- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
- 48
Before you do anything you need to define this team. Is it a travel team? Is it part-time travel? Are you a rec all-star team? What exactly are you planning to do with the team? How many games do you think they should play during the fall spring and summer? Will you be working indoors all winter long? At what level are your pitchers realistically at? Are you going to have tryouts? You mentioned first come, first served. What are you going to do if better kids show up than the core 8 you have commitments from right now?
Before you do anything define your team, put a plan together with direction you're taking the team and stick to it. If you plan on winging it as it comes you'll be in BIG trouble. You're a ship with no course set. Nothing but frustration will come of it for you and the families you have involved with the team.
Your estimate seems way low. From the little info you've given here I would say you would be in the $300-350 range to do things mostly correctly for the girls. If you do it half-a$$ed that's the result you'll get.
Thanks to the efforts of one highly motivated coach, our league has just started its first 'B' team for 12u. Not much has been said about it, because the team was selected based on observations (the coach knows all the 12u players). They're all all-stars, but not every all-star is on the select team. They're mainly 1999s with a few 2000s. They hit the ground running with fundraising in order to keep fees down, and they found a disbanded team that had great new jerseys available for cheap, so they're going to be right at about $150 per player for the entire summer and fall seasons. That's 6 or 7 tournaments in addition to the fall 'rec' (B level) league.
The coach definitely has a firm plan on how they're working everything and he told all the players and parents from the start that they were looking at a 2-year commitment. He's laid out a few of the how-to-get-started basics for me, but there's no way to really gauge the program's success until they're played a season and then these girls return to the rec league in the spring.
We won't be able to mirror everything they're doing, but do want to follow a portion of their blueprint for 10u. For year 1, we'll have to open it up to 2001s, because no one else is willing to start a 2001 team and they'd be left out and also because the 2002 group isn't very deep, so to field a competitive team, we'll need a few older players.
We're a year away from our first practice, and I'm cautiously optimistic about how solid our pitching will be. Our most accurate 2001 pitcher doesn't throw hard at all, and our 2nd-most accurate 2001 will need some speed work as well, but would be the presumptive #1 at this point. My DD is a 2002, and although she throws the hardest, I would have her as the #2 at this point. Anything could happen in a year, but none of this year's 8u pitchers were generating any ballpark buzz, so I will host some off-season clinics.
I have only seen 1 other 2002 that I know will make the team, but will get a better look once all the others come up to 10u next spring. I saw a couple of great hitters in last weekend's Hit/Run/Throw and Home Run Derby, but don't know about the rest of their game.
Our goal will be to go out and have a fun, but competitive experience in year 1 and then we'll be looking to be more serious and even more competitive in year 2. If things work out as hoped, I have a sincere belief more players will continue on in rec for a year or 2 of 12u rather than going to full-time ASA play.
My plan is to identify 18-20 players at the league's pre-season tryout and then to check out a few of their games AND practices. I'll then speak to the parents of those selected and work my way down the list until we have 11, including 3 pitchers. Even though practice cannot officially begin until May 1st, there's no prohibition on selecting the team well before then. We'll have 1 slot open in the event someone emerges as a stud late in the season or moves to our area, etc.
All-in-all, while giving a more competitive experience to our better girls, the primary goal in all of this is to hopefully strengthen our entire league moving forward. By comparison, the population of the next town over is only 25% greater than ours, yet their softball league has over 100% more players than we do. We're at the tipping point now, and I'm banking on 2012 to be a real breakout season for our community.