How many A level teams?

fuzzy2651 said:

Around here (Michigan), you can pretty much classify yourself however you want. Our org is strictly A, but have been in other orgs that had both A and B level teams. The downside is there are B teams which should really be playing A, but play down and trophy chase in the B level tournaments.

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This.... I guess it all depends on the state director's discretion (this goes for USA and USSSA) on where teams land. If your winning 42 straight games in "B" maybe you should be mandated to move up to "A".

Or a B team that goes .500+ against A teams on a regular basis.

Of course DD was on a team once that won a single tournament (1) and got moved to A. Solid B team but not close an A team.

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In Indiana, at least in my area there are 2 kinds of A teams.

There is the A team that plays 90% in state tournaments against other teams like themselves. They play your standard pool play into bracket type tournaments most weekends.

There is also the A team that plays mostly showcases and plays mostly out of state.

There might be one or two teams that do a mixture of both.

There are different types of "A" teams, and it will vary from region to region. The team I coached was classified "B". Heading into 18u, I wanted to move them to "A", but the parents were nervous about that. After discussion between the coaches and players, we decided to stay "B", but entered mostly showcase and open tournaments. The result was that nearly half of our opponents for the season were registered "A". For that particular season, we won nearly 90% of our games against other "B" teams and 65% of our games against "A" teams. All said, we didn't play the type of competition listed on that web site. We played in competitive tournaments throughout the mid-atlantic region (Virginia through PA), but wasn't playing at those top events. So while I considered our team "A" for our area, it was no better than "B" nationally and probably on the lower end of "B".

My goal has always been to win 60-65% of our games. In my opinion if we win less than that, we are playing above our level. If we win more than that, we need to play at more competitive events. For me it has always been about preparing our players for the next level, and you need to challenge yourself in order to do that. Last summer we technically could have played again at the 18u level, but IMO the girls proved all they needed to at that point. The ones that planned to play in college already had their decisions made. So we decided to play at the 23u level, picking up some other local college players to fill out our roster. How better to prepare for college ball than to play against current college players?

Orange Socks said:

I should have added. If your team is not anywhere on this list, your team is not an "A" team. You may think you can whip up on all the local so called "A" teams, but you need to play in the big tournaments to even be considered a real "A" Team. Same goes for Gold. If your team has not qualified for any Gold level tournaments, your team does not deserve that Gold status. So many of these "hittin' kitten" teams call themselves Gold and I just shake my head. Gold status was really reserved for the top tier 18U teams in an organization years ago and that was the team you strived to make.

Reminds me of the Star Bellied Sneetches. https://youtu.be/PdLPe7XjdKc

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I agree this is a good list and many of the A teams are represented. I would highly disagree that not being on the list makes you a B team. DD has played for the team currently #1 on your list and for a couple teams that aren’t even on it. All three of the teams were loaded with D1 commits. The Bullets had the most talent, but I’d put the two no name teams up against anyone in the country and we would have given them a good game. Many of these teams simply played in one of the bigger tournaments. That alone doesn’t make them A.

MNDad said:

I agree this is a good list and many of the A teams are represented. I would highly disagree that not being on the list makes you a B team. DD has played for the team currently #1 on your list and for a couple teams that aren’t even on it. All three of the teams were loaded with D1 commits. The Bullets had the most talent, but I’d put the two no name teams up against anyone in the country and we would have given them a good game. Many of these teams simply played in one of the bigger tournaments. That alone doesn’t make them A.

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Agreed. Our team doesn't travel outside Florida a whole lot because lots of the teams in the list (from Florida and nearby states) turn up in many of our events anyway and most of our players want to stay reasonably within local area for college. We are 8-8 against the top 200 teams in the list we played last year. We are absolutely an A team - just didn't spend the money to go to the big nationals and we didn't bother chasing qualification due to other goals.

MNDad said:

I agree this is a good list and many of the A teams are represented. I would highly disagree that not being on the list makes you a B team. DD has played for the team currently #1 on your list and for a couple teams that aren’t even on it. All three of the teams were loaded with D1 commits. The Bullets had the most talent, but I’d put the two no name teams up against anyone in the country and we would have given them a good game. Many of these teams simply played in one of the bigger tournaments. That alone doesn’t make them A.

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Agree. There are many teams out there that don't play in any of the tourneys that they consider for the rankings. They might win their state USA or USSSA but play in showcases instead of going to a big nationals. They also don't want to go to Colorado. There are some pretty mediocre "A" teams on that list that I have personally seen get smoked by teams that don't even know what PGF or Elite Select means.

Orange Socks said:

If you want to have a better idea of who the A teams are go to www.usclubrankings.com

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This is a good start but then again it really depends on where you play. Last summer we played in two events they count and finished well in both. A third event we finished 2nd in is being added to the count this year. There are teams ahead of us that never came close to a top ten finish (one was 65th at ASA Nationals) but because they got points from three or four events they are ahead of us. We will only play in one event this summer and unless we win PGF Nationals (Not happening as a first year 16U) we will fall way down in the rankings. It will not matter if we finish first at the Legacy, Scenic City, Bolts 5 Star, Alex Wilcox Classic, and our PGF Qualifier this ranking will not reflect it. If a team made a run through these type of tourneys and had a high finish at PGF they would easily be one of the top teams in the nation but this would not reflect it.

I also feel there are two different types of true A level teams. There are some really good teams with good athletes that play a more local schedule and then you have ones playing in all the big events. I have a good friend that coaches an 18U A team that plays smaller showcases and stays in a couple of states. He has every single girl committed or signed with the exception of one that just joined and one that is a junior. He built this team for girls that were more focused on smaller colleges and JUCO's so they play a schedule to be seen by them. He beats pretty much anyone around that are similar low A teams and competes well with teams that play nationally when they play them. DD picked up with him this fall and they beat a top 20 PGF team from last summer. If you split his girls up they could scatter among many of the top teams in the southeast. I think the only thing holding them back from being able to compete nationally is another pitcher or two.

spleen1015 said:

In Indiana, at least in my area there are 2 kinds of A teams.

There is the A team that plays 90% in state tournaments against other teams like themselves. They play your standard pool play into bracket type tournaments most weekends.

There is also the A team that plays mostly showcases and plays mostly out of state.

There might be one or two teams that do a mixture of both.

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This...totally agree...there is in state A best in your area and then national level A that can hang with the region/nation.

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My DD is on our orgs 12U Regional/State A team, but when we have played our orgs "National" A team in fall tourneys, it's always a 1 or 2 run game. Honestly, we could play the same tournaments as them and do fine, but we're a new team, so we get stuck as being "Regional"

Eric F said:

In So Cal, which is largely dominated by the structure of USA Softball, if you are a travel team (not part of a rec league), you are an "A" team. "B" and "C" are designations for rec leagues determined by the size of the league and the history of their level of competition in all-stars. Subsequently, the quality range of "A" teams is gigantic.

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orange socks said:

If you want to have a better idea of who the A teams are go to www.usclubrankings.com

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So having the DD on a So Cal travel team in the top 20 on those national rankings lists would mean she's on an A team? Was curious what people meant when they say A team or B team. I know her team did well in Colorado and could have done better at PGF but wasn't sure what made an A Team?
Top 20 on those lists? Top 50 on those lists?