How serious should we become?

[OregonSoftballDad]

I serve on the board of a community based softball association with more than 250 girls playing on teams ranging from t-ball to 14u "competitive." We have Three 14u teams playing "tournament only" B level softball. One 12u (first year)playing B (some B/C tourneys) and two 10u tournament teams. We have two high schools in our community and we're looking for ways to create a nice feeder system with our organization (and have the high school coaches become more involved with the youth movement).

Here's the question: how "serious" should be become? We have some parents that want to go turbo and start training nearly year 'round with our tournament only teams. I'm under the belief that they're young and should do lots of other sports, activities, etc. and not give up their soul-- and time-- for such a long and never ending season. We live in a blessed community with families with the financial means to travel, ski, play multiple club sports, etc. I am certain we'd lose some of the better athletes if we went down the "specialization" road or asked girls to start training/playing in winter, spring, summer and fall.

I'd love to know if there's a good model to follow. 95% of our girls are from our community. We're not looking at being the "best" by recruiting girls that live 50 miles away. We just want to be as competitive as we can be and create a sort of club like atmosphere. Any good models out there? I hate to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

I serve on the board of a community based softball association with more than 250 girls playing on teams ranging from t-ball to 14u "competitive." We have Three 14u teams playing "tournament only" B level softball. One 12u (first year)playing B (some B/C tourneys) and two 10u tournament teams. We have two high schools in our community and we're looking for ways to create a nice feeder system with our organization (and have the high school coaches become more involved with the youth movement).

Here's the question: how "serious" should be become? We have some parents that want to go turbo and start training nearly year 'round with our tournament only teams. I'm under the belief that they're young and should do lots of other sports, activities, etc. and not give up their soul-- and time-- for such a long and never ending season. We live in a blessed community with families with the financial means to travel, ski, play multiple club sports, etc. I am certain we'd lose some of the better athletes if we went down the "specialization" road or asked girls to start training/playing in winter, spring, summer and fall.

I'd love to know if there's a good model to follow. 95% of our girls are from our community. We're not looking at being the "best" by recruiting girls that live 50 miles away. We just want to be as competitive as we can be and create a sort of club like atmosphere. Any good models out there? I hate to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks.

Tough decisions that other great folks here will help with too - but I have a couple thoughts,... (I always do )

Many moons ago I was the president of a local "feeder" TB-B organization. I was an ex-bb-player that was able to share some skills and wanted to help the community with having a sb club.

I had a 12U DD in the organization that started to want a higher level of play (I call it "TB-A level" : not sure why you broad-stroke this as "giving up your soul"??,... goodness.....different strokes for different folks!)

I brought the idea of starting a TB-A team within this club to "the board". Well "the board" was made up predominantly of hs employees. The thought of seperating/segregating a TB-A team and taking them national was, from there perspective, not something they wanted to do. They were concerned about how to keep enough numbers going for all the teams and maintain the consistent flow into the hs's. I warned back that there will be "soul-less" ;-) folks like us that will leave to find the higher level of play. They disagreed and we had to leave.

So it sounds like you are ending the club after 14U for players. I think by limiting this you already have defined your club as TB-B and primarily a hs feeder club. That's great. But know that those folks that want to go "year-round" are probably also part of us "soul-less" peoples and they will probably leave your club.....

I think you need to either leave it as-is, TB-B, or go all-in and establish a 16U n 18U level with a redundant TB-A team at 14/16/18. (of course each area has populations to consider that affect this equation - if you can't support 2 A/B teams from 14-18 then stay a hs feeded club)

 

[Down and Out]

I was once one of those dads that didn't understand why there wasn't something more competitive through the rec. league. The league had the attitude that if you want to be competitive, go play travel ball, because that's not what we do.

Now, years later, I understand and agree that rec leagues are essential for girls that want to learn about softball. It is where they will start to develop the skills they will need to play travel ball some day. Without rec. leagues there would be no travel ball.

Stay true to your mission and keep softball available to anyone that wants to play, no matter what skill level or level of commitment.

When there are enough girls that want to play competitive travel tournaments, there has been success around here with the rec. leagues running a comp. division along side the rec. divisions. They put one competitive team together in each age group and select a board of directors to run the competitive division. It gives the rec. girls a team to aspire to be on, and gives the competitive girls a place to go and stay within the league. Just make sure there is always a place for the beginners to play.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Pretty much everything D&O said. Don't try to be too many things. If you're really serious about moving a team to the A level in travel ball send out some information for the 2015 season at registration for the upcoming season.

You can gauge your interest from there. Have a meeting with those who are interested and give them as much information as you can about fees, commitment, year round training and playing against a better caliber of teams. Make sure they know they will get their backsides handed to them at the start and nothing will be given to the them.

