ASA 2012 Rule Change - Age ellibility

[MTR]

I wasn't talking about school year...I was talking about the typical softball season.

Neither was I. I was referring to the date of eligibility (that is the discussion) once coincided with the school year. BTW, the "typical" softball season in my area runs March through August. There is some fall ball, but minimal in size and participation.

"Typical" all depends on where in the world you are standing at the time of the consideration.

 

[MsDinosaur]

My DD has a February birthday and for a while she played up in rec to be with her friend in the same grade who had a fall birthday. I put in some extra practice time with her because she had missed that first year of 8 and under that her classmates had had. Now she's playing with other 00's and is one of the oldest (the team's split between 6th and 5th graders and also has a couple of 4th graders playing up). From what I remember when she played soccer, its August cutoff seemed to give the fall birthday kids a big advantage.

Wherever they put the cutoffs, there's going to be a disadvantage for some kids and an advantage for others. Since the softball cutoff's an advantage for mine, I'd like it to stay put. ;-)

 

[Sweet Lou]

Boys cutoff was always 8/31 as long as I remember playing as a kid which worked out fine for me with August B-day. Our local league now which is B-ball/S-ball has different dates. 8/31 for the boys 12/31 for the girls. Both my DDs have November B-days so I'd love the change to 8/31 cutoff.

But doesn't sound like this is going to happen.

And as MD correctly points out, no matter where the cutoff is some kids are always going to be at an advantage agewise.

 

[WinThemAll]

Maybe if we change the date of St. Valentine's Day, there wouldn't be so many born in late fall

 

[CoogansBluff]

ASA nationals, the culmination of the ASA season, are held in August, right?

Given that, shouldn't the cutoff be Sept. 1, so that everybody at 12U nationals is really ''12 and under''? The way it is now, most players at 12U nationals are 13.

 

[ms244]

CoogansBluff,

That is the way I feel, but it really doesn't mater how we feel, we don't get to vote. Apparently the people that have the voting power are the ones that matter, and the ones that run discussions here.

By comparison, what are the age cutoffs for NSA, USSSA and Little League.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

We used to have 2 divisions. 16U and 16 and up. It was certainly crazy the first couple of years that there was 8U, 10U, etc.

 

[MTR]

CoogansBluff,

That is the way I feel, but it really doesn't mater how we feel, we don't get to vote. Apparently the people that have the voting power are the ones that matter, and the ones that run discussions here.

By comparison, what are the age cutoffs for NSA, USSSA and Little League.

Let me reiterate. The code change that was fought for had NOTHING to do with the age cut-off, but the dates of JO individual registration.

There was a proposal to change the age cut-off date to Sep 1, but was basically dismissed by most committees. This is a change in which most, if not all, committees would discuss and vote, but still defer to the JO Committee which means they rejected the proposal. I was not in all of their sessions, so if discussed at length, I did not witness it. Maybe someone else who was there could fill us in.

IMHO, the reason this was not addressed is because to many people have tunnel vision locked in on the term "college" softball player and apparently some are afraid that maybe handful college players may slip through even if the cut-off date was approved. To me, if you feel that urge to restrict college players, this would be the best way for ASA to do it and still stay within the realm of their mission.

It is sad to see that something so logical is routinely dismissed. Again, how can you refer to a program as the elite teams in the country when some of the best qualified players are not permitted to participate?