Levels of Play

[MNDad]

I’m curious what the different levels of play mean in different areas of the country?

Here in Minnesota we have Rec, Travel A/B/C and Elite.

Rec = Playing ball within your city for the Park and Rec Department. All of the games are local within a city or adjacent city. Teams are usually named a color or after a major league team. They don’t have a state or national tournament.

Travel A/B/C = Plays mostly local under the name of a city or high school. Some may venture out of town a few hours away. Their “Nationals” are run by a group called NAFA, but the teams are mostly from MN with one or two from IA, WI, SD or NE. I would guess this is Rec Ball in other parts of the country.

Elite or Club = A few variations fall under this category here. Most are made up of girls from different cities. The bottom end play NAFA or USSSA. The lower to mid range play USSSA, ASA Northern or PGF Regional. The mid to upper play ASA A. The top play ASA Gold or PGF Nationals. I'm thinking our bottom "elite" teams are C, mid to upper are B and the top and a couple of the upper are A.

 

[Jquick823]

Here in Delaware the letter means little. But A/B are pretty much just OPEN. A 14U B team might play 3 14U A teams every Saturday so really the classification is just for Nationals or World Series and States. In C ball there are a few teams that probably belong in B but wouldn't get very deep in tournaments but win every weekend in C usually 1st year 12U teams go C.

USSSA-The best and the worst play these every weekend but the level of competition for the best teams is not good.
ASA-Still working it's way into a major role but maybe 1 tournament a year in DE most are 2 hours away
NSA-Minimum 2 hr trips 30 plus teams and the most competitive IMO

 

[CoogansBluff]

In N.C. the past 3 years, and in Georgia for 5 years of travel ball before that, and definitions in both places were similar and vague. There were no strict rules to define A, B, C, but people used them to describe the general strength of teams. I heard those terms much more frequently in Georgia, not always with agreement on what they meant.

In 10U-12U, my definition of an A team was one that was chasing an ASA national bid (this was before PGF was taking hold), or a team that could be competitive in that environment. C teams were entry-level teams or all-star teams. B teams were everything in between.

 

[Acroyear]

In my part of Nebraska the progression is as follows:

Starting usually at the ymca level with "Rec" then moving to "Spirit"

Moving on from there usually means the local organizations for A,B,C

C usually for odd year at age level (9u's in 10U level) or teams that can't quite cut it at age level.

B & A are usually even year age groups depending on competitiveness.

"Elite" seems to be the newest fashion trend to tack onto a A/B team name much like the digital camo uniforms were so cool a few years ago.

"Club" usually refers to teams that do more national/regional tournaments and their players usually go on to play at the college level.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Out in California there is just Rec and travel. all TB team's only take the most committed players, they all have a coaching staff with 30 years of experience and they will prepare your student athlete to play at Oklahoma. Weird thing is many of these teams actually suck.

Oh-and they all have a good core and a solid defense with big bats, they just need that one pitcher to win a PGF title.

 

[NoVA Softball]

Interesting timing on this post. USSSA Region 1 (Mid-Atlantic/Northeast) just reclassified 32 "C" teams 10/12/14/16 into "B" a couple of days ago (including DD's team). The reason given was "to maintain a competitive balance," which seems reasonable given that pretty much every team who had given us a competitive game this spring was also bumped up. We were doing well at "C" but not dominant (had gone from .600 ball in the fall to maybe .750 in the spring, winning 1 of 3 tournaments we entered). We will probably struggle a lot in "B" but hopefully it will make the girls better.

With that, here's my take for northern Virginia:
Rec/house is geographically-based leagues that take everyone who registers. Coaches are parent volunteers of uneven capacity. Everyone plays, & you bat the roster. Some very good players (some of whom play travel also) but overall a wide range of talent, including new-to-softball players as late as 12 and 14U.

Next is All-Stars, made up from rec/house league teams. They typically play in June and July only, playing in a local all-star only tournament or two, some round-robin double-headers against other all-star teams, and maybe a USSSA "C" tournament or two.

It seems like the travel ball is mostly USSSA around here. There's a fair amount of bleed-over between A/B/C

"C" teams hold tryouts, although some teams try to keep a core of players even if they could recruit upgrades. Teams are still very much geographic by town, and often use the town in their names. Still a wide range of player abilities, with many kids in their first year out of rec into TB. Some kids getting private instruction. Most if not all pitchers getting private instruction. They practice some over the winter, but not more than 1-2/week.

"B" teams are more uniform. Fewer weak spots in the lineups. Consistently solid pitching. Most kids getting outside instruction. Most teams practice more frequently than "C" teams. Many single age teams play "C" when they're younger and "B" the years they are on the older side.

"A" teams (not much experience with these) are very significant time commitments. Play more, practice more, travel farther. Very competitive tryouts. Draw players from a much wider area. At younger ages especially, players tend to be physically advanced (aka gigantic) compared to their peers in Rec or "C"

 

[Eric F]

SO Cal...

ASA is the dominant organization for rec. There are some teams under the Little League umbrella, but much fewer than ASA.

