This is MS, there really isn't a lot on the line. It is a perfect place for girls who haven't had much experience to get out there and take pride in representing their school. The top players will be playing TB concurrently so they will be getting their innings in. If it were me, I wouldn't cut anyone, and use the opportunity to teach more about teamwork leadership and life skills, while not worrying about the W/L record. Find a way for everyone to contribute both in practice and during games. Stress academics and culture, become the team that everyone wants to be a part of at the school.
Middle School Tryouts
- Thread starter JLI2010
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Daughter (7th grade) had her Middle School team meeting last week. We are a very small town, but had a good concentration of travel/club players in 6th-8th grade last year (went 12-2). We return all of our pitchers this year (3 club girls), but don't have a catcher returning, so we're going to have to move a position player there. We have 8 travel/club girls coming back this year, so we have to find 2 more to field a team - luckily 3 girls showed up to the meeting that my daughter wasn't expecting.
So right about the level of competition - we had 1 team (eventual champions) where the girl was throwing 58-60 and others where they are literally lobbing the ball in. It's just fun for my daughter to play with her friends, since they are all on different club teams.
So right about the level of competition - we had 1 team (eventual champions) where the girl was throwing 58-60 and others where they are literally lobbing the ball in. It's just fun for my daughter to play with her friends, since they are all on different club teams.
Having gone 2-9 last year, I can assure you there's zero fun in getting beaten by mercy in three innings nearly every time out. Tons of walks. Stealing home on every (constant) wild pitch. And it's no fun being the winning team in a game that lopsided either. Our two wins were by mercy.
All the things you mentioned are important, but learning how to put in the work and see WINS is critical.
- Jun 8, 2016
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Pitching is what 3/4 of the game in softball ? and pitchers are not developed in team practice for the most part so whether or not
your MS team is any good or not more or less depends on whether a good pitcher (or 2) lives in your area. That said, your team can get better with good practice which is all you can hope for.
Cannonball
Ex "Expert"
- Feb 25, 2009
- 4,881
- 113
We have two middle school teams. One is 7th Grade and one is "Varsity." A 7th Grader can play on Varsity or the 8th-grade team. 6th Graders can not play. Per pitching distances, there are middle school conferences that have all types of strange distances. When my dd played several years ago, they went to play a team that was pretty far east of us. Their distance was 37 feet. LOL
As an aside, 8th-grade parents get pretty angry when 7th graders start over their dds. (I could tell you stories.)
As an aside, 8th-grade parents get pretty angry when 7th graders start over their dds. (I could tell you stories.)
You seem to have interpreted my comments as implying that in this scenario the towel should be thrown in and everyone resigned to not being competitive. That was not the intent, even though the comment about the win loss record could easily be interpreted that way. Rather, teach/coach all the players to be competitive and resilient. I agree with Pattar (yikes) that a team's fortunes at this level are tied to the quality of the pitching so the outcomes of many of the games are essentially predetermined. Having 2 mercy wins and 9 mercy losses sucks because there is no value to the games, but 60%-80% of a team's time together is spent practicing and that is where you can find value for everyone. Make the practices fun while working on specific fundamentals and talk about success in terms of improvement and contribution instead of W/L and the girls will respond.
There is a lot that can be learned learned for both the players in the field and the ones on the bench. There are roles that kids can step into at the MS age that are often not available on the TB teams: Keeping book, Tracking pitches, Relaying signals, even Base Coach (if allowed). Having an army of girls all ready to do their part and be ready to step up as necessary (in the lineup or not) could prove far more rewarding for everyone including the coach. I have seen a lot of girls just make the cut then sit most of the time and lose interest because they don't feel like they are worthwhile members of the team, sure they go out and warm up the RF every inning, and they get some outfield reps each practice, but they are marginalized in the interest of winning and that is no fun.
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
Go take a shower to wash that feeling off…
Pitching was a huge factor for us last year. Our little league was only three years old because it had dried up several years before that. We're a tiny, economically depressed town, so we only had one kid with travel experience and she had played one game of MS ball in 2018 as a 5th grader.
Our middle school program had a gap year in 2019 for lack of a coach. In 2020 we had 20 girls show up. Ten had 1-2 years of experience in our infant LL, which had two teams comprised of girls from 7-13. One 8th grader (my older one) who had two years experience. The one travel kid, and the remaining 8 were wearing a glove for the first time. The season was canceled due to covid a few days before our first game, which was the best thing that could have happened.
Last year, we had one girl with pitching experience. Threw in the low 40's but was wild most of the time and her point of no return was after two walks. A couple other girls knew the motion and threw a strike maybe 1 in 10. Keep in mind, few people around here can get their kids due to money, time, etc. The nearest lessons are 45 minutes away.
As I stated before, it was brutal. We couldn't hit, constant walks, very weak at catcher. Our infield was reasonably competent, but had very little opportunities to field a ball. Our outfield was a complete liability.
Our HS team had a similar experience.
Just before the 2021 MS season started, my younger daughter, who was 7th grade with one year of experience) decided she wanted to pitch. She took lessons throughout the season but I never put her in. She would have done just as poorly as our "relievers," and I decided the experience had a good chance of killing her desire to continue pitching.
After another slaughter in the EOY tournament she swore she wouldn't let 2022 season be like that. She's put in a ton of work. We held open sessions on the field all summer, and some of our girls played LL fall ball in another town. Every damned summer weekday evening I was out there working with 7 or 8 MS and HS kids. We held open hitting and pitching workouts once a week each from fall until three weeks ago. We have 4 girls now who can throw better than any of last year's relievers.
My daughter is a lot better pitcher now, and I'm optimistic about her success as #2 option. The starter from last season has improved as well and we're cautiously optimistic there. Our motto for this year has been "over the plate, down the middle, and let the defense do their job."
We had a couple coaching changes (tons of experience and success in baseball and softball), got our numbers down because the 21 we had were impossible to keep up with, got rid of a few kids who were only interested in goofing off and bringing the others to their level, and had a few come up with actual experience. The attitudes and willingness to work have been amazing.
Our goal is to go .500 and I think we have a good shot at it. It has been a TON of work bringing softball back to life in this town. I've said so many times..."there are athletes out there. We just have to find them before soccer does."
Soccer sucks.
I didn't take your comment to mean that wins don't matter, and we are definitely big on teaching the smaller lessons (far more this season). My response was more so to be clear that losing like that is demoralizing for the players. Once it's happened enough, it only takes a couple bad plays or one show of negative emotion from a pitcher to have the players lose all hope.
I did forget that aside from our blowout wins (same team), we went the distance one time. 12-3 loss but we made it the full 5 innings, and even had the lead for the first three. Otherwise we didn't get past 3 with anyone, and we saw some childish behavior by some of the opposing coaches, which we haven't forgotten about.
We also feel like we owe all of these teams an actual game. I don't feel good about people driving to play us and most of their kids don't even get to see a strike. It's other things besides embarrassing. If we choose to participate in the district we should put our best foot forward.
I like some of your ideas, such as having someone keep the book. We did also get our numbers down this year so that everyone will play at least one game of the standard double header. And all but two of them are competent enough to be more than the type to only see RF.
The HS is in much better shape now as well. All of the coaches from LL to HS are new as of the past two years, and we're in constant communication. It's critical here more than in a bigger area.
Thank you for your input!
Bummer for you. Here in GA we let 5th graders play. Even if they aren't even going to go to your middle school the following year.
