Travel Team in Rec League Tournaments, why?

Softball scholar said:

Come on its 8U, really. Not much of a difference between 8U rec and 8U travel teams. If its 12U and above, and travel teams get into rec tournaments, then its trophy hunting.
Im always amazed that there's a 8U travel circuit anyway. I still think way to early for travel ball, and good way to burn the girls out. Your DD is 8, you got a long journey ahead and enjoy it. Don't get stressed over little stuff like this.

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IME there is a HUGE difference between 8U rec and 8U travel. Mine played both. I still remember our first tournament ever, in 8U All Stars. Our first game was against an experienced All Stars team, not even travel. You could definitely tell which was the rec team playing in their first ever tournament, and which was the 2nd year all stars team. Both coach pitch 8U.

They might be a travel team that belongs to a rec league also. We have girls from 3 different travel teams on our 14 u team.
They are all playing on the all star team.

We had an issue with two travel teams playing in a rec league for a couple of years. They wanted to enter the Babe Ruth national tourney, and you have to play in a Babe Ruth sanctioned league to be eligible. The last year there were only six teams in the league so we were scheduled to play each team three times. Two of the teams refused to play the travel teams after the first time they played, and I didn't blame them at all. The talent disparity was absurd.

We’re talking about 6 and 7 year olds yes?

They should be playing as much as they can so they can have FUN. The girls at that age just want to play and learn. The only ones who care about trophies are the parents.

I’ve coached this age and the idea of them being super serious travel teams is just laughable

Lozza said:

We’re talking about 6 and 7 year olds yes?

They should be playing as much as they can so they can have FUN. The girls at that age just want to play and learn. The only ones who care about trophies are the parents.

I’ve coached this age and the idea of them being super serious travel teams is just laughable

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All I'm saying is they had a girl at the plate batting right handed and after two pitches looked at our outfield shift alignment. She moved to bat left handed and promptly hit the ball 160+ feet on the fly over the fence for a HR.

The only reason for TB teams to play league is for pitchers and catchers to get reps. The process as a whole is painful to watch TB teams against Rec teams. Not a fan. Use this time to do meaningful softball training instead.