# of Travel Teams

[RedeemerKing]

Just an observation—

Nine years ago there were two 12u tournament teams within 30 miles of our area of Pa.

Today there are over 25 teams at 12u in the same geography. Two at A, a few B and many Cs.

Some teams are holding their 5th round of “final tryouts” as they still don’t have enough girls. Seeing teams folding, leaving their players looking for a new home at the last minute. Other orgs with 4 players are amazingly holding out hope of finding 6+“committed girls” in time for fall.

Looks like we’ve finally reached the saturation point.

 

[bmakj]

Just an observation—

Nine years ago there were two 12u tournament teams within 30 miles of our area of Pa.

Today there are over 25 teams at 12u in the same geography. Two at A, a few B and many Cs.

Some teams are holding their 5th round of “final tryouts” as they still don’t have enough girls. Seeing teams folding, leaving their players looking for a new home at the last minute. Other orgs with 4 players are amazingly holding out hope of finding 6+“committed girls” in time for fall.

Looks like we’ve finally reached the saturation point.

supersaturation if you ask me

 

[Butch18507]

I'm in NEPA as well and i couldn't agree more! It feels like there are new teams popping up all over the place, all that is doing is watering down the teams, it's hard to field a legit A level team when most of the teams are going to have one or two "A" level players. Just my 2 cents....

 

[BRsoftballDad]

8u thru 12u seems to be the time where there are the most teams. Second year 12u and beyond, the cream starts to rise and the teams that just can't compete start to go away.

 

[bmakj]

hopefully some sanity will eventually return and end the death spiral

suzy doesnt make local travel team X, mary does.

suzie totally rational and objective parents say suzy is better than mary, we will start our own travel team. team ends up pulling several of the better rec players from the local league

1-3 years later

sally from rec makes local travel team Y, jenny's totally rational and objective parents say jenny is better than sally, no travel team took her because of X Y Z fantasy reasons, we will start our own travel tem. again, several of the better rec players from local league are pulled out of rec.

soon no one is left in rec except absolute beginners and those families that cannot handle logistics (which includes $) of TB.

what no one realizes is that without rec, tball, and 8u where girls get hooked will cease to exist, tball and 8u will most likely not b able to exist on their own.

 

[Cougars]

I tend to take the opposite view. Yes, some teams will have a hard time finding players and they go away. However, the reality is there are 1,000's and 1,000's of players that don't care about playing in college or winning PGF. They are having fun and competing at whatever level they are.

Just look at the OP numbers. 25 teams and 2 are 'A'. So 92% of the teams in their area aren't "elite", and the 2 'A' teams might not be "elite" level either. That's about 275 players on B or C teams and 25 on A. All the people complaining about the top being hard to fill, or " watered down", or mocking the "hitten kittens" are the very, very small minority in the big picture. If we all woke up tomorrow and the PGF and Alliance had disappeared, 90-95% of the teams in this country wouldn't know, or at least care.

 

[RedeemerKing]

hopefully some sanity will eventually return and end the death spiral

suzy doesnt make local travel team X, mary does.

suzie totally rational and objective parents say suzy is better than mary, we will start our own travel team. team ends up pulling several of the better rec players from the local league

1-3 years later

sally from rec makes local travel team Y, jenny's totally rational and objective parents say jenny is better than sally, no travel team took her because of X Y Z fantasy reasons, we will start our own travel tem. again, several of the better rec players from local league are pulled out of rec.

soon no one is left in rec except absolute beginners and those families that cannot handle logistics (which includes $) of TB.

what no one realizes is that without rec, tball, and 8u where girls get hooked will cease to exist, tball and 8u will most likely not b able to exist on their own.

That’s a pretty accurate timeline. I could actually track that chain of events at a local organization here. At the 10u level a couple of the girls who did not make the team had parents band together and start their own team. That team has since fractured and spun off yet another team. Fast forward 2 years and the end result is that you have three teams essentially short handed and now competing for the same finite pool of girls.

 

[RedeemerKing]

I tend to take the opposite view. Yes, some teams will have a hard time finding players and they go away. However, the reality is there are 1,000's and 1,000's of players that don't care about playing in college or winning PGF. They are having fun and competing at whatever level they are.

Just look at the OP numbers. 25 teams and 2 are 'A'. So 92% of the teams in their area aren't "elite", and the 2 'A' teams might not be "elite" level either. That's about 275 players on B or C teams and 25 on A. All the people complaining about the top being hard to fill, or " watered down", or mocking the "hitten kittens" are the very, very small minority in the big picture. If we all woke up tomorrow and the PGF and Alliance had disappeared, 90-95% of the teams in this country wouldn't know, or at least care.

I agree as well. Definitely should be a place for everyone at that age to play and have fun. Unfortunately, since rec is getting wiped out the cost of play has increased 20 fold for all of these kids families. Basically the teams at the bottom are playing the same level as they would have in a recreational league but now have a much more significant cost.

 

[marriard]

Just an observation—

Nine years ago there were two 12u tournament teams within 30 miles of our area of Pa.

Today there are over 25 teams at 12u in the same geography. Two at A, a few B and many Cs.

Some teams are holding their 5th round of “final tryouts” as they still don’t have enough girls. Seeing teams folding, leaving their players looking for a new home at the last minute. Other orgs with 4 players are amazingly holding out hope of finding 6+“committed girls” in time for fall.

Looks like we’ve finally reached the saturation point.

I disagree in a lot of areas - not all - but it is not a black/white situation.;

• A lot of this is that rec had died in many areas, so lowest-level 'travel' has replaced it. That isn't ideal, but that it is the current reality.
• The other factor is that travel has opened up in many ways; the old network of people/orgs/whatever that was keeping a lot of people out (primarily by stealing all the talent around 14U) was breached.

 

[RedeemerKing]

hopefully some sanity will eventually return and end the death spiral

suzy doesnt make local travel team X, mary does.

suzie totally rational and objective parents say suzy is better than mary, we will start our own travel team. team ends up pulling several of the better rec players from the local league

1-3 years later

sally from rec makes local travel team Y, jenny's totally rational and objective parents say jenny is better than sally, no travel team took her because of X Y Z fantasy reasons, we will start our own travel tem. again, several of the better rec players from local league are pulled out of rec.

soon no one is left in rec except absolute beginners and those families that cannot handle logistics (which includes $) of TB.

what no one realizes is that without rec, tball, and 8u where girls get hooked will cease to exist, tball and 8u will most likely not b able to exist on their own.

You are correct about pulling from rec. Many of these local teams advertising for talent are specifically targeting rec leagues. We have had two out of the four somewhat local rec leagues fold over the last decade.