Number of players on a team

[radness]

Think guest playing at times is a necessity. Its ok.
However its peculiar to me to see people planning to rely on it.

As a group effort of money and team...

Would prefer a familiar roster
of a couple more players over
'a scramble to pick up players and who the heck is this player this weekend?!'

Stability over scramble as you go.

Surprised people arent commenting on earning a position and that competing for a spot thing....
Or welllll maybe i'm not surprised?!

 

[bmakj]

If you have to roster 14, 16, 18 girls to make sure you have enough for game day you have a commitment problem. I would never let DD play on a team that rosters more than 12/13. Her team rosters 12 and it's perfect. JMHO

for girls in HS, there are going to be some things that are higher priority than softball....SATs/ACTs, prom, homecoming, senior trip, school play/concert, college visits, other HS sports. to me, none of these is a commitment problem, simply part of HS life.

 

[Cougars]

for girls in HS, there are going to be some things that are higher priority than softball....SATs/ACTs, prom, homecoming, senior trip, school play/concert, college visits, other HS sports. to me, none of these is a commitment problem, simply part of HS life.

It's all good, with covid, most of those things have been cancelled...... (sarcasm alert in case anyone doesn't understand)

 

[BrianTx01]

I honestly think these huge teams will soon be a thing of the past. In my local area we can't get two top pitchers on the same team. Their parents avoid each other like the plague. Some of the usual suspects are getting 14 and 15 on a 12U roster but they don't have the elite pitchers. Even some of the larger organizations are thinking the size of their top teams.

I just think this younger generation and their parents are different. They would much rather play than game then ride the pine just to say they are on some trade mark team.

But this could be a regional thing...I was amazed when I saw how big some of the 12U california teams where at the Ronald McDonald.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

In my local area we can't get two top pitchers on the same team.

Just saw this post on a FB forum:

" Our 16u travel program is looking for 3 pitchers, to expand our team. At least 2 should be tournament ready."

 

[BrianTx01]

Just saw this post on a FB forum:

" Our 16u travel program is looking for 3 pitchers, to expand our team. At least 2 should be tournament ready."

There is just a major shortage of quality pitchers. I mean that is obviously ridiculous....you expect that from a first year 10U program.

 

[BT3100]

I think we're talking about 2 different types of teams/focuses. If your team is a B or C team with girls who play for fun and have little aspirations of playing in college then it wouldn't make sense to be on a team with 18 players.
However, if the player is skilled enough to compete for playing time against other skilled players and she has the desire to face top competition to ready herself for college ball then playing on a larger team is not seen as a threat to her or her family. High level teams that play top competition don't have to search for pitching. They have pitchers knocking on their doors, not to mention the pitchers they have developed from the 10u level. If a team is desperately looking for pitching help not due to injuries then that's not a team playing in high level tournaments. I still can't believe or understand why a parent would get upset if their kids team plays 6 games in a weekend and each kid got 3 whole games at their position then sat for 3 games of the weekend. Average game 6 innings. Thats 18 innings of play for your DD. How much do ya want?

 

[Orange Socks]

I think we're talking about 2 different types of teams/focuses. If your team is a B or C team with girls who play for fun and have little aspirations of playing in college then it wouldn't make sense to be on a team with 18 players.
However, if the player is skilled enough to compete for playing time against other skilled players and she has the desire to face top competition to ready herself for college ball then playing on a larger team is not seen as a threat to her or her family. High level teams that play top competition don't have to search for pitching. They have pitchers knocking on their doors, not to mention the pitchers they have developed from the 10u level. If a team is desperately looking for pitching help not due to injuries then that's not a team playing in high level tournaments. I still can't believe or understand why a parent would get upset if their kids team plays 6 games in a weekend and each kid got 3 whole games at their position then sat for 3 games of the weekend. Average game 6 innings. Thats 18 innings of play for your DD. How much do ya want?

My DD pretty much split innings at Catcher for 3 years on her team. They were both the same age with very similar abilities. Her soph year she only played Catcher and didn't get inning at another position. Jr/Sr year she played Most innings either catcher or 1B and Sr. year played a little 3B. Last year in college she played every inning 70% at Catcher, 29% at 3B and 1% at SS because their roster size became small after academic issues, injuries and quitters. She was worn out. This season will be better.

DD college opponents had large roster sizes. The coaches would play 20 players each game! I just found the largest college I have ever seen. 45 players!!!! https://bcuchargers.com/sports/softball/roster They can host their own round robin with 5 teams. If anyone is aware of a larger roster, please post.

 

[BT3100]

DD college opponents had large roster sizes. The coaches would play 20 players each game! I just found the largest college I have ever seen. 45 players!!!! https://bcuchargers.com/sports/softball/roster They can host their own round robin with 5 teams. If anyone is aware of a larger roster, please post.

Wow, 45 players. That's an SEC roster. We have a few DII's in our area that have large rosters (30+). These are programs that are not fully funded. With only 1 or 2 scholarships player turnover is very high. Makes sense for a player on the fence to quit the team if she is not getting any athletic money.

 

[Strike2]

16-18 players on a competitive 18U team is normal, unless your team is the Hittin Kittens playing rinky dink local tourneys. Pick ups at 18U? That is pretty rare unless you have a kid getting ready to leave their current team, usually at the end of a season. We were not picking up players from our area to travel out of state. There just aren't players sitting around doing nothing waiting to be picked up. They are normally playing the same tourneys we were playing. Also, you will have 18U players starting to coast with a bad case of Senioritis with parents not wanting to spend the money on the last out of state travel tourney. 12-13 players is not enough to get through a 18U Nationals tourney in the middle of summer. I couldn't remember how many tourneys we actually had all the players at the same tourney and at all the practices.

Look at Kevin Shelton's Glory team's roster.
http://texasgloryfastpitch.com/teampage.aspx?ID=1

My experience is very different and, frankly, that's ridiculous. Lol...it's significantly bigger than DD's college team. We're definitely not a getting on an airplane to fly to tournament kind of team, but we're not the "Hittin Kittens" either. Nearly the entire team in or headed to a college program (albeit lower level). We just don't need that many players...the ones we have usually show up. If we're down, we usually find a good replacement.