Concerned about forced playup 12u v 14u

[Rick M]

Lots of travel-level players stick with their Rec program through 12U. Both Little League and Babe Ruth have robust national tournaments that are fun and competitive.

Once you get to 14U, the best players have mostly moved on to play school and travel. The kids playing town travel through their local league are mostly playing for fun at that point.

When DD was on 12U Allstars, we registered the team to play in a 14U town travel league to get them some good reps. It didn’t really work out; they creamed every one of those 14U teams.

Bottom line: don’t worry too much about being outclassed in a 14U Rec environment.


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[Rartuso]

Your daughter won’t make a big deal out of it unless you show her it’s a big deal.

You approach it like anything else. Some girls out there are more experienced than others, go give it 110% and show em what she’s got.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Late to the party and going to state the unpopular opinion ...

In reading the OP's posts, I feel you are too entrenched into numbers, stats, and performance. Let your daughter play. If it is too much, back off a bit and adjust. If it isn't enough, step up a bit and adjust. The sports team you played on when you were 11 is not your identity; but the lessons you learn while playing form who you are for the rest of your life.

The sad reality is that local programs have faltered due to a number of circumstances. Some of those issues come from the way the people in charge of these programs run them. Some of those come from parents who are only focused on the image/reputation of where their kid plays. Some of those are the culture of our society.

Creative solutions are needed, such as redrawing the "age" divisions to cover three years instead of two. Combining two adjacent groups (12u and 14u or 14u and 16u) is sometimes the only way these local programs can continue to provide a place for kids to play. Doing this requires more than just throwing those already determined teams together though. To be done properly it needs to be done purposefully and mindfully. The teams need to be redrawn and players need to be spread out. Of course, too many parents and coaches don't want to do this because then they no longer have "their" team. Instead, local programs fold and too many kids without financial resources are left with no where to play.

 

[sluggers]

Let her play up.

My DDs played up a few times. There were only one time my DD#3 was helplessly in over her head...she was 12YOA and ended up playing 18U-A (she was *NOT* Samantha Findlay by a long shot).

Sport are not about success, they are about failure. (A great batting average is one where you fail 60% of the time.) The biggest life lessons are learned through losing, not winning. How do you deal with failure? What happens next? Do you crawl under a bed? Or do you say, "I suck. I got work to do."