Lack of 2010 Birth Year Players

[NJSwampdragons]

Why would anything going on now affect only 2010s?

2010s would be the most common year for girls to jump from rec to travel for the 1st time and most rec leagues were cancelled this year.

 

[QueueCT]

We've got a surplus here, maybe we can ship some down. My town of <10,000 was able to field two full rec teams at 10U over the summer. We strongly encourage travel players at 12U and under to play town rec ball as well as travel. It's painful for some of the girls but gives less skilled players the ability to keep playing. Lacrosse is a big drain for us as the girls get older.

 

[NJSwampdragons]

We've got a surplus here, maybe we can ship some down. My town of <10,000 was able to field two full rec teams at 10U over the summer. We strongly encourage travel players at 12U and under to play town rec ball as well as travel. It's painful for some of the girls but gives less skilled players the ability to keep playing. Lacrosse is a big drain for us as the girls get older.

Yes, I think rec was cancelled almost everywhere in NJ, while travel and club played. So now travel is filled with a mix of a few 2010s who were able to make travels teams as first years, and 8-U travel girls moving up.

A few towns had 1st year 10-U travel teams last year but not too many. Now some of these teams are better than the club teams. In fact I saw a score where a middling town travel team wrecked a club team that placed top-5 in the USSSA Nationals in Maryland last year in a 5th place game out of 6 teams.

Pitching is an even bigger issue. My daughter is the 1A pitcher on her club team, and going by the posts on here, she’d be lucky to pitching on a good rec team in some states. Our #3 was the best of the day, but she might not have even been hitting 30mph. Besides one dominant team, the pitching wasn’t much better with the other teams it seemed.

 

[adm793]

CFL area and I was actually discussing this with some of our board members today.

Our local rec softball league is one of the larger ones in the immediate area. 10u and 6u teams took a big hit this season across our league and district.

Our immediate thoughts; 10u is mainly contributed to girls jumping to TB earlier each season and the COVID shutdown forced many of the girls on the cusp to make the jump to TB this summer prior to our fall program starting back up.

Our 6u is also thin this season, but I think it’s more COVID related. Other divisions maintained or grew. 14u grew by more than 100%.

Overall our fall season is only a few kids short of our spring season numbers. It’s usually 75% of the past prior spring season.

 

[rjgarcia76]

Are any other parts of the country seeing a lack of 2010 birth year travel players? My daughter is one of 3-4 2010s on her club team. One club team had to fold their 10-U program because the couldn’t get enough players, and many of the other club teams in the state are filled with 2011s.

Here in Oklahoma/NW Arkansas we are not lacking in quality 2010 teams. Nobody truly overpowering that I've seen, but quite a few that can get out and compete game after game.

 

[efastball]

"Lack of 2010 Birth Year Players"

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