Maybe no more Tournaments us

[Phathead]

I guess I have been lucky. I started a TB team at 10u and picked the kids on skill but mostly parents with the exception of one parent all has went well. No drama etc. As Ken said we know what are limits are and goals. My goal setting out was to give the girls more playing time than rec. Now second yr 12u mostly same girls same good parents. Parents set up tents outfield if possiable watch cheer. What I have found is mostly class competition. Have had I butts handed to us and the other team be gracious winners with the buttholes coach and players being the exception. Ran into the same team 3 times this year. They are the by far better team but because we act professional and so does he. He will pitch #3 or 4 and not run score up. We even stayed close once but the attuide was the same. So most teams are great with great kids we just remember the knuckle heads.

 

[lennyslosers]

Play TB on the East Coast in South Carolina (Charleston). Most teams are great. Some may smack your hand a little harder after a loss but most are good sports. They all get together on the mound after shaking hands and do a unity softball cheer. All is forgotten. I have a daughter in 10U and 12U. TB is the way to go. Rec is a waste of time.

 

[SoftSocDad]

Finishing up our first year of 8U travel ball tournies in Northern CA. Here I've seen pretty good coaching and pushed my assistants to learn from them. The teams are very well coached in terms of fundamentals and coaches let kids play.

I absolutely cannot stand trying to shout kids through games and have to fight one particular assistant almost every game to quiet down. We're just getting our feet wet in competitive ball and so winning only a quarter of our games, and this makes certain dads feel compelled to "do something". What these dads need to do is get into some sort of beer league of their own.

Only 1 gripe here is the very best teams in NorCa have surprisingly been eerily similar in a couple of respects. One is they have the worst cheers hands down and two is they get in your face after the game. So, they'll do cheers like your team doesn't know how to play ball, is stupid and is going to get crushed. 5 minutes later when the game is over they suddenly are "proud of you" in the form of getting in your face and making a tunnel your girls are supposed to go through.

I consider this sort of "cheer" or whatever you want to call it to be extremely bush league and I've put and end to it in terms of I don't want my girls to have to go through the stupid tunnel and I tell opposing coaches that we've shaken their hands and to please get out of the way of our dugout.

Great sportsmanship!

Way to show those 8-year-olds who's boss, Coach.