Building a team; Are you Playing League and Traval ball Both?

[crae]

Do most competitive teams/players (8-12 yrs old) play both League ball and Travel Tourney Ball?
Do you bank on having a strong league turnout to make it worth your time to play league ball?

Our town has a steady stream of ball players but for most girls growing up in our rural area they spend age 8-12 playing our local Cal Ripken league, which all in all is pretty weakly coached. This, like in most areas is coached by volunteers/parents and not very competitive- and aside from the year end goal of a birth to the World Series, it’s a FAR shot and the few teams we have sent have never placed very high.
Our rural town has the capability to produce strong players successfully when we start them young and work them on up just like any other area but we might only retain 1 really strong team per age group and even then we’ll have to mix 9/10 and 11/12. We are not like other places that have all 10 y/olds or 12’s in their roster.
My concern lies in that my father and I coached the league team together this year and although I enjoyed seeing the skill and growth build in our team (which was of all skill levels) we are interested in building a STRONGER team. And we differ in opinion about if it is even worth putting in the 2 months of league ball because it is very counterproductive and the more skilled players tend to play down a bit because on lack of challenge. Our goal is to build a 10U Team that can compete statewide-
Is it possible when we are splitting our time with a rec team? Or should we do both league and tourney ball team practices to build up what would be an All-Star team for Word Series?

 

[chinamigarden]

We play in a league that is made up of travel teams from across a 2 county area, at one time we had teams from Canada playing in our league as well. The league plays 2 double headers a week. Tournaments are up to each team and the league has nothing to do with them.

 

[crae]

What I probably didn’t explain very well was that If I build a team of Traveling Tourney Ball Players 8/9/10 years old that when our League ball starts in Spring my team would be broken apart into 5-6 separate teams over the course of 2 months. The league and Tourney ball has nothing to do with each other but the only thing that keeps us from leaving League Ball all together and playing as you play is the opportunity to go to the Cal Ripkin World Series.
But it’s hard to ask this age to overlap games/practices to participate in both league and Tourney team functions in the hopes of having the girls be chosen for League AllStars at the end of the season.
That is why I am contemplating not playing League ball at all and playing as you do a few worthy Double Headers each week so we can keep our team together all year round. And that is where my question lies- how do other towns do this? Are they overlapping their city league ball with Travel team ball basically losing their players 2 months out of the year?

 

[GOINGDEEP]

6-11 we played rec March-May and travel ball May-October. BUT I could keep almost my same group in the rec as I had in the TB, so it was much easier. The local league usually had 6-8 teams in each age group with only 2 of those that actually gave a good game. But our goal was state and world series that were earned play just like HS playoffs are done. Once you got into the regional part of the tournament the teams were pretty even matched from there on up. Our last year in the rec we came in second in the world series, out of over 400 teams in the league/organization. Even though it was "just" rec, its still funny that a bunch of hicks from a town of 4000 ( at the time ) beat the best from 10 states only to loose the championship game by one run. Most of the states were sending their top team from larger metropolitan cities because you could only play for the "city" in which you lived. So a city could be 1000 or a million residents. Lol

When DD was 11 most of the better players quit because of piss poor management of the league ( long story ) plus the top talent started entering middle school softball and their season ran Feb-May.

I thought the rec did us a lot of good. The games were slower than TB, which gave me time to work more on plays and "teach" the kids why we do what we're doing. Then when a weekend of TB rolled around the lesson they learned had been in a real game situation and not just a practice, which seemed to work better for young minds.

 

[TimothyJ]

That is why I am contemplating not playing League ball at all and playing as you do a few worthy Double Headers each week so we can keep our team together all year round.

So it sounds like you're implying that if you decide you don't want your players to play rec, you'll tell the girls not to, and they will follow your wishes. Am I reading that correctly?

Have you asked the girls about it, honestly? For many girls, travel ball is for when they want to be more competitive, and rec is about playing with their friends, especially at that age.

Who controls the fields/facilities you use for practice? If it's the local rec league, think twice. You're certainly going to lose some friends being the guy that pulled all the stronger players out of the league. You may find they're suddenly "having difficulty finding slots" for you to get field time.

 

[Pitching Dad]

Crae,
I had the same issue this year 10u. TB team was split up during league and with 2-3 league games a week we only got to work with TB team once a week then played tourneys on the weekends. I really noticed the TB girls having to play down during league. DD had to hesitate on quick throws to different bases during league ' because league girls weren't that good at catching' also our tb catcher did the same on throw downs. The playing down showed during TB games. Not until league was over and we were able to practice TB girls together at least 2 times a week did we start seeing TB team start to gel as a team and they took 2nd in state. The league is good for young pitchers to get a lot of mound time but other than that it was counterproductive. This is exactly why we won't play league anymore.

 

[howellhandmade]

Unless a pitcher is #1 in TB, getting all the pitching she can handle all weekend, league play is vital. My DD's travel team encouraged her to play rec ball this summer, which was a good thing because it was all the pitching she got.

 

[IACoach]

This spring/summer I coached a 5th/6th grade rec team as well as a 12U travel. 5 girls on the rec team are on my travel team. Our rec team went 24-4 this year so a successful year. However, having a winning team means the umps start stacking the rules against you to keep it "fair". So it could harm your travel team if that happens. My girls were instructed to only swing at real strikes (strike zone at times went toes to head - crazy stupid) and if they went down looking at a ball the ump called a strike it was ok. They were mad at times but better to learn/play the correct way. Rec has crazy rules - players can call time anywhere on the field, no look back, illegal pitches, etc. that do make it counter productive. But they are playing twice a week and practicing once. My DD had Thursdays off and the rest of the week she was playing and/or practicing. Rec practiced Sun nights so she played tourneys during the day and had to practice at night with another team.

Next year I will coach 7th/8th grade (A) rec and 14U travel which will consist of at least 8 cross over players. We will be a young A rec team and half our 14U team will still be 12's so they should get some great experience. If we would be B rec league again, I would agree with PitchingDad and probably not play rec.

 

[crae]

Thanks for your input TimJ-
My intention is not to upset the communtiy/League board in fact that is why my Head coach wants to stay in League is to contribute and create some more positive exposure for the endeavour we are trying to take on. I also am not trying to pull all the strong players out but we are from a small community and that is what is come down to. But there is enough interest from kids/parents that want a slight step up- really I am just talking taking this age (8/9/10) group and giving them a more consistant structured base to grow from; and with extra games and tournements they would develope that. So its not necessarily a full blown competative team but a steady growing well rounded and "consistant" group if allowed. I've been to many clinics as a former player where they would tell us "if we practice doing the skills the right way" then that is what we can pull from in a game situation. And I hate to see that undone when they are not being coached the skills by other coaches. Not to say I know it all but we do our homework.

As for pitching time- our 10U league utilizes a Pitching Machine during games NO LIVE Pitching- so the only pitching time they get is after practices and really up to parents/players. The sad thing is at the end of the season the 10U allstars are expected to play in live pitching games and we are scrambling to pull them together. We do not have well developed pitches in our 12u division either for that reason.
Thanks you all for your positive input - I see both sides of the dilema; We have a few kids pulled together but are planning to have tryouts at the end of the month- so the size of the group interested may help determine how we will play- thanks