A year in the life of TB..

[JJsqueeze]

With this being tryout season, it is a time of new starts, I wanted to share our experience as we finished up our first season of 12UTB in case it lets anyone know that if they are dealing with drama/getting cut/having a bad experience, that they are not alone and things can take big turns.

My older DD is a pitcher and is getting pretty good. She is going into 2nd year 12s next spring and is steadily increasing in speed, she is hovering at 48-51 and just last month was a notch below that. I think if she continues on this arc she should be consistently low to mid 50s next year. Not crazy fast, but respectable. She has really good control and the CU is getting really good. Last fall she played on a 10u TB team as she used up her eligibility and did really well, we all liked the org and the team and the coach and it was a great experience. The coach took a look at her on the 2001 squad at a friendly last January, but she wasn't quite ready (I agreed with him) because they wanted to make a serious run at PGF (which they did).

So we went on our way into the thicket of Socal travel and had some adventures. First team lasted about 3 weeks because DD did not get any circle time despite being promised that she would be in the rotation (HC and ACs had pitching DDs). Not being a big fan of being handed BS and told it is caviar, I told the coach in no uncertain terms what I thought of him and we left.

So I soured on TB and just decided she would play rec and develop one more year. Then I got a text out of the blue from another team and he gave me a hard sell to have her join up....we guested at a friendly and gingerly stepped back into the pool. This coach kept his word and she was in the rotation and could hold her own. Got shelled sometimes but also pitched really well sometimes she showed a knack for keeping the ball in the infield and giving up very few walks. I would say that she was a middle of the road pitcher in the Socal 12u scene, a little slower than most at first but she kept the ball down zone so she was effective. During the end of the season things petered out a bit because she started to have some foot problems that we thought might be serious so we pulled her from practice for about a month to recover, get an MRI etc.

The foot problems turned out to be not so serious after a scare that she might need surgery. So she rejoined practice so she would be ready for the end of season world series (in our case it was USSSA). Just as she rejoined, the coach who recruited us was fired by the org because of a group of parents that constantly complained to the org about playing time, we looked to see how this was going to affect the team and quickly realized that it would not be a good fit any more and so we were part of the 4-5 girls that decided to leave the team due to the abrupt change, part loyalty to the coach, part just kind of being done.

So at that point I was done with the general lunacy of TB and was grateful and happy that she was invited to join the local 2001 all star team as they transitioned to 14U TB this fall and spring. I know the families the coaches and it is a really good fit. So her future was settled. She would play with this local team and grow with them and hopefully they mostly stick together and play on our HS team in the future. All good in the hood.

Then one of her teammates from the team that fired the coach showed up at PGF and pitched a little on the original team my DD had pitched for at 10U. I was stoked to see this and texted the dad telling him what a great choice he made in joining that team and how much I like the coach etc. and that he will have none of the drama we had on the team that split because this coach would fire the complaining parents in a heartbeat and doesn't have an org to answer to so no one can go over his head. I was really happy that they landed there because they are a good family and the kid is just one of those great all around young ladies.

All is still good in the hood. Until that coach emailed me and said that he wants to get both girls together and form a 2002 team around them. Now we have committed through the fall to a local team, but the ONE team that I think is the best fit also came a calling and wants to build a team around my daughter and this other great kid.

The fear I have is that my older daughter is not a baller. She is a good all around player who happens to have naturally taken to pitching pretty quickly and continues to progress. She has a decent bat, but I do not see her as a kid that can meet the expectations of being a foundational player for a team of the caliber (that 2001 team moving to 14s of his is fierce) I know the coach wants to put together. But at the same time this coach saw her pitching last year vs this year and thinks she has the goods to be where he wants her to be to make the run next year and he has a lot more experience than I do. He has never been one to blow smoke. If he wanted to do that he could have thrown her on that 2001 squad last year and collected my money but he told me she just wasn't ready yet.

Since they don't have a full squad yet, the 12s will work out with the 14s until the rest of the team takes shape and she will get her game time with the local team she is playing on, so there are no conflicts yet so she can do both for now, but by the end of November she will have to make a final decision.

At this point I am so gun shy that I want to keep her options open as much as possible so I told both coaches that she will be doing both for now and they are OK with it. If this 12U team doesn't take flight then she will continue with the local team or if after seeing her on a day to day basis the coach realizes that maybe he was too optimistic in his assessment of building a team around her. On the other hand, if she finds that she would like to use that last year of 12U eligibility up and she is doing well then maybe she finds herself on a great team with a great coach and gets to have a year of being more of a competitive pitcher before she goes back to 43 feet and starts over again.

