- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Aww. Mine was 5 when she started, almost 6. It was so cute. Playing in the dirt and chasing butterflies in the outfield. I could never have imagined where this journey would take us.
Last edited:
Metro Atlanta Coaches/Parents: Question for you
- Thread starter CMMom1740
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
I am in Atlanta and can give you a lot of info. My DD is an 04, has played 2 years of travel so this is her 1st year of 12U. I have kept my eye on the top 04 teams to get an idea of who came out on top and who pretty much dropped to the bottom. Now since we are transitioning to 1st year 12U, it will be a more challenging since our girls are moving back the pitching so with that, you never know what the 1st year 12U will end up looking like. I can't really advise on 2nd year 12U teams, you would need to just go to Game Changer and start looking at stats. The big orgs are going to be Bullets, Vipers, and Impact in almost every age group and these are all A levels. There are also smaller orgs in the area making some noise now which is good. There are a ton of mid-high B teams that are pretty awesome too and could give the A's a run for it on any given day. If you have any questions, send me a PM.
I like your assessment, but if you're ''pretty awesome,'' wouldn't that make you an A team? Or are you saying that Georgia is so deep that many teams that play B are surprisingly strong? I would say that's certainly true.
In Georgia, unlike many states I have learned, there are no hard definitions that segregate A and B teams.
My observations of playing in this area are that there are usually 2-3 complete A teams at each level in 10s and 12s, and then maybe a few more in 14s. Haven't gotten to 16s yet so don't know. What I mean by complete is they can put 9 on the field without any weakness. If they lost their best player to injury or leaving the team they would still be one of the best. Then you have about 3-4 teams with 75% A players and the rest strong B's. They will have a hole somewhere, whether it's defense, a few weak batters, no pitching depth, etc. These teams can beat the top teams on any given day, but will struggle to beat more than one of them in a tournament. These teams can also fall fast as the stronger teams will do everything they can to poach their best players off them and they have a hard time replacing them.
And then you have some teams that want to be A teams or run with them that just can't. Usually started by a parent or group of parents that felt slighted by one of the top teams and wants to give their kid more playing time. These are the teams advertising "we are an A team and will play the best. Still need 4 players - ace pitcher, #2 pitcher, SS, catcher" or something to that affect two weeks into the season. But for some reason, either coaches insistence or org mandates, they play best-of-the-best week in and week out, usually playing the minimum number of games unless they play in a lower level tournament. Some of the tier two orgs are forming these these teams left and right.
And then there are quite a few B teams that are where they need to be. They will challenge themselves a few times each year, playing the big tournaments with the big names.
But you also have a small group of teams that could play hang with the lower A's and win against the B's. They won't win any tournaments with big names there, but could pull of an upset or two and go deeper than most in a bracket. But they would rather win trophies against the C's.
(wow, I'm becoming too cynical for this...
)
And then you have some teams that want to be A teams or run with them that just can't. Usually started by a parent or group of parents that felt slighted by one of the top teams and wants to give their kid more playing time. These are the teams advertising "we are an A team and will play the best. Still need 4 players - ace pitcher, #2 pitcher, SS, catcher" or something to that affect two weeks into the season. But for some reason, either coaches insistence or org mandates, they play best-of-the-best week in and week out, usually playing the minimum number of games unless they play in a lower level tournament. Some of the tier two orgs are forming these these teams left and right.
And then there are quite a few B teams that are where they need to be. They will challenge themselves a few times each year, playing the big tournaments with the big names.
But you also have a small group of teams that could play hang with the lower A's and win against the B's. They won't win any tournaments with big names there, but could pull of an upset or two and go deeper than most in a bracket. But they would rather win trophies against the C's.
(wow, I'm becoming too cynical for this...
)
My observations of playing in this area are that there are usually 2-3 complete A teams at each level in 10s and 12s, and then maybe a few more in 14s. Haven't gotten to 16s yet so don't know. What I mean by complete is they can put 9 on the field without any weakness. If they lost their best player to injury or leaving the team they would still be one of the best. Then you have about 3-4 teams with 75% A players and the rest strong B's. They will have a hole somewhere, whether it's defense, a few weak batters, no pitching depth, etc. These teams can beat the top teams on any given day, but will struggle to beat more than one of them in a tournament. These teams can also fall fast as the stronger teams will do everything they can to poach their best players off them and they have a hard time replacing them.
And then you have some teams that want to be A teams or run with them that just can't. Usually started by a parent or group of parents that felt slighted by one of the top teams and wants to give their kid more playing time. These are the teams advertising "we are an A team and will play the best. Still need 4 players - ace pitcher, #2 pitcher, SS, catcher" or something to that affect two weeks into the season. But for some reason, either coaches insistence or org mandates, they play best-of-the-best week in and week out, usually playing the minimum number of games unless they play in a lower level tournament. Some of the tier two orgs are forming these these teams left and right.
And then there are quite a few B teams that are where they need to be. They will challenge themselves a few times each year, playing the big tournaments with the big names.
But you also have a small group of teams that could play hang with the lower A's and win against the B's. They won't win any tournaments with big names there, but could pull of an upset or two and go deeper than most in a bracket. But they would rather win trophies against the C's.
(wow, I'm becoming too cynical for this...
Excellent perspective. I will keep this post handy as we go through the season. I will be curious to see whether our team, advertised as high B/low A, competes at the advertised level. Only time will tell, I guess.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
I really can't wait to see how our team does. We do have a few strong B players IMO, but we have 12 total and the rest are very solid. And really the Bs are coming straight from rec and I think after more practices and a few tournaments they're going to be really solid as well. From my amateur perspective anyway.
Turns out we will be at the Atlanta Fastpitch Classic this weekend as well (in the "B" division). Looking forward to it!
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Remind me what team you went with? So I don't have to scroll back
We'll be there too, GA Force 06 Trost. So far we have beaten most of the B teams we've played (all but one and I'm not sure they were B in actuality - in the tournament where they beat us, twice, I think they had 3 runs scored on them the entire tourney) but none of the As. We're playing a couple of very good teams. Should be interesting. Our team is very solid but definitely inexperienced next to these 05, A level teams. I hope my dd will be pitching in at least one game, we'll see if her arm is still doing ok on Saturday. She gets to test things out tonight at practice.
The quickest way for your DD to improve is to PLAY teams that are better than yours, not necessarily to BE the best team.....being the #1 pitcher on an A/B team that plays in A-level tournaments is better experience than being the #3 pitcher on an A-level team.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Sooo true. My older DD plays rec baseball. Her team is pretty good. The core could probably convert to travel pretty seamlessly. So many of the games are so freaking boring, probably for the kids as much as the spectators. We've got a few teams that can compete but mostly, we stomp everybody. I don't think anybody on our team learns much. My younger one's softball team aspires to A ball. First year so ya know, we'll see. But we're playing A level tourneys mostly against experienced A level teams. Our first tourney ever - half our team never having played 10U at all and some brand new to travel period- we played the team that won the whole thing our 4th game of the day. They beat us, 8-2. That was the winning team's closest game all day besides the championship (we were pretty proud of that!), and it was our girls' worst game of the day (they kind of fell apart). I feel like they got more out of that game than out of the 13-1 victory for sure. Though my DD pitched the 13-1 so it was my personal favorite
