Tournament Class A, B or C, etc?

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I am involved with a rec league. Our league has no superstars. We entered our first tournament last year and got clobbered. While our girls had fun, we were no competition for any of the teams we played. So, I am wondering if someone could point out what class we should be entering. This is strictly a casual thing for our girls. We have a 10U, 12U and 14U team.

Thanks, Mike
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
If you are entering a Rec. Team, not an all-star team, I think you are going to be in a little bit of trouble at any of the levels. You need to play at a C level and know you are going to take your lumps. If you can combine some teams or add a few pickup players you will be more competitive and might be able to win some games if your pitching is OK.
 
Thanks. I will look for local C level tourneys. It's not so much the losing but the fact that we are getting clobbered. Looking back at my notes it appears that we entered an A level tourney - lesson learned. On a positive note, the girls did get to see how the really good players play and I think that has helped as they have gotten better.

Mike
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
Not sure where you are located, but in GA there is a sanction (GSA) that specializes in "C-level" and "all star" tournaments. The tournament director does his best to prevent teams from sandbagging, and he will redline a pitcher if she is significantly better than everyone else.
 

ArkFastpitch

Dont' I know you?
Sep 20, 2013
351
18
At the very least, If you can't find C level tourneys, find Open tourneys that host all classes. Chances are you will still struggle against the A and B class teams but should be able to play some C class teams in the same tourney for better competition.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
At the very least, If you can't find C level tourneys, find Open tourneys that host all classes. Chances are you will still struggle against the A and B class teams but should be able to play some C class teams in the same tourney for better competition.

This is great advice. Last year our "B" team entered an open tournament in the fall. They had two brackets after day one and had a gold champion and a silver champion. We took the silver award. It was nice to win the silver for our mostly 11 year old team. That said we would have had no chance against the "A" teams in the gold bracket.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
I would also check on softballtournaments.com. When I had a rec all-star team last year, we were able to find non-sanctioned tourneys (not run by USSSA, ASA, etc.) which were entered by mostly other rec all-star teams and some less competitive travel teams; and they were much less expensive - making it easier for our rec parents to be on-board with paying for them.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
I remember our first tournament in 8U. It was supposed to be an all stars tourney though some teams there were clearly full time travel. Hoo boy, we got clobbered too. I love the tournaments with a gold and silver division. Our all stars team won a silver 1st place once, it was awesome. Kids didn't care that if it had all been on division, we'd have probably placed about 5th. Doubt they even realized it. You just have to be careful about which ones you enter. I'd go with B/C tourneys, not A/B ones. My dd's on an A team these days and it is a whole different world. You probably want to stay away from tourneys that even allow A level teams to enter.
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
"Looking back at my notes it appears that we entered an A level tourney - lesson learned."

Ouch!!! Big difference between a rec team and an A level team. My dds team is what I would say is a middle level B team, and we usually get thumped pretty good by an A team.
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
When our 8U team played we mostly did local CAM tournaments, which are really B/C tournaments. But often if points were involved wherever we were playing the 06 Frost Falcons would come down and stomp everybody. We were low B IMO, and we were no exception to the stomping. It was always fun to look at the tournament list and before you even start, know you're competing for 2nd place at best. lol
 

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