I don't know how common this kind of experience is, but it is what our family experienced this year and how we came out the other end. Lotsa ups and downs, some good and bad surprises, but in the end still watching my little pony run around a field and enjoying every minute of it.

 

[FP26]

Thanks for sharing JJ. My DD has just completed her third year of TB, and we have had quite a roller coaster ride. She has had two outstanding seasons sandwiched around one miserable season. Not because of playing time or production, but because of the drama that so many other people talk about at DFP. What I decided after last year is to allow DD to be in control of the situation. It is not about me trying to find the perfect spot for her. It is about her finding a spot that makes her happy. I understand that there are many on here that are raising a future D1 athlete and must take that into consideration when selecting teams, but I doubt my DD will be at that level. Don't get me wrong, I think she is a good player, with a good head and a desire to work at becoming better. But she also likes to enjoy herself and not make a job out of this. DW and myself have decided to allow her to take that path. I do not begrudge anyone that travels the higher path focusing on the scholarship, and if DD decides she wants to pursue one, I will certainly do all I can to help her reach her goal. But for now, she wants to play competitive ball with a group of girls that she can hang out with after the games are over. I believe you are following a similar path by keeping your options open and allowing her to be involved in the decision. Good luck moving forward!!

 

[JJsqueeze]

Very similar path....I want her to be as good as she can get, but I spend zero time thinking about college or getting on some big name team. I just want her to get a fair shake and have a good fit where she can grow, contribute and enjoy both the social aspect of the game as well as the "fun" of seeing hard work at practice turn into game time success and the confidence that goes along with knowing you are good at something. Chances are that this all ends within the next 5 years so I want us both the enjoy the ride so when the grand kids come along in 15-20 years, DD smiles when I get them a mitt and mat for their 1st birthday and gladly tells them to listen to grandpa when he says they need to work on their throwing mechanics at 4. I tend to think far into the future.

 

[CoachKevin]

It's a long journey.. My DD just finished up her 10th year of TB. Some good years, some not so good years (drama) but overall it has been a great experience. She played 3 years of 10B, two years of 12B, one year 14B, one year 14A, two years 16A, and 1 year 18A. She decided that this summer was her last one playing (even though age wise she could play next summer too). I respect her decision. We recently talked all the places she has had the opportunity to play, and really we were just basically a local team. California twice, Utah, Washington several times, Arizona, and all over Oregon. She also wasn't the strongest player, but a solid player, and she stuck with it. That is what I really admire about her!

If you can find the right fit it's a great experience.... finding that fit is what is problematic. Good luck and I hope you can find a team to grow with.

 

[pctrips]

We finished our second year of playing TB. There has been some drama around the team but I feel like it has been managed well over the two years. The team had a lot of success this past season and I think that shifted the coaches goals maybe more than before. It was decided after the last tournament that there would be tryouts and the coaches wanted to get to A ball quickly whereas previously the indications were trying to keep the same group of kids together through high school. I don't have a problem with the new approach as he is the coach and can decide where he wants his team to go. I only wish the expectation would have been set up front. In the end, my DD made the team and is continuing on which she is happy about. There were a couple of kids that had been on the team that were let go though. It was our first little taste of how rough TB can be on kids. You can show loyalty and dedication to a team but you can always be let go at the coach's discretion.

 

[CoachKevin]

We finished our second year of playing TB. There has been some drama around the team but I feel like it has been managed well over the two years. The team had a lot of success this past season and I think that shifted the coaches goals maybe more than before. It was decided after the last tournament that there would be tryouts and the coaches wanted to get to A ball quickly whereas previously the indications were trying to keep the same group of kids together through high school. I don't have a problem with the new approach as he is the coach and can decide where he wants his team to go. I only wish the expectation would have been set up front. In the end, my DD made the team and is continuing on which she is happy about. There were a couple of kids that had been on the team that were let go though. It was our first little taste of how rough TB can be on kids. You can show loyalty and dedication to a team but you can always be let go at the coach's discretion.

That's one of the major problems with setting long range goals (as in keeping the same girls through High School). I never set these types of goals for that reason. We hold tryouts, and my loyalty is to the current team we choose, for 1 year. Now many players come back and that is fantastic, but bottom line is if a girl comes out that is much better I may have to cut a girl that has been with us for a couple of years.

