Big Travel Ball Orgs - Watered Down Talent

[Doug Romrell]

I think these "all-star" teams are very difficult to hold together. Why? Because often with the "all-star" mind-set of the all-star parents come demands that can't be met. For example, and "all-star" pitcher wants to maximize her pitching time, yet the best thing for an "all-star" team is to have at least two "all-star" pitchers, probably a third as well. When one pitcher starts getting more pitching time for what ever reason, the other pitcher and her parents often start look for another team. Further, for example, a short-stop and her parents may think that she's more all-star than the rest of the players and become disgruntled that the team isn't quite achieving what she/they think they should. They leave the team. I've seen some teams like the completely fall apart. I think it's very difficult to hold together true all-star teams. Not that it can't be done, but they often experience a ton of turnover, which is hard to work with at times. That's just my take on these kind of teams.

 

[Rocketech1]

Some great information here...I guess the bottom line is just because one plays for a big organization, doesn't necessarily mean they will be fielding a more competitive team. One of the things I like about DD's TB team is there is only 1 team per division and since its a relatively small but competitive/selective org, the older players and coaches will frequently mentor, practice with, and support the younger divisions.

 

[sbmom19]

Why is this distribution of talent not desirable?

Because we are a small population area. All of the competitive tournaments are in a neighboring state that have a much larger talent pool to pick from. So our teams just aren't able to compete with those teams, especially in showcase type environments. Because of that we are losing our best players (those that are willing to travel 3+ hours one way to practice) to these teams, further diluting the talent...

Just my take - from a parent of a talented (IMO) player looking for a competitive team...

 

[CoogansBluff]

Because we are a small population area. All of the competitive tournaments are in a neighboring state that have a much larger talent pool to pick from. So our teams just aren't able to compete with those teams, especially in showcase type environments. Because of that we are losing our best players (those that are willing to travel 3+ hours one way to practice) to these teams, further diluting the talent...

Just my take - from a parent of a talented (IMO) player looking for a competitive team...

Makes sense. It does work against your DD's goals. Although if they divided up as A, B and C teams (instead of B, B and B), then the C team couldn't be competitive anywhere, and they might have to fold up and not travel at all. The way you have it, those C-level players get to play vs. A and B players and might become B- players by playing with and against those better players, and that will improve the high school teams. I'm not sure what talent distribution serves the greatest good. Might be A-B-C. Might be B-B-B. Might depend on whether you're in a big town or small town.

 

[YOCOACH]

I think these "all-star" teams are very difficult to hold together. Why? Because often with the "all-star" mind-set of the all-star parents come demands that can't be met. For example, and "all-star" pitcher wants to maximize her pitching time, yet the best thing for an "all-star" team is to have at least two "all-star" pitchers, probably a third as well. When one pitcher starts getting more pitching time for what ever reason, the other pitcher and her parents often start look for another team. Further, for example, a short-stop and her parents may think that she's more all-star than the rest of the players and become disgruntled that the team isn't quite achieving what she/they think they should. They leave the team. I've seen some teams like the completely fall apart. I think it's very difficult to hold together true all-star teams. Not that it can't be done, but they often experience a ton of turnover, which is hard to work with at times. That's just my take on these kind of teams.

Don't forget the fact that many rec All-Stars teams have many families that just don't want to travel more than 20 minutes to play in tournaments nor increase the number of tournaments they play in.

Two years ago, DD was asked by a good friend of ours (local HS coach but not hers) to play for him in our local rec league. There were 3 other TB players on the team to fill it out. Afterwards, he kept the team together as an All-Stars team. They went and played two tournaments within a 20 minute drive. They won both and one of the wins included a berth to the Pony's Nationals held in a nearby state. The drive would have been 2 1/2 hours. Needless to say, only us 4 TB families were willing to go and play.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

I think these "all-star" teams are very difficult to hold together. Why? Because often with the "all-star" mind-set of the all-star parents come demands that can't be met. For example, and "all-star" pitcher wants to maximize her pitching time, yet the best thing for an "all-star" team is to have at least two "all-star" pitchers, probably a third as well. When one pitcher starts getting more pitching time for what ever reason, the other pitcher and her parents often start look for another team. Further, for example, a short-stop and her parents may think that she's more all-star than the rest of the players and become disgruntled that the team isn't quite achieving what she/they think they should. They leave the team. I've seen some teams like the completely fall apart. I think it's very difficult to hold together true all-star teams. Not that it can't be done, but they often experience a ton of turnover, which is hard to work with at times. That's just my take on these kind of teams.

All-star teams? Heck, this happens every day even at the very highest levels of travel ball. Especially the part about the pitchers.

 

[Doug Romrell]

All-star teams? Heck, this happens every day even at the very highest levels of travel ball. Especially the part about the pitchers.

You make a great point. Holding teams together is tough enough as it is. There's always a better team to go an play on. Given this, this time around (compared to when I first coached 15 years ago) I'm a bit more laid back and just try to give those who want to play an opportunity to play regardless of where they are from.

 

[Red504]

There is a large organization here in Socal who is expanding to the point there are new teams added damn near every week. They are getting to the point where their reputation isn't respected anymore. We played one of their teams in a friendly a few weeks ago. The score was close enough they batted their 3 and 4 hitters over and over. They would skip the lineup and bat these girls again. I would be pissed if I was one of the other parents who watched my kid sit while these girls got their 5 at bats per game.

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

All these big organizations are always advertising for players...they have 2 to 3 teams per age group (example being 3 16U teams) yet they cant find enough players or pitching. No one wants to cut girls but is it worth it if you constantly need players to fill the team?

 

[RubberBiscuit]

We have a different problem here. High school coaches trying to have off-season "travel ball" teams made up of their high school players. The problem is that softball is not a huge sport in this area - it takes a back seat to volleyball and basketball. So the individual HS teams have 3 or maybe at the best 4 decent players to play travel ball and the rest are rec ball level players. So instead of doing an all area team of all-star level players, nobody is willing to give up their best players or put their egos aside to do tryouts and open the teams up to players from other schools/areas...

This is "dead-on" with my smaller sb area too. Ya end up with a bunch of mediocre TB teams but of course this develops killer HS teams (relatively)