AAU basketball and TB?

[CMMom1740]

Short answer: not a sustainable prospect. Unless you have the world's most understanding coaches. DD did TB and AAU for two years (6th and 7th grade). She was still on a B-level TB team at that time so the travel demands weren't huge, but there were a lot of overlapping tournaments and practices. DD then took stock; given that she is 5'4" and had already stopped growing at that point, she stopped playing basketball. She considered trying school basketball, but there are an unusual number of very tall basketball girls in her grade, so she finally said nah. I liked watching her play basketball, but wasn't devastated to have one thing off her plate. I do believe that travel softball and HS basketball are compatible; in GA, we play school softball in the fall, which sometimes bleeds over into basketball season if you make the playoffs, but not by much.

 

[_MIA_]

Short answer: not a sustainable prospect. Unless you have the world's most understanding coaches. DD did TB and AAU for two years (6th and 7th grade). She was still on a B-level TB team at that time so the travel demands weren't huge, but there were a lot of overlapping tournaments and practices. DD then took stock; given that she is 5'4" and had already stopped growing at that point, she stopped playing basketball. She considered trying school basketball, but there are an unusual number of very tall basketball girls in her grade, so she finally said nah. I liked watching her play basketball, but wasn't devastated to have one thing off her plate. I do believe that travel softball and HS basketball are compatible; in GA, we play school softball in the fall, which sometimes bleeds over into basketball season if you make the playoffs, but not by much.

If she wants to continue to do both, I guess it may come down to whether she is good enough in both sports such that the coaches are willing to let her miss some tournaments/practices and still be a part of the team and if she is willing to see possibly reduced time on the field/court because of the lack of full commitment. Right now she is the best player on her AAU team and one of the top few kids on her softball team so the coaches have been willing to make some concessions but the overlap has not been huge to this point.

 

[FP26]

Definitely a challenge... The catcher from our travel ball team plays softball and field hockey in college. But field hockey is a fall sport while softball is a spring sport. Basketball is a winter sport that would create more overlap with softball. Much more difficult, and probably not possible at many schools.

The travel ball will also be a challenge. When I was coaching 14u we had a player that did both. We supported her decision, but it required her to miss several softball tournaments in the process. Basketball was her priority. We factored that into our roster from the start so that we always had enough players available. Ultimately she gave up softball and basketball and joined the track team in college...

 

[_MIA_]

Definitely a challenge... The catcher from our travel ball team plays softball and field hockey in college. But field hockey is a fall sport while softball is a spring sport. Basketball is a winter sport that would create more overlap with softball. Much more difficult, and probably not possible at many schools.

The travel ball will also be a challenge. When I was coaching 14u we had a player that did both. We supported her decision, but it required her to miss several softball tournaments in the process. Basketball was her priority. We factored that into our roster from the start so that we always had enough players available. Ultimately she gave up softball and basketball and joined the track team in college...

I personally don't want her to play both in college but that really isn't the worry at the moment. I guess with that in mind, if she is of the same mind and decides she wants to try and play one of them in college that would make it easier IF she doesn't still want to try and play TB in whatever sport she decides she doesn't want to play in college. I guess we might have to have a "you have to make concessions in life sometimes" conversation with her at that point.

Of course she is only 12 so all of this is theoretical and me probably overthinking things..lol. I think I need @sluggers to come in here and tell me to chill..