What strikes me as strange is when parents talk about loyalty and dedication to the team, yet their DD is in the bottom 3 of every stat category across the board. Just showing up to practice and games doesn't mean your loyal or dedicated. What that means to me is, you recognize your weaknesses and work hard (outside of practice) to fix them. That is what being loyal and dedicated to a team means to me. Not saying that is your DD just stating what I feel.

 

[pctrips]

That's one of the major problems with setting long range goals (as in keeping the same girls through High School). I never set these types of goals for that reason. We hold tryouts, and my loyalty is to the current team we choose, for 1 year. Now many players come back and that is fantastic, but bottom line is if a girl comes out that is much better I may have to cut a girl that has been with us for a couple of years.

What strikes me as strange is when parents talk about loyalty and dedication to the team, yet their DD is in the bottom 3 of every stat category across the board. Just showing up to practice and games doesn't mean your loyal or dedicated. What that means to me is, you recognize your weaknesses and work hard (outside of practice) to fix them. That is what being loyal and dedicated to a team means to me. Not saying that is your DD just stating what I feel.

I get where you are coming from as a coach. The dedication is the work outside of practice on your weaknesses. This should be there regardless of the team honestly. Loyalty means not parading my DD around to a bunch of different tryouts or always trying to trade up to a "better" team. We personally didn't go to any other tryouts. It works both ways, the kid could be in the top 2 or 3. If the expectation is set up front then both sides (coach and player) can better prepare for possible changes each offseason.

I guess I haven't fully jumped in with both feet on the super-competitive travel ball deal. I'm a little old school in hoping that my DD can make some lifelong friends growing up and playing a game she loves. Making great memories of long tourney weekends, hotel pools, etc.

 

[sbmom19]

With this being tryout season, it is a time of new starts, I wanted to share our experience as we finished up our first season of 12UTB in case it lets anyone know that if they are dealing with drama/getting cut/having a bad experience, that they are not alone and things can take big turns.

My older DD is a pitcher and is getting pretty good. She is going into 2nd year 12s next spring and is steadily increasing in speed, she is hovering at 48-51 and just last month was a notch below that. I think if she continues on this arc she should be consistently low to mid 50s next year. Not crazy fast, but respectable. She has really good control and the CU is getting really good. Last fall she played on a 10u TB team as she used up her eligibility and did really well, we all liked the org and the team and the coach and it was a great experience. The coach took a look at her on the 2001 squad at a friendly last January, but she wasn't quite ready (I agreed with him) because they wanted to make a serious run at PGF (which they did).

So we went on our way into the thicket of Socal travel and had some adventures. First team lasted about 3 weeks because DD did not get any circle time despite being promised that she would be in the rotation (HC and ACs had pitching DDs). Not being a big fan of being handed BS and told it is caviar, I told the coach in no uncertain terms what I thought of him and we left.

So I soured on TB and just decided she would play rec and develop one more year. Then I got a text out of the blue from another team and he gave me a hard sell to have her join up....we guested at a friendly and gingerly stepped back into the pool. This coach kept his word and she was in the rotation and could hold her own. Got shelled sometimes but also pitched really well sometimes she showed a knack for keeping the ball in the infield and giving up very few walks. I would say that she was a middle of the road pitcher in the Socal 12u scene, a little slower than most at first but she kept the ball down zone so she was effective. During the end of the season things petered out a bit because she started to have some foot problems that we thought might be serious so we pulled her from practice for about a month to recover, get an MRI etc.

The foot problems turned out to be not so serious after a scare that she might need surgery. So she rejoined practice so she would be ready for the end of season world series (in our case it was USSSA). Just as she rejoined, the coach who recruited us was fired by the org because of a group of parents that constantly complained to the org about playing time, we looked to see how this was going to affect the team and quickly realized that it would not be a good fit any more and so we were part of the 4-5 girls that decided to leave the team due to the abrupt change, part loyalty to the coach, part just kind of being done.

So at that point I was done with the general lunacy of TB and was grateful and happy that she was invited to join the local 2001 all star team as they transitioned to 14U TB this fall and spring. I know the families the coaches and it is a really good fit. So her future was settled. She would play with this local team and grow with them and hopefully they mostly stick together and play on our HS team in the future. All good in the hood.