ASA-C (Rec) - Small leagues not very deep with talent. Some age divisions may only have 1 or 2 teams, and will play against neighboring leagues for regular season games. All-Stars will likely include only one team per age division (or none at all, in some cases), and will compete against the second (Silver) All-Star team from B leagues.

ASA-B (Rec) - Medium to large leagues that often include a significantly deep pool of talented players. Typically, there are enough teams to play the regular season against only teams within the league. All-Stars will usually include 2 teams in every age division, and will sometimes include 3. The top B-league All-Star teams would be competitive in TB.

Travel - The range in team talent level is pretty significant at the younger ages (10U, 12U). Some of the lesser teams would struggle against a decent B-league All-Star team. Top teams are typically stacked with girls who are all exceptional athletes and excellent ballplayers. There are teams that are former rec All-Star teams that decided to break away from their former league. Other teams are part of a large organization, which includes multiple teams per age division. Large organizations tend to attract good talent, but not always. Especially now with the inclusion of a 10U Nationals in their program, PGF has become the top of the heap for tournaments, as far as level of competition. ASA is battling to stay relevant, but tournament participation is fading. TCS and USSSA tournaments are also on the So Cal calendar. Generally speaking, TB is promoted as the pathway to college softball.

 

[GoCaboNow]

Out in California there is just Rec and travel. all TB team's only take the most committed players, they all have a coaching staff with 30 years of experience and they will prepare your student athlete to play at Oklahoma. Weird thing is many of these teams actually suck.

Oh-and they all have a good core and a solid defense with big bats, they just need that one pitcher to win a PGF title.

We are similar in the northwest but also have "great parents".

 

[Mocoso]

I think Eric pretty much NAILED IT for So Cal... some minor "comments"

SO Cal...

ASA is the dominant organization for rec. There are some teams under the Little League umbrella, but much fewer than ASA.

ASA-C (Rec) - Small leagues not very deep with talent. Some age divisions may only have 1 or 2 teams, and will play against neighboring leagues for regular season games. All-Stars will likely include only one team per age division (or none at all, in some cases), and will compete against the second (Silver) All-Star team from B leagues.

ASA-B (Rec) - Medium to large leagues that often include a significantly deep pool of talented players. Typically, there are enough teams to play the regular season against only teams within the league. All-Stars will usually include 2 teams in every age division, and will sometimes include 3 (or even four specially in 10U). The top B-league All-Star teams would be competitive in TB.

Travel - The range in team talent level is pretty significant at the younger ages (10U, 12U). Some of the lesser teams would struggle against a decent B-league All-Star team. Top teams are typically stacked with girls who are all exceptional athletes and excellent ballplayers. There are teams that are former rec All-Star teams that decided to break away from their former league. Other teams are part of a large organization, which includes multiple teams per age division. Large organizations tend to attract good talent, but not always. Especially now with the inclusion of a 10U Nationals in their program, PGF has become the top of the heap for tournaments, as far as level of competition. ASA is battling to stay relevant, but tournament participation is fading. TCS and USSSA tournaments are also on the So Cal calendar. Generally speaking, TB is promoted as the pathway to college softball.They have to promote it as pathway to college given the big business it has become out here

 

[Jquick823]

Interesting timing on this post. USSSA Region 1 (Mid-Atlantic/Northeast) just reclassified 32 "C" teams 10/12/14/16 into "B" a couple of days ago (including DD's team). The reason given was "to maintain a competitive balance," which seems reasonable given that pretty much every team who had given us a competitive game this spring was also bumped up. We were doing well at "C" but not dominant (had gone from .600 ball in the fall to maybe .750 in the spring, winning 1 of 3 tournaments we entered). We will probably struggle a lot in "B" but hopefully it will make the girls better.

With that, here's my take for northern Virginia:
Rec/house is geographically-based leagues that take everyone who registers. Coaches are parent volunteers of uneven capacity. Everyone plays, & you bat the roster. Some very good players (some of whom play travel also) but overall a wide range of talent, including new-to-softball players as late as 12 and 14U.

Next is All-Stars, made up from rec/house league teams. They typically play in June and July only, playing in a local all-star only tournament or two, some round-robin double-headers against other all-star teams, and maybe a USSSA "C" tournament or two.

It seems like the travel ball is mostly USSSA around here. There's a fair amount of bleed-over between A/B/C

"C" teams hold tryouts, although some teams try to keep a core of players even if they could recruit upgrades. Teams are still very much geographic by town, and often use the town in their names. Still a wide range of player abilities, with many kids in their first year out of rec into TB. Some kids getting private instruction. Most if not all pitchers getting private instruction. They practice some over the winter, but not more than 1-2/week.

"B" teams are more uniform. Fewer weak spots in the lineups. Consistently solid pitching. Most kids getting outside instruction. Most teams practice more frequently than "C" teams. Many single age teams play "C" when they're younger and "B" the years they are on the older side.

"A" teams (not much experience with these) are very significant time commitments. Play more, practice more, travel farther. Very competitive tryouts. Draw players from a much wider area. At younger ages especially, players tend to be physically advanced (aka gigantic) compared to their peers in Rec or "C"

USSSA does dominate our region as far as number of teams registered especially in the MD area. I would look into NSA. Virginiansa.com is your local site, we travel down there from DE every weekend to play to get away from the locals lol.