there are already 500 "travel" teams already. It's like churches, they are on every corner and people still think they need to start their own (no offense to church goers).
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
We had a Team a few years ago that wanted to come as is under our organization, we would have made a few bucks but passed. A different organization picked them up.

Not supporting either decision but trying to hook up with an existing organization made sense to me.
 
Apr 20, 2017
152
28
I have a coach and assistant and almost enough girls to start a full team. What are the administrative steps for starting a travel team? How do we find practice fields?

Thanks for your help!

There has been some great information already posted and will try to add to it some. I started a 10u team last fall and had to figure it out myself. I know you asked about administrative steps but the first step is to really look at the players you have committed and see if you have the basic necessities. First and foremost do you have at least one quality pitcher that is game ready to compete. If you don’t have quality pitching nothing else really matters. You can’t win without it and you can’t recruit or get better players without winning. I see that as the biggest issue for start up teams. It takes a long time to develop good pitching and rarely a team can stay together long enough to develop it from scratch. If you have the pitching then the rest will be easy enough. One of the first things would be team insurance. Depending on your location and the association you will be playing with they should have a recommended insurer. But shop around some and find the right fit. Find a grass field or any location to get the girls together and start throwing the ball around and working on the basics. Let the parents and players talk to friends and possibly find a few more players interested. Also work on a budget with uniforms and other needed gear. Don’t go too cheap with just t shirt jerseys but don’t go all out with sublimated uniforms and all matching bags/ equipment to start. Whatever the budget you come up with add some to it. There are many small things that you don’t take into account and you either nickel and dime parents to death or end up paying it yourself. I would also recommend reaching out to some other coaches in your area and talk to them. Many coaches are doing this for the love of the game and the girls. So they can be very useful in your adventure and many are willing to help. They can help finding practice locations, advice, potential players and scrimmages.
One more thing. It’s not going to be all rosy or easy. Along the road you will make almost everyone mad including your own family. You can’t please everyone so don’t try. And my best advice is to remember that if you are the coach and taking the leap of faith to build it, remember that it is a dictatorship and not a democracy. At some point in time everyone will want things done their way and the more you go along with it the more control they try to have. Until you can’t take it anymore and you are ready to give it all up. Always listen to ideas or opinions but make the final decision on your own that you can live with. Then stock up on your favorite adult beverage. Lol
 

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