Number of players on a team

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Apr 1, 2017
535
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A lot of this argument is influenced by the level of team you are talking about. If you are on a team that is traveling to a different state every weekend, you're much more likely to run into conflicts, and need larger rosters. If it's the more typical B or C team, a smaller roster will work, especially because of the shorter and/or no travel. Maybe Player A can't be there for the Saturday part of tournament, but is good for Friday and Sunday. Extreme example, we had a player last season that had a family conflict for a morning pool play game, but made the afternoon game. Obviously, that doesn't work if the tournament is a plane flight away.
 
Oct 4, 2018
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We are going with 13 this spring. Normally we carried 11 but if injuries or other circumstances came up with any players we would run thin on tournament days. We are a highly competitive 12U team and will be traveling a bit more this year so that may/could play into the player numbers game.

I appreciate all the feedback and seeing the different thought processes people have - especially between coach and parent because as we all know, sometimes thoughts of a coach and parent are different ;)

Keep us updated. We're going with 11 on our 12U team and parents are happy about it. I'm curious to see if you notice any unhappy parents.
 
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
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North Carolina
Minimum of 12, that's carrying 3 pitchers and 2 catchers. So 12 to 14 is ideal, to me. Showcase in the upper years can be tricky with committed (and non-committed) girls attending camps and visiting college campuses.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
So at 18U you wouldn’t let players go to college camps, college visits, take their SATs, or allow seniors to go to their proms or graduation? Not being snarky - just an honest question.

These are all examples of events that occur all on the same dates for most players, so if you have 5 seniors on your 18U team you could potentially be down to 7 players with a roster of 12 on some weekends.

Yeah, but after the proms and graduations are over, you're going to have 17-18 in the dugout for the rest of the summer. That's assuming that you can even get that many on your roster at one time...most teams cannot. Better to carry ~12-13 and pick up as necessary. There may be weekends in early Spring when you just can't play. Speaking as an 18U coach.
 
Apr 28, 2014
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Yeah, but after the proms and graduations are over, you're going to have 17-18 in the dugout for the rest of the summer. That's assuming that you can even get that many on your roster at one time...most teams cannot. Better to carry ~12-13 and pick up as necessary. There may be weekends in early Spring when you just can't play. Speaking as an 18U coach.

If the team is good or even above average they will play 3 pool games on a typical Saturday and 2-5 games on a Sunday. If the team plays 6 games in a weekend you're saying 3 games to sit is too many? Even if they play 3 full games?
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
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Texas
Yeah, but after the proms and graduations are over, you're going to have 17-18 in the dugout for the rest of the summer. That's assuming that you can even get that many on your roster at one time...most teams cannot. Better to carry ~12-13 and pick up as necessary. There may be weekends in early Spring when you just can't play. Speaking as an 18U coach.

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
 
May 27, 2013
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113
Yeah, but after the proms and graduations are over, you're going to have 17-18 in the dugout for the rest of the summer. That's assuming that you can even get that many on your roster at one time...most teams cannot. Better to carry ~12-13 and pick up as necessary. There may be weekends in early Spring when you just can't play. Speaking as an 18U coach.

Have been with this team for 3 years now. We go out of state a few times each season (NE Finest, D9, etc.). We have always carried 16-17 since I’ve been affiliated with this team. Never has been an issue. We typically don’t tend to lose players (only do if they decide playing college ball is not for them); we actually have cut a couple players at the end of each season. Our coaches work wonders at getting girls equal playing time (unless a college coach requests to see someone). There have been several times where we were down to 12 players. occasionally we were even lower than that and had to pickup a player or two. The showcases we play in are typically 6 GG; our coach typically will get more than that added on.

ETA: In the fall we typically will play 5-6 games during one-days that we host. It’s nice to have a full roster then because the girls actually like a few innings off!
 
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Oct 16, 2019
130
43
As I undoubtedly learned here at DFP, I'm a big fan of this system. Certainly at the younger ages.

So many problems occur with a 10U team with 12 girls on it. Parents griping about playing time, girls don't get enough reps/at bats in games, parents griping about playing time, parents griping about playing time and parents griping about playing time.


At the younger ages, girls simply don't miss games. Fewer injuries, fewer conflicts, etc. I love having a lean team.
10U with more than ten or eleven is terrible. "Mommy Ball" at its best; it only punishes the solid players who have the parents that don't complain or don't coach. I would be ashamed for my daughter to only get playing time because I jumped on the coach, but it happens. I may complain one day if she is done wrong due to "mommy ball", but it will be as I am leaving, not to get more time for her.
You need ten to play, just in case something happens in a tournament, but you need guest players just for vacations, and other situations that may arise, IMHO.
 
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