Potential Team Implosion and Next Steps

The good old pitcher shuffle. Happens everywhere. Would be curious how those 2 pitchers fare. Some times they get sold on a more elite organization, but end up being the 3rd or 4th pitcher and not actually pitching much. And sometimes the parents still drink the koolaide about the big name and stay on, with further baiting by the org, your daughter will be showcased more next season, we see her really developing....

But it's reality and probably time to at least look around.

Unless I am sorely mistaken the vast majority of colleges don't give a rat's rear about 99.99% of middle school players.

Niece is getting noticed now, she is sophomore. Needs to be nice.

CMMom1740 said:

He never specifically said "we'll play at these showcases (then naming them)" He handed us our Fall schedule only back in August and then it was "we'll take stock for spring later." He was always clear about trying to qualify for Kansas City and/or Orlando: "We will play the most competitive tournaments that make sense." I personally never pushed him about showcases b/c DD is only in 7th grade and that stuff is all new to us. I don't really think he went back on his word about anything, but I can see how others might think he was "overselling" (e.g., casually mentioning that we might do x, y, and z and then those things didn't happen). B/c pitcher's Dad is pretty intense, I'm sure he asked more specific schedule questions than I did back in the summer and maybe he felt that those promises were not kept.

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Tell your pitcher's dad that the WFC was crawling with college coaches from across the nation last year in Kansas City. Go to the website and look at the list of colleges that attended last year.


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Oh geez, because things can never be easy around here, we took DD to an orthopedist to have her shoulder checked out. It's been bugging her for quite some time and getting worse. He diagnosed her with rotator cuff and bicep tendinitis and she's restricted from throwing for 6-8 weeks. That's going to make the whole potential tryout thing impossible. Guess we just have to sit back and wait now.

Joseph Sciara said:

Tell your pitcher's dad that the WFC was crawling with college coaches from across the nation last year in Kansas City. Go to the website and look at the list of colleges that attended last year.


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Gotta be careful if the coach is trying to qualify for the WFC or USSSA World Series. Huge difference. One is the best teams in the country and the other is mostly B teams.

CMMom1740 said:

Oh geez, because things can never be easy around here, we took DD to an orthopedist to have her shoulder checked out. It's been bugging her for quite some time and getting worse. He diagnosed her with rotator cuff and bicep tendinitis and she's restricted from throwing for 6-8 weeks. That's going to make the whole potential tryout thing impossible. Guess we just have to sit back and wait now.

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Hope your DD gets well soon!
It's very important to do your due diligence before accepting an offer. And even after you do, like in your case things can go sideways.
People gave me some grief in a different thread when I said we like the big name organization better. I can tell you this much, there are a dozen teams in our area looking for pitching. 4 of them are "A" teams. In my opinion you can't really be an "A" team if you are begging on message boards for girls to pitch. Our pitchers know that you put the work in or you don't play. It's a positive pressure and the tone is set by the coaches.

Some kids and parents can't handle that. Coaches have list of girls who tried out and would come with a simple phone call. That's A level ball. My DD played B level ball and last year in an A level team that was A by name only.
There is huge difference. Go to a full practice, watch the coaches more than the players. If you can figure out who the coaches kid is without being told don't join that team.
Does the team have legacy of success or just the promise of great kids and parents?
Great kids are nice but great kids with a higher level of talent are better.

It's like a marriage, you and the team must have shared goals or it won't work. When my DD played B level ball we had zero misconceptions that her team would win PGF nationals. Having realistic expectations makes those long days in the blazing heat much more bearable.

As you said you're probably locked in for now unless you can reach out to a team your DD may have turned down this tryout season to see if they have a spot.
Come spring more teams will be looking.
Good luck and know you're not alone!

The issue with A is that we had was more about the coaching than having to work to compete. DD loved playing with other girls who could push her. We had negative experiences with the coaching twice. Both teams were miserable, both teams fell apart so it wasn't just us. I'd love to get our current team up to A level; great coaching AND the higher level of competition would be awesome. I've found it's very difficult to evaluate coaching in advance. So often they say all the right things, then a few tournaments in you realize what they say and do are different things entirely. I can see red flags in retrospect, but we seem to miss them in the early days.

What is A level? If there are 100 teams playing 12U in an area, how many are A? How many are B?

CoogansBluff said:

What is A level? If there are 100 teams playing 12U in an area, how many are A? How many are B?

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My DD was on an "A" team and they couldn't beat the All Star team that I coached. In all fairness, we were pretty good. The difference between an A and B team can be 2 or 3 players and 2 of them will be the pitchers.

Orange Socks said:

My DD was on an "A" team and they couldn't beat the All Star team that I coached. In all fairness, we were pretty good. The difference between an A and B team can be 2 or 3 players and 2 of them will be the pitchers.

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I guess what I'm fishing for is the invitation to say I don't believe in A and B teams. Softball teams live on the bell curve. We could chop off the top 10 percent and call that A, but that 11 percent team is just as close to the 10 percent as 12 is to 11. There is no convenient dividing point for A and B. Maybe just a pet peeve of mine. But I would never say I'm moving from a B team to a A team, or vice-versa. All you're really doing is going to a better team, or worse, or a much better team, or much worse. The dividing point is not there. It's a unicorn.

I agree w/ your post, btw, that you can go from, say, top 30 to top 12 with those additions. I'm just don't think there are any true boundaries that can be identified.