- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Thought I'd share our experience with this yesterday. We went knowing she would not likely be chosen (she's a late 06 still playing 10U; it's a 12U tryout and she looked very small!). We went thinking it would be a fun experience like USA Elite Select was. It was definitely not the USA Elite Select level, with the Pride players there and all the advanced evaluation. Really, not even close.
Almost everyone running the tryout seemed to be associated with one particular large mid-level organization around here. I will be very surprised if at least half the team isn't chosen from their organization. The bias was pretty clear even just watching the tryouts. But maybe I'll end up having misread that. It could just be the comfort level of the coaches knowing those girls. There was almost no information provided about what to expect. They did not even say on the site where you signed up that an ASA number was required to try out. DD has one but her teammate did not, so she went for nothing and was not allowed to try out. After registering, there was zero communication. Not even a "Thanks for registering, we'll see you there." So we just sort of went into it blind, knowing what time it started and that was about it.
At the beginning they gathered the girls to talk to them. They were talking about things like lodging and fundraising. I'm thinking, the kids are 10-12. They do not care about lodging and fundraising. Why are we talking about this? Let an extra person give that talk to the parents while the kids are trying out. I didn't see a single radar gun anywhere for pitchers, exit speed, throwing speed, etc. We ended up being there 4.5 hours (!!!!) and we even left before it was completely over. DD had finished the actual tryout part, and we decided we really didn't need to stay around and see what they had to say at the end. We were definitely not the only ones to do that. It was a school night, and it was pushing 9 when we left. Registration started at 4. The whole thing felt a bit thrown together and disorganized.
The plus: it was free. If I'd paid for that, I'd not be very happy. I don't think we're going to get any info on the results besides yes or no, because they didn't really measure much in any objective way. It strikes me that this will vary from state to state; it seems much less centrally organized. We aren't going to go back for the 2nd one.
Almost everyone running the tryout seemed to be associated with one particular large mid-level organization around here. I will be very surprised if at least half the team isn't chosen from their organization. The bias was pretty clear even just watching the tryouts. But maybe I'll end up having misread that. It could just be the comfort level of the coaches knowing those girls. There was almost no information provided about what to expect. They did not even say on the site where you signed up that an ASA number was required to try out. DD has one but her teammate did not, so she went for nothing and was not allowed to try out. After registering, there was zero communication. Not even a "Thanks for registering, we'll see you there." So we just sort of went into it blind, knowing what time it started and that was about it.
At the beginning they gathered the girls to talk to them. They were talking about things like lodging and fundraising. I'm thinking, the kids are 10-12. They do not care about lodging and fundraising. Why are we talking about this? Let an extra person give that talk to the parents while the kids are trying out. I didn't see a single radar gun anywhere for pitchers, exit speed, throwing speed, etc. We ended up being there 4.5 hours (!!!!) and we even left before it was completely over. DD had finished the actual tryout part, and we decided we really didn't need to stay around and see what they had to say at the end. We were definitely not the only ones to do that. It was a school night, and it was pushing 9 when we left. Registration started at 4. The whole thing felt a bit thrown together and disorganized.
The plus: it was free. If I'd paid for that, I'd not be very happy. I don't think we're going to get any info on the results besides yes or no, because they didn't really measure much in any objective way. It strikes me that this will vary from state to state; it seems much less centrally organized. We aren't going to go back for the 2nd one.
