New division age cutoff

[ValleyCoach]

I’ve been doing this for a long time and divisions were always based on age on 12/31 with the option to play up especially in the fall when the girl would move up for spring and summer ball. The directors of the two leagues I coach for both said that USSSA had changed the division age cutoff to 8/31 rather than 12/31 so all of our summer 8s had to move up to 10s for fall which wasn’t ideal since even our 2nd year 8s only had one year of travel ball experience due to COVID; they would have really benefited from of few more months of comp 8 before spring rec. we also had to move our 3 true 8s (including my daughter) up because we were only able to field one team. Luckily two of those 8s are among the striver players in the team… Anyway, I was told that the USA Softball tournaments were abiding by the new age cutoff but AST tournaments were not going to until next season. For this reason, given my young team, I registered only for USSSA tourneys. There were a couple of teams there that straight up told me that they kept their summer 10s teams from the summer in tact even with the girls that should have been playing 12s with the 8/31 cutoff… There is a huge difference between an 8 and an 11 year old girl so said games were an eye opening learning experience for my girls-lol When I search for details on this age change, I find very little concrete information and really just worked off of what our league director said (not too involved so I pretty much ran the show…) Anybody able to shed some more light on this please? Thank you

 

[_MIA_]

If a team is going to be 10's in Spring (eg at least one kid is going to turn 9 on or before 12/31/22) you typically play 10's in Fall. That is the way it has always been around here (OK). Sounds like your local directors are just making that a rule..

 

[ValleyCoach]

If a team is going to be 10's in Spring (eg at least one kid is going to turn 9 on or before 12/31/22) you typically play 10's in Fall. That is the way it has always been around here (OK). Sounds like your local directors are just making that a rule..

Ya. I do remember girls traditionally moving up to the division they will be playing next spring/summer but that it wasn’t mandatory. As none of our girls had played more than one comp summer (COVID), some never having played comp, one who never played softball before, a few true 8s, and only one returning 10, we would have very much benefited from an 8U fall season but the director said it was a rule change for the 2023 season that USA softball tournaments (AST would be abiding next fall) were (supposedly) following as would our league. It’s over and done with although we’re continuing practice for one more week for fun. There was a lot learned (and now my daughter wants to play up to 10s next season) but we really did need this fall and upcoming rec season to be competitive in the 10U division

 

[ValleyCoach]

Ya. I do remember girls traditionally moving up to the division they will be playing next spring/summer but that it wasn’t mandatory. As none of our girls had played more than one comp summer (COVID), some never having played comp, one who never played softball before, a few true 8s, and only one returning 10, we would have very much benefited from an 8U fall season but the director said it was a rule change for the 2023 season that USA softball tournaments (AST would be abiding next fall) were (supposedly) following as would our league. It’s over and done with although we’re continuing practice for one more week for fun. There was a lot learned (and now my daughter wants to play up to 10s next season) but we really did need this fall and upcoming rec season to be competitive in the 10U division

Was really just asking if anyone knew any hard, concrete information regarding if there is or isn’t a change from 12/31 to 8/31 as the official cutoff for age divisions (not complaining just wondering as I’ve come across conflicting and seemingly outdated information) It is very possible that our director got it wrong but she was pretty certain in her belief of the change and other coaches at the tournaments we played at knew of the change although some admitted to not abiding by it. I even had a short discussion with one of the umps who talked about AST tournaments not yet abiding by it so we could have played as 8s (minus that one girl) at their tournaments

 

[_MIA_]

The USSSA site age calculator still has the Dec 31 date

 

[Chilixa]

Ya. I do remember girls traditionally moving up to the division they will be playing next spring/summer but that it wasn’t mandatory. As none of our girls had played more than one comp summer (COVID), some never having played comp, one who never played softball before, a few true 8s, and only one returning 10, we would have very much benefited from an 8U fall season but the director said it was a rule change for the 2023 season that USA softball tournaments (AST would be abiding next fall) were (supposedly) following as would our league. It’s over and done with although we’re continuing practice for one more week for fun. There was a lot learned (and now my daughter wants to play up to 10s next season) but we really did need this fall and upcoming rec season to be competitive in the 10U division

USSSA uses birth years like every other organization when calculating age groups. But their new season starts in mid August as opposed to some organizations that don’t start new seasons until January 1st. My oldest is an 09 and has to play 14u in USSSA events since august. But if she wanted she could still play 12u in NSA events but so far we have just stuck with 14u once we moved up.


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[ValleyCoach]

See, between you and pattar who is quoting the USSSA site, which I’ve also seen, there is conflicting information as what you are saying is what I thought was correct, I just can’t find it in print so wondering where the official information is cited or if it’s like 8U rules which are up for interpretation with no real guidelines or solid rule book

 

[_MIA_]

See, between you and pattar who is quoting the USSSA site, which I’ve also seen, there is conflicting information as what you are saying is what I thought was correct, I just can’t find it in print so wondering where the official information is cited or if it’s like 8U rules which are up for interpretation with no real guidelines or solid rule book

I was talking in general, not specific to USSSA. If you go to the USSSA site and put in age and season ( which starts in Aug like @Chilixa said) it will tell you what the age group you need to be playing in that season eg if you turn 9 before 1/1/23 you need to be playing 9/10U for the 23 season

 

[Chilixa]

See, between you and pattar who is quoting the USSSA site, which I’ve also seen, there is conflicting information as what you are saying is what I thought was correct, I just can’t find it in print so wondering where the official information is cited or if it’s like 8U rules which are up for interpretation with no real guidelines or solid rule book

Search 2023 age chart for USSSA and it will give you what age group they should be in. Tricky part is 2023 season starts in August of 2022. That is where the confusion come from. I have attached a picture but couldn’t find one that wasn’t a little blurry. All based on birth year.

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[NJZoo]

The "confusion" comes from the softball season not lining up with the calendar year. The 2023 USSSA softball season starts Aug of 2022 and runs through July of 2023. The age cutoff is still 12/31. However, as said above, teams will usually "move up" in the Fall to gain experience for the longer Spring season. But, this is not mandated. You will see an example of this most often at 2nd year 14U - teams will play the Fall Showcases at 14U and then move up to 16U in the Spring.