Avoiding bad organizations

[Recent Addict]

Back to the original post, I would suggest talking to everyone. Trust me, I'm not that guy, but I've learned so much and have heard so many things over the past couple of years. Softball is a very small world and the word gets out quickly. Talk to your teams parents, talk to parents they run into from other teams, talk about other teams. You'll be surprised how much you learn.

I am in the same area as the OP. Take this for what it it, heresay, but I heard a story about your organization at a camp last year. Head of the org was booted from a different org for pocketing tournament money, so he signed up with a national organization. Story could be true or false, but it certainly would make me ask around if my DD wanted to play there.

Most of the stories you will hear will be from a specific point of view, so don't make decisions on what one jilted parent had to say. Ask around. The truth is out there somewhere. Most people that I have run into love the sport and will talk about it endlessly. Have faith, you'll find the right fit after some trial and error.

 

[radness]

One more thing- if your dd is college bound, understanding that it will probably be a less than perfect situation and being able to deal with it is not a bad skill to possess.

I think parents think college is going to be the best coaching their kid has ever experienced and that their kid will spend lots of time being nurtured, mentored and coached by these truly special people while unicorns graze on the berm. Odds are it won’t be anything like that. It will probably be more like high school with a big budget and better buses than it is The Ultimate Softball Nirvana.

LOL 'while unicorns graze on the berm'.

Possibly the hardest part for parents when their kids go off to college is the parent can't contact the coach with their list of complaints.

 

[radness]

Most of the stories you will hear will be from a specific point of view, so don't make decisions on what one jilted parent had to say. Ask around. The truth is out there somewhere. Most people that I have run into love the sport and will talk about it endlessly. Have faith, you'll find the right fit after some trial and error.

Different perspectives for people that have different goals.

Really important to chat and listen to the coach for yourself even after researching what other people will say.

 

[Rolling Hard]

In my rural area we didn’t have a ton of options. We are about 2 hours from Chicago and we did not seriously consider the options there at all. There was a smallish regional team that was a good fit for a couple years. Ended up with a smaller national level team where the org director was in constant conflict with his coaches. His best coach quit during an on-field blow up with the org head. There always seemed to be controversy brewing between the org head and whoever he was in contact with. I think all this was amplified by covid. It really wasn’t fun and it was certainly not a great recruiting environment. That being said, dd enjoyed playing decent competition and playing with good players.

I see the SoCal folks and others posting and having a lot of teams to evaluate. It ain’t like that everywhere, sounds like a good problem to have.

It is absolutely about the coaches. At every level. Secondarily it’s about the org head. If you can do one team for multiple years and it 80% fits your needs and goals, that really is valuable.

There were warning signs with all of these teams, but they were the only game in town. Sometimes you just hold your nose and roll with it.

Inquiring minds would like to know, conflicts over what?

 

[radness]

Inquiring minds would like to know, conflicts over what?

Lol share how many organizations the coach of your team has bounced through in the past 5 years...
He's a perfect example of the shuffle.

Without revealing his name does he tell you guys why he keeps jumping around?

Don't recall hearing of any giant blow-ups but yet shuffle he does.

 

[JayW]

Clearly in the past 4 years the disparity in talent level of teams has grown noticeably extensively here.

There are some 14U teams that are astonishingly low in the learning curve.

Where I would say
'why are these people spending this much money to play travel ball?'
After 1st year 14's
they should just do high school ball.
Reality is they want to spend their money on their kids and people are happy to throw money at it. But they don't want to put in the time behind the scenes it's just an activity. Doesn't matter what the level their kids are playing or the cost they keep throwing money at it.

I'm not going to say that's bad but if we're talking about competitive softball it's part of the discussion.

In central FL there are elite teams that travel nationally. There are rec ball teams that play in local “travel” tournaments. And then there is everything in between. I think that the term travel ball has lost some of its meaning and is loosely applied to any team that is not a rec team. The elite teams have no problem filling their rosters with top players. Usually they are not local and have players from all over the state. At the lower levels, pitching is stretched thin. Facebook is full of teams looking for pitchers every weekend. I’m not sure there is really a problem. Players play at a level they are comfortable with. There are great teams and bad teams. UF and FSU recruit extensively in state. In fact, I have noticed that these schools have recruited far less outside of the Southeast than in the past. UF has only 2 Californians on its 2022 roster. Most of the players are from Florida. In 2017, there were 6 Californians.

 

[JayW]

LOL 'while unicorns graze on the berm'.

Possibly the hardest part for parents when their kids go off to college is the parent can't contact the coach with their list of complaints.

DD has an organizational meeting for HS softball today. The flyer specifically states: This meeting is for students only!

 

[radness]

In central FL there are elite teams that travel nationally. There are rec ball teams that play in local “travel” tournaments. And then there is everything in between. I think that the term travel ball has lost some of its meaning and is loosely applied to any team that is not a rec team. The elite teams have no problem filling their rosters with top players. Usually they are not local and have players from all over the state. At the lower levels, pitching is stretched thin. Facebook is full of teams looking for pitchers every weekend. I’m not sure there is really a problem. Players play at a level they are comfortable with. There are great teams and bad teams. UF and FSU recruit extensively in state. In fact, I have noticed that these schools have recruited far less outside of the Southeast than in the past. UF has only 2 Californians on its 2022 roster. Most of the players are from Florida. In 2017, there were 6 Californians.

Yes thank you for speaking to that what is
'Travel ball' now.

I do believe the name travel ball should be expanded to include what I was considering calling club that might stay local to the clubhouse vicinity within a mile radius.
versus
Travel ball that would continue as we know it
(As it was) travel required.

 

[JayW]

I usually call what we do club ball. No drives longer than 2 hours. But it is not uncommon for players from “club” teams to be recruited at the highest level in Florida.

 

[radness]

Here there are so many teams in the same age bracket with the same organization that there are tournaments that will limit the amount of teams from one organization to be playing against each other in an age bracket.

Examples
Bat Buster's can only have five batbuster teams or firecrackers can only have 5 firecracker teams entered in the tournament. So then there is a buddy system within an organization of which teams get to play in which tournament.
( this is why sometimes coaches will jump organizations often)

It's not a first-come-first-serve registration because the people who run the tournament specifically hold those spots available for those organizations pending knowing their teams are going to enter it. But this happens with a lot of different organizations not just one two or three..