Future of Summer Softball

Stop me if this hypothetical question has been posed before. Do you think the Summer softball season will ever change direction away from the 'weekend tournament model?' Let me explain my question a bit first... by Summer softball I mean anything from 18 and below not affiliated with school. And by 'weekend tournament model' what I'm referring to is what I assume most of us experience week in and week out going from one tournament to the next paying to park, stay, play, eat, etc. Are there areas of the country that do this differently? I know if I had a child playing baseball there are alternative options, but I have yet to see those in softball.

YoungBuck said:

Stop me if this hypothetical question has been posed before. Do you think the Summer softball season will ever change direction away from the 'weekend tournament model?' Let me explain my question a bit first... by Summer softball I mean anything from 18 and below not affiliated with school. And by 'weekend tournament model' what I'm referring to is what I assume most of us experience week in and week out going from one tournament to the next paying to park, stay, play, eat, etc. Are there areas of the country that do this differently? I know if I had a child playing baseball there are alternative options, but I have yet to see those in softball.

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It's an interesting question. I've not really thought much about it but my first reaction is that things will not change. Too many people are making too much money for it to change.

Around here they also have weekday leagues.

Part of this is the state's ASA requirement, that any Class B team be part of a league.

So, a lot of the local TB teams will play once a week in the Metro League. Weekdays during the summer, Sundays in the fall (because of school sports. Volleyball and XC girls can't play during the week).

So far none of the teams DD 3 has been on have joined these leagues, but she has guest played for several teams, and loved it.

The parents of her TB team asked the coach to join the local Metro League for next summer. That gives them an extra double header every week, and makes them eligible for the ASA Class B State Championship.

EDIT TO ADD:

It is actually very common for girls on teams that don't play league play to guest play. I think DD 3 once played against one of her TB teammates in a league game. The leagues are only B and C teams, but sometimes girls on A teams will guest play. That makes it interesting, esp. if it is a guest pitcher.

We have a weekday leaque, it changes a little bit year to year buto it looks like 14U will have 3 sepirate divisions based on ability level. They leave a lot of weekends open for the better divisions so they can play tourneys.

I'm in my 4th year of coaching a summer softball league in upstate NY. We're a 16U league (though you can play if you're 17 as long as you turned 17 during the school year.) We're not school affiliated, play only from the end of June through the end of July, but we are a league that has grown from 6 teams in 2014 to 10 teams last year and projected to have more this coming season. We only play M/W/F nights with an end-of-season playoff tournament, but it's been a great experience to coach these girls for my first softball coaching opportunity.

We start our practices during the HS Softball season, that way I can help improve on their skills for their season while working on things for my season. We practice 2 times a week until the season starts. The girls enjoy it because it keeps them competitive and active, and my girls especially (having started 1-8-1, then 0-9, to 5-7 last year) see the progression in us as a team and have really come together for a purpose of success and helping the team grow. I'm hoping we can make this year our first winning season - it would truly reflect on the girls' efforts to want a winning team (especially when their HS softball teams do miserably from April-May).

An alternative that you see many highly competitive teams do are round robin "friendly" events.

A coach of a team will reach out to other coaches of teams with similar skill levels, usually 3-5 teams total. They will secure a field (often times a high school field), schedule umpires (around $50 per game) and play a one day round robin. There are no gate fees, no parking fees, no tournament fees, no concession stands, etc. The costs of the umpires are split between the participating teams. Bring your own coolers, food, and lawn chairs. Of course there is no $5 plastic trophy awarded at the end, but usually plenty of good competition and fun.

knightsb said:

An alternative that you see many highly competitive teams do are round robin "friendly" events.

A coach of a team will reach out to other coaches of teams with similar skill levels, usually 3-5 teams total. They will secure a field (often times a high school field), schedule umpires (around $50 per game) and play a one day round robin. There are no gate fees, no parking fees, no tournament fees, no concession stands, etc. The costs of the umpires are split between the participating teams. Bring your own coolers, food, and lawn chairs. Of course there is no $5 plastic trophy awarded at the end, but usually plenty of good competition and fun.

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I love doing these. We will ask one of the parents to bring a grill and then make hot dogs for all teams involved. We ask the other teams to bring some food as well making it an event for everyone. Good softball. Good times. What else do you need? Our model is typically 3 teams playing 2 games each in round robin style.

Love the round robin type tournament weekends. Still good games, and competition, but not the cut throat win at all cost type of crap going on like a normal tournament. One team near us we played so much in a league (back in DDs 12u/14u days) and always seemed to meet up at tournaments. We played several of the round robins with them and other teams, and the girls started becoming friends. Well our organization was having an end of the year pool and water slide party, and some of the girls approached the coaches and asked if they could invite the Lady Roughnecks players too. We ended up inviting the entire other org to our party. Best part was the girls came up with it on their own.

These informal things can be fun, and also a lot less expensive for the girls.

Friendly scrimmages usually involve the teams paying for umpires and whatever field rental there may be.

DD 3 played in a summer league and a fall league last year.
For the summer league, she was a guest player filling in for an injured player, so no $ was required.
For the fall league, she had to pay $25 for her share of the team expenses, and $15 for a t-shirt to wear during the games.

I also like the tournaments where the girls all play the same number of games, either RR or seeded pairings.

( played chess in HS, so all the tournaments were a fixed number of games, but the winners would play the winners and the losers would play the losers. If you won you played a stronger opponent the next game, if you lost you played a weaker opponent, except for the round robins.

AN example of this was a 1-day 3 game tournament DD 3 played in Iowa last year.

They had 8 teams, 3 rounds.

They won the first round, so they played against a team that won their first round. Losers went to a losers' bracket.
They won their second round, so they played the last game against the other 2-0 team. The 1-1 teams all played other 1-1 teams, and the 0-2 teams played each other for last place.

Finally, they won their last game, so 3-0 and winners. All the other 7 teams got to play 3 games as well.

As I said, I like tournaments where the kids get to play a fixed number of games. How many times have you traveled a long distance for an early game on Sunday, only to have to turn around and go home after the game?