Explosion of new teams

[FP26]

I think having options and giving players more opportunities to play the game are good things. So to a certain extent, seeing an expansion in the number of teams can be viewed as a positive. However, there is a tipping point. Quite often a new start up will come along, succeed in building a team for a year or two, but then disappears just as quickly. There are many different reasons for playing the game. The challenge is finding the team that fits your player's needs and goals. Unfortunately some players will get caught when the start up team fails, and haver to scramble to find a new team.

 

[Rambler34]

Saw this on a Facebook Board and it is so true......

 

[Elk Grove Hurricane]

I see exactly what you're talking about at the older age groups here (14 and 16, 18 I don't pay as much attention to) but the number of teams at 12U locally has contracted. At least 4-5 teams from last season, some in "name" organizations, are gone, and the bigger organizations have less teams at 12U than they had in the spring. Very strange situation.
As for the nomads, yep, see them all the time. Some are always chasing the next big thing, some leave because they made a mistake (in their minds, no judgment from me) when they said yes to one team, and some are just looking for more playing time. I've heard a lot of coaches say that things have changed in the past few years; 6-10 years ago, they would expect the kids at the end of the bench to find a new team. Now, even the starters are looking for new teams all the time.

 

[grcsftbll]

One thing I don't understand is when you have a team that has a LOT of pitchers, why some of these pitchers don't go looking for greener pastures. This past season we played one team that had a freaking unreal pitcher. They were 12u with maybe 2 13's so they were playing 14u. One pitcher on that team was crazy good. She was rather little and was throwing upper 50's and had a solid changeup. She only pitched twice that weekend. The team had SEVEN pitchers. 'Grats to the coach for giving them all circle time, but we would have bent over backwards to have that girl and she would have gotten a LOT of circle time. We're always looking for a good pitcher. We've got one good pitcher, our #2 you just never know who will show up, and our #3 is that really slow pitcher that trips up good teams. If we had an ace, we'd be one of the best teams in the state. Still scratching my head over that. There's another team as well that has 4 very solid pitchers but not much else. I'm sure it comes down to friends and being content where you're at.

My DD's a good pitcher and she loves it, but she loves playing positions too. She plays SS and 3B and tag outs are one of her favorite parts of the game, which she rarely gets at pitcher, only on the rare occasion with a passed ball or wild pitch where she's covering home and gets to make the tag. Hardly ever happens. She would not be happy as 1 of 7 pitchers by any means, that is ridiculous. But this year she'll be one of 4 instead of half the pitching staff and I think she's going to love it. She's not one of those who thinks she should be pitching every game.

 

[Vertigo]

I’ll just share my experience since I started my own team a few years back and my dd has been a few different teams over past few years. My dd stuck with LL through age 12. She had to make the move to travel if she still wanted to play. Three other dads and I coached together for several years and took an “ok” all star team at 10U to winning B-level travel tourneys at 12U. All township rec players. We had a decent core who we really wanted to keep together because we enjoyed coaching and developing the girls. At that time no on really expressed the interest of wanting to play in college so we formed a first-year 14U B team. After that year there were some disagreements about what direction the team was headed so I decided to hand over the reigns and move on. Dd joined a good team within a popular org but after a year and a half, things were promised that weren’t happening so we decided we needed to make a move again. She then moved to an 18U team that had several seniors on the team who graduated this year, only leaving 4 underclassmen. Tryouts had little turnout, so we decided to make the move to very well-known org in our state which helps a lot of players continue to the collegiate level. So while it may look like she was a “team-hopper,” each year she moved to a more competitive team which was right for her development level at the time. What I don’t get is the hopping from team to team that is the same level; and the starting up of teams after the player has been on a travel team already.

 

[Dandan111]

Around here most of the good rec players have moved to travel. I see our rec team and other towns converting all star rec teams and making up
whatever name they want. Some of these rec all star teams are picking up travel girls that don't get a chance to play at other positions. One girl
wants to pitch and one wants to catch, ext. It's pretty crazy anymore but I'm glade to see our girls get more play time and it's pretty inexpensive.

 

[Cyder517]

I'm sure everyone's experiences and goals are different, but at least in our case, DD has been on 4 teams in 4 years, but we finally felt we found the *right* team to meet her objective of developing into the D1 player she wants to be, which we wish we had found 4 years ago.

Each time was a different reason for leaving.

In general, there's just too many 1) teams, 2) daddy/mommy ball coaches, and 3) drama.

I don’t even have D1 dreams for my DD. I’d be perfectly happy to see her play D3 or JUCO. However, I have unfortunately been on 4 teams in 4 years, which I guess makes us a Skittle (I heard someone use the phrase to describe a player with a different color uniform every season).

Believe me when I say that was never my intention and not something I’m proud about. Each year has been very different and there have been different reasons for joining a new team—-and not all have been negative.

We have also done a lot of reflection as a family and are trying to make the most of the life lessons travel softball has taught us.

To avoid making another mistake, DD has not been to any tryouts and is taking some time off. It is heartbreaking and scary to sit on the sidelines as I see others finding new opportunities. But we can’t get wrapped up in the frenzy. I have to put trust and faith that the right opportunity will present itself when the time is right—-my daughter is that good of a person and that much of an athlete.



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[ASAVipers]

I see the number sanctioning bodies as much or bigger problem. Here in Central FL there are 8-10 different ones to choose from and that has allowed for an explosion of teams. If these team had to compete against better competition on regular basis, they wouldn't be in existence in my opinion