Then one of her teammates from the team that fired the coach showed up at PGF and pitched a little on the original team my DD had pitched for at 10U. I was stoked to see this and texted the dad telling him what a great choice he made in joining that team and how much I like the coach etc. and that he will have none of the drama we had on the team that split because this coach would fire the complaining parents in a heartbeat and doesn't have an org to answer to so no one can go over his head. I was really happy that they landed there because they are a good family and the kid is just one of those great all around young ladies.

All is still good in the hood. Until that coach emailed me and said that he wants to get both girls together and form a 2002 team around them. Now we have committed through the fall to a local team, but the ONE team that I think is the best fit also came a calling and wants to build a team around my daughter and this other great kid.

The fear I have is that my older daughter is not a baller. She is a good all around player who happens to have naturally taken to pitching pretty quickly and continues to progress. She has a decent bat, but I do not see her as a kid that can meet the expectations of being a foundational player for a team of the caliber (that 2001 team moving to 14s of his is fierce) I know the coach wants to put together. But at the same time this coach saw her pitching last year vs this year and thinks she has the goods to be where he wants her to be to make the run next year and he has a lot more experience than I do. He has never been one to blow smoke. If he wanted to do that he could have thrown her on that 2001 squad last year and collected my money but he told me she just wasn't ready yet.

Since they don't have a full squad yet, the 12s will work out with the 14s until the rest of the team takes shape and she will get her game time with the local team she is playing on, so there are no conflicts yet so she can do both for now, but by the end of November she will have to make a final decision.

At this point I am so gun shy that I want to keep her options open as much as possible so I told both coaches that she will be doing both for now and they are OK with it. If this 12U team doesn't take flight then she will continue with the local team or if after seeing her on a day to day basis the coach realizes that maybe he was too optimistic in his assessment of building a team around her. On the other hand, if she finds that she would like to use that last year of 12U eligibility up and she is doing well then maybe she finds herself on a great team with a great coach and gets to have a year of being more of a competitive pitcher before she goes back to 43 feet and starts over again.

I don't know how common this kind of experience is, but it is what our family experienced this year and how we came out the other end. Lotsa ups and downs, some good and bad surprises, but in the end still watching my little pony run around a field and enjoying every minute of it.

How lucky for you that you have so many options locally to choose from! In our area if you want options you have to be willing to drive 7 hours round trip to practices twice a week...

 

[sbmom19]

This is my DD's 3rd year of TB, two years of 14U and this year 16U. The 14U teams were from the same organization - but there weren't any spots on the 16U (and 90% of her 14U team could play another year of 14U-my DD has an early birthday) so we had to find a team for her to play on this year. She ended up playing on what we thought was a competitive team made up of a lot of her HS teammates. Turns out that two of the better players defected to a couple of teams out of state a week before the season started. So that meant that they were constantly using at least two pick-up players per tournament - which wasn't the worst thing but certainly wasn't ideal. But the bigger issue was that we didn't have one practice the whole summer season (my DD practiced on her own but I doubt any others did)!!! Our coaches also coached a 12U team - so I am not sure if they were over extended or if they just lost heart in our team after those two players left. Needless to say, we weren't a very successful team. Now it is fall ball time and they were counting on her to catch for their team - we had to let them know that she was invited to play for another team and that she was going to play for them but please let us know if they needed a pick-up player. While we certainly didn't want to burn any bridges, it is awfully hard to spend all that money and support a team that doesn't even practice...

 

[canyonjoe]

I had to double check because I couldn't believe it was only her second year in TB. Fall started off great full 01 A team loaded with pitching and hitting had a good fall, but team had 6 coaches and they contradicted themselves and caused DD to lose a lot of confidence. Tried out for one team but they needed a pitcher only so were going to stay put. Then the best coaches in the area asked if she had an interest in playing on a new 14U A team. 3 days later were playing in a friendly against an 18U team. We knew she would play outfield for new team of mainly 00 and some 99 players. We had amazing coaches and her improvement was amazing. Hit close to 400 with over 500 OBP. Improved a lot in OF. The problem was she didn't really bond with the older girls much and lost the love of the game some. She is now sitting out the fall except for playing 14U Rec. I will miss watching her battle at the plate and her hustle in every aspect. Her desire to improve is second to none. I don't want to make her play but hope that she misses the game. She should be a good HS player and maybe could play at some level of college, but what I'll really miss is spending time in the car talking to her on he way to tournaments.