IF.... You have the interest from the players make ABSOLUTELY sure the rec board has no power over the way the team is run. There is nothing that will kill an up and coming travel team based out of a rec program faster than a rec minded board trying to impose rules on a travel team. Been there, done that. No Thanks!!!

 

[JAD]

My $0.02.....since you have multiple 14U TB teams, I would recommend you try to make one an A-level team and allow the coach to decide if they will practice year round. If you do not provide an A-level TB option you will loose your better players to an organization that does.

 

[YOCOACH]

The question really is how many of the families are really interested in going year round? If you have enough to field an A level team in each division, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it. Our family is part of a TB organization that plays and practices year round. If our players want to play school sports other than softball during the Fall and Winter, we simply set a day that most of the team members can attend for practice plus another day for an optional hitting practice. Of course, we also expect them to work on their own at home. During the school year, school team sports come first with us. We play several fall tournaments and in Winter, indoor local tournaments (we're in Ohio) that usually fall during school breaks when there are no school sports games. If there is a conflict, we bring in guest players from our other teams within the organization to play the tournaments if we are going to be short. It's usually not too hard to find a player or two that isn't playing school sports and wants to go get dirty. The end result is we make it work and usually without too much difficulty. It allows the girls to do other activities outside of softball and they also get to play some great competition after the school softball season ends.

 

[chrispots]

My wife and I are board members of an organization not dissimilar to yours.

We have around 430 girls playing from the ages of 5 through 16 for rec ball. We also have 11 TB teams (2- 10U, 3 12U, 4 - 14U, 2 - 16U) teams and 2 showcase teams (14U & 16U).

The short anser: We leave it to the coach's discretion as to when they want to start and what they want to play. Many of the girls play lacrosse, volleyball, basketball, field hockey, etc and for them to commit to one sport at 12 or 13 years old is a difficult sell (as you note in your post).

I'll be frank - we have TB teams at every spectrum...we have some teams that are nothing more than glorified house teams. They play B level tourneys, usually don't travel out of town, play in the area travel league that is a bit less competitive (by design) etc. We have others that play 8 tourneys a year, practice 3x's a week 11 months of the year, etc. and we have those teams that are in between the 2.

Just one thing that was suggested that I will throw a caution flag up at: IMO: Once you have teams established, the "A" team should not be allowed to cherry pick the B or C teams of their best players within that age group. They can roster them, but their primary team is the B or C team UNLESS the parents request (in writing) otherwise. If you let this fester, you are killing your TB teams from the ground up. While you may have 1 strong year\strong team, you kill the teamwork and synergy you can achieve by keeping the girls together. At one point, our organization was setup that the A team coach could even take the B team coach's DD...we lost a ton of coaches and players because of this.

I'd be happy to talk with you at length about this...just PM me and I'll send you my cell #

CP

 

[YOCOACH]

Just one thing that was suggested that I will throw a caution flag up at: IMO: Once you have teams established, the "A" team should not be allowed to cherry pick the B or C teams of their best players within that age group. They can roster them, but their primary team is the B or C team UNLESS the parents request (in writing) otherwise. If you let this fester, you are killing your TB teams from the ground up. While you may have 1 strong year\strong team, you kill the teamwork and synergy you can achieve by keeping the girls together. At one point, our organization was setup that the A team coach could even take the B team coach's DD...we lost a ton of coaches and players because of this.

Great point! We field girls from as far away as a 2-2/12 hour drive so the girls we bring in are the ones that live closer to where we are playing the tournament or are "local" to one of the coaches that can bring them if need be. However, in your situation, I can certainly see where that could develop into a serious problem if the same girls get called time and time again to guest play since they are all local.

 

[chrispots]

Thanks! It's not always the popular answer...believe me LOL

Most of our girls are local. We have limits on how many out of towners a team can carry except on the showcase teams...we have a couple of girls that come from out of state for those teams.

CP

 

[sluggers]

I'm under the belief that they're young and should do lots of other sports, activities, etc. and not give up their soul-- and time-- for such a long and never ending season.

I hear where you are coming from. I agree with you for 10U and 12U. But, you are wrong at 14U.

Children at 14U know what they want and what they like, as any teenager will be happy to tell you. So, a child at 14U that wants to spend 24x7 playing softball should be allowed to do so. It isn't fair to those girls who really want to play softball seriously. And, at 14U the kids pretty much know what they like and what they dislike.

Also, you don't control whether there is or is not a Class Tournament team in your community. You are producing lots of girls who like playing softball. It is inevitable that your community will have a Class A tournament team.

If your organization does not establish a team, then someone will start a team outside of your organization. It is just a matter of time.