Decisions

[Bchbum54]

Beachbum- I know we corresponded back when you were choosing teams but I forget which team you ended up choosing...PM me please, I would love to know the inside skinny, I am like a bored housewife when it comes to local softball gossip, I just can't pass up some dirt.

Dude you asked for it. I just blew up your pms with a 4 part mini series, lol

I just wanted to catch you up to speed since you have been helping me navigate my way through this Travel Ball world. Lol

Eric has been a big help as well but he gets weekly reports on DD's progress. Most of those pms are just cut and paste messages I have sent Eric earlier this Spring season

 

[Eric F]

You might as well just CC your PMs to both JJ and I. It will save you on the typing.

 

[JJsqueeze]

That is a saga Beachbum. But I think you learned a lot in a single season. You learned what it is like when daddy ball is part of the equation, and how specific the needs for top teams can be, even for 11 year olds. Neither will change as they get older. There will come a time when your DD develops a "type". By that I mean that her strengths will standout, maybe she is a vacuum on defense, or a power hitter, or a fast base runner. And then it gets easier to target your efforts to join top teams. At 11 it is hard because so many girls are still just good softball players and with the exception of a few standouts they all just have various strengths and weaknesses. A coach on a really good team is looking for girls that have already developed a type and is easily identifiable and fits their opinion on what the team needs. Of course girls with huge bats and power pitchers are always welcome on all teams but they are also pretty rare.

So unless your kid has some standout strengths AND those match a top team's needs, you are left with teams like the first one you joined- that will take anyone who can pay dues or with a team that has a more developmental approach. My guess is that your kid, Maddie and my kid would all be considered good, not great players....yet. So being on a team where they can be leaders and try to build something is a great place to be. You don't get to go on 20 game win streaks and you don't go super deep at every tournament, but you do get the satisfaction of helping to build them into a good team and it becomes YOUR team. In our case we chose to go with an org Powersurge, that has a track record of being able to attract talent. So our team strategy is to become great at defense, hitting and base running this year and then recruit some top pitching in August to be able to compete for championships next year. We have universal buy in from the families that first year 12 teams are developmental in nature so let's get girls playing 3 positions and just learn learn learn. it helps us that our 03 team is one of those top teams that regularly plays in and wins championships. Last year they were a good, not great team as well.

The org you are considering does not have any organizational mojo. So if you go there just know that it is not a destination team for studs from lower level teams. That does not mean they can't put together something special, it just makes it harder.

If I were in your shoes, I would be looking at orgs like Cal Cruisers, Choppers, maybe one of the Firecrackers sub orgs like Brashear that have miultiple teams in them, Explosion, TNL, Bownet, diamonds and I am sure there are a few others I am omitting, but these orgs consistently put out quality teams at older levels and I don't think any of their 2004 teams are quite there yet. But come August free agent season, many of the girls from lower level orgs will move up to better teams and many of the not top 10 players on the best teams will move down a little to play more and these levels of teams stand to benefit the most from that fluidity.

just my 2 cents on how best to position a non pitcher to be a core member of a really good team when they don't have the standout skill set to plug in anywhere they want.

 

[Eric F]

Well said, JJ.

As an 04 team, we went into 12U last fall knowing what to expect - playing 03 teams was going to be a challenge, and playing teams that still included some 02 talent would be even tougher. Now that the 02s have moved up, the playing field has leveled a little, but it's still a challenge for a young team. It SHOULD be a challenge. What we're seeing is our girls really developing in many areas of the game, and we're surprising a lot of good teams. As JJ said, we aren't likely to get deep into the larger 12U tournaments, but that's just fine. Our girls work hard, are getting better every day, and are having fun.

On a personal level, Maddie is getting lots of playing time at the positions she prefers, is getting exposure to other positions, and is developing her leadership skills and qualities as a good teammate. The amount of playing time and quality of coaching she is getting now is helping her become the kind of standout player JJ mentioned.

 

[Bchbum54]

That is a saga Beachbum. But I think you learned a lot in a single season.

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU READ THE WHOLE THING...Lol


Yeah, if you pay attention to details you'll pick up a few things.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

Look at my signature line. Think about what it means. Find that team.

BTW, all the teams JJ suggested are good places to look. Most if not all will put decent 14U teams on the field the following year and you should be positioning her for that jump perhaps even more than you are positioning her to be on a competitive 12U team this year. You want her to get the coaching and the skills and the "look" that will get those 14U coaches to look at her next year when she may have to leave this year's teammates behind.

 

[Rocketech1]

Afraid of not finding the right team we registered back in rec. I just felt it was best that she played something as opposed to nothing at all. So right now DD is on a really solid rec team with lots of 03 players. We are still actively looking for the "right" TB team.

I have a question, is your DD going to quit the rec team this spring is she finds a better option? I'll wait for the answer to respond...

 

[Bchbum54]

I have a question, is your DD going to quit the rec team this spring is she finds a better option? I'll wait for the answer to respond...

DD will finish the rec season no matter what. Before we signed back up with rec I made sure I had a conversation with the HC. I let him know what our intentions were regarding TB and how DD's availability might become limited if we found something. I figured that it's been tough finding a competitive TB team so if we eventually did find one DD would have to work her way up the ranks and playing time could be an issue. With a rec team on the side, DD could still get good dirt time. At least that was my thought process.

 

[Bchbum54]

Look at my signature line. Think about what it means. Find that team.

BTW, all the teams JJ suggested are good places to look. Most if not all will put decent 14U teams on the field the following year and you should be positioning her for that jump perhaps even more than you are positioning her to be on a competitive 12U team this year. You want her to get the coaching and the skills and the "look" that will get those 14U coaches to look at her next year when she may have to leave this year's teammates behind.

DD is 04, she still has another 12U season to go. I've seen the level of play some of the 03 12U teams play at and it's absolutely impressive, I can only hope DD can one day reach that level.