Importance of name of organization

I agree that having coaches with connections is very important. My daughter is only 12u so not really that worried yet but am fortunate to have put her with a hitting and pitching coach that is well connected. The best part is that even at her young age her coach talks to her about mentally preparing to play at the next level. My daughter says now that she wants to play in college but as we all know little girls and big girls can change their minds like the wind.

Every college coach we have spoken to or listened to a recruiting seminar will tell you "If they are great players, we will find them." They have all assured us parents that it doesn't matter what the name on the front of her jersey says. But here is what I have found as we get older: It flat-out does matter. Go and look at the Bios for P5 D1 players. Any roster. Most of them, especially freshmen, have their travel ball organization listed (at least the ones I have looked at). They all come from big name teams. They are coming from Bullets, Vipers, Impact, Firecrackers, Impact Gold, Batbusters, Birmingham Thunderboltz, these kinds of big organizations. (Just realized this list of TB organizations shows I am talking about the south mostly) Sure, you can find the occasional player that doesn't have a team listed (which I assume means it wasn't a large name organization). But if she wants to play at a P5 D1 school, she has a better chance of being seen and recruited if she plays for a high level organization. And I hear about girls who are in the middle of recruiting with schools where the coach TELLS them to get on a bigger name team so they get exposed to the highest level of competition. Of course, if you have a coach with contacts no matter what jersey you wear you will be able to get seen. But these organizations have a long time relationship with many college coaches and those coaches know that they are turning out quality ball players.

Just my two cents. And FWIW, my daughter is not a player in ANY of the organizations mentioned above.

gamommax3 said:

Every college coach we have spoken to or listened to a recruiting seminar will tell you "If they are great players, we will find them." They have all assured us parents that it doesn't matter what the name on the front of her jersey says. But here is what I have found as we get older: It flat-out does matter. Go and look at the Bios for P5 D1 players. Any roster. Most of them, especially freshmen, have their travel ball organization listed (at least the ones I have looked at). They all come from big name teams. They are coming from Bullets, Vipers, Impact, Firecrackers, Impact Gold, Batbusters, Birmingham Thunderboltz, these kinds of big organizations. (Just realized this list of TB organizations shows I am talking about the south mostly) Sure, you can find the occasional player that doesn't have a team listed (which I assume means it wasn't a large name organization). But if she wants to play at a P5 D1 school, she has a better chance of being seen and recruited if she plays for a high level organization. And I hear about girls who are in the middle of recruiting with schools where the coach TELLS them to get on a bigger name team so they get exposed to the highest level of competition. Of course, if you have a coach with contacts no matter what jersey you wear you will be able to get seen. But these organizations have a long time relationship with many college coaches and those coaches know that they are turning out quality ball players.

Just my two cents. And FWIW, my daughter is not a player in ANY of the organizations mentioned above.

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What the college bios don’t say is what organization the girls were with when they committed. When teams like the Bullets need a player they’ll look at the committed list on Flo and if the girl is from a team they never heard of they’ll go after her. Some college coaches will encourage players to join a particular organization so they get the coaching they want and can keep a close eye on them. There’s also players who commit D1 with the no name org and discover they’re better off playing with girls they’ll see at their college level.

As for “If you’re good they’ll find you”, I agree, total BS. You won’t get discovered unless the player and parents make it happen either by joining a team that plays in the top tourneys or do the leg work themselves to get noticed by coaches.

According to a very well respected local travel coach who went from one good organization to one that is slightly more well known, it matters a lot. He told me they get better fields at showcases, better pool draws in some tournaments, and more people pick up their phone if he calls to tell them that Sally Sue is a really good player they should look at (colleges and JC's are whom he was talking about). He also said that newer organizations can convince people they should pay attention to them if they have the right coaches, as reputations and connections will follow the coach. Having said all that, at the younger ages I really don't think it matters a lot (FWIW, he wasn't saying get on a big-name organization at 10 or 11 either). If your DD has the talent to be considered for D1 schools at 14, plenty of coaches will find you for a 14U team.

MNDad said:

What the college bios don’t say is what organization the girls were with when they committed. When teams like the Bullets need a player they’ll look at the committed list on Flo and if the girl is from a team they never heard of they’ll go after her. Some college coaches will encourage players to join a particular organization so they get the coaching they want and can keep a close eye on them. There’s also players who commit D1 with the no name org and discover they’re better off playing with girls they’ll see at their college level.

As for “If you’re good they’ll find you”, I agree, total BS. You won’t get discovered unless the player and parents make it happen either by joining a team that plays in the top tourneys or do the leg work themselves to get noticed by coaches.

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I completely agree with this. They may find them with the Purple Koozies travel organization (totally made up, hope that isn't a real TB org out there!) and tell them to go and play with the SoCal Athletics to see better competition. Also, the pool of players dwindles as they get older and sometimes the "big names" are about all that is left out there playing at a high level once you hit 18u.

Bottom line is this: own your recruiting journey! Be your own advocate. Contact coaches you want to possibly play for on your own. And find a coach/instructor/recruiting coordinator with good connections to back you up on your journey. This is what we are trying to do with my 8th grader. Just starting this journey really. So take what I say with a grain of salt!

Recently my DD made a switch to a big organization from an up and coming org. She wasn't playing on the "premier" team from the previous org, which seems to do well with getting girls to big time programs. I am being totally honest when I say it DEFINITELY HELPS! I am not saying you can't make it if you do not play on one of the big org's "premier" teams...... not everyone on the big org's team will make it to a P5 you still have to have what they are looking for. My DD hasn't even played a single game with her new team and she has college coaches contacting her new coaches for information on her. Coaches are liking her posts on social media and so on which has never happened before. The other night she was at a clinic for a top 15 team and they were on her like stink on ####. My DD has never contacted this school before. When she got there they already knew a lot about her even though this was a very last minute decision to attend and didn't even have time to send out an email but the new coach contacted them. While at the hitting clinic she did well but nothing near her best but she got the benefit of the doubt which I believe was mainly because of what was stamped on her jersey. I have seen her have much better performances at other camps where she got ignored, while she was with the other org, due to the coaches being glued to girls who didn't perform very well IMO but played for a big org on a great team. By the time the camp was over they asked her to stay afterwards to talk. I believe that the coach indirectly made an offer but DD didn't bite on his remarks. The funny thing about it is that my DW said that even some of the parents at the clinic showed my daughter favoritism. So yes from my experience what org/team you play for carries a lot of weight.

gamommax3 said:

And I hear about girls who are in the middle of recruiting with schools where the coach TELLS them to get on a bigger name team so they get exposed to the highest level of competition. Of course, if you have a coach with contacts no matter what jersey you wear you will be able to get seen. But these organizations have a long time relationship with many college coaches and those coaches know that they are turning out quality ball players.

Just my two cents. And FWIW, my daughter is not a player in ANY of the organizations mentioned above.

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My daughter and I use to joke that we need to buy an used jersey of one those big name travel organizations and wear them when she went to camps. We would see at the camps how the coaches were chasing the girls who were from big travel organizations.

When my daughter was offered at a big P-5 school, the coach told her she need to play against better competition. I asked the coach that if she wanted our team to play in these big tournaments. Coach said "you can always guest." I asked her how do we do that, and the coach said "we will take care of that, travel ball coached are always calling us and asking for players."