Middle School Tryouts

[HunterMO]

There are better MS programs in Norman, but in general the school (MS and HS) softball in this town isn't very good. There are not a lot of kids in Norman who play TB, or if they do it is pretty low level. Most of the other surrounding towns have much better programs.

Had we bought a house 30min North or South when we first moved out here, we would be in the same boat. We got lucky.

 

[_MIA_]

Had we bought a house 30min North or South when we first moved out here, we would be in the same boat. We got lucky.

Yeah, I like my 5 min commute to OU too much to feel bad about where we live (plus the Norman High Schools are good academically)

 

[HunterMO]

Yeah, I like my 5 min commute to OU too much to feel bad about where we live (plus the Norman High Schools are good academically)

Priorities! Funny how they work.

 

[PJR202]

I can't imaging cutting any athletic player in MS.......I know many programs are lucky and have too many good players but I agree so much with this post.

We have an 8th grade team this year with 4 travel pitchers on it.......all 4 could play for many local varsity teams. 16 total kids. We should have many opportunities to develop our roster.

We had to cut. Our better players are still learning the game at this point, so we can't devote the time to starting someone from scratch. We're trying to stabilize the LL so we aren't in this position much longer.

I will say though, announcing who "made the team" seemed to have a real effect on those kids. There's a bit more pride and desire there. They feel like they earned their spot. We actually only cut two because several of our bad apples either aged out or didn't show up. I know for fact that simply knowing there was a tryout stopped a few from showing up. We announced cuts eight months ahead, and reiterated it all that time while we held open workouts every weekday. We made sure everyone had a shot to get better. But when the time came, it really meant something to several of the girls that showed. One 6th grader who was brand new to the game in september was taking ground balls on her own time the day before tryouts. No matter what her skill level was, she would have made the cut. Those are the kids we need.

 

[PJR202]

I hope the work pays off for you! This is how you build a great small town program!

Thank you! We've ruffled a few feathers but we're trying very hard to do this right, and hope the feathers fall back into place when they see positive results.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

Funny, in our town, the girls are all super skeptical because they play on 3 different (what could be described as "rival") TB teams and will have to learn how to play together.

Hahahaha...well, at the very last second, 75% of the travel players decided not to play...so, as the meme from Waterboy says:

 

[NJZoo]

Our season started a couple of weeks ago, but between Spring break and some rain outs we've only played 2 games - both of which were not competitive (we have 7 club girls on our team - including 3 pitchers). I do know that we will face a couple of good teams coming up, so that should be good. Additionally, these types of games allow us to get some of the younger girls some at bats - 1 girl even pitched an inning!. Next year we are going to fall off a cliff talent wise (only 3 club girls), so anything we can do to try to develop the other girls will help down the road.