Ratio of House to Rep players - what's normal?

[Chewy_06]

I've always thought that rep programs should have broad bases of house players supporting them (ie a pyramid) - for the purposes of illustration, say for every 10 house teams at an age group, you (or perhaps just me) might expect to have 2 B teams and 1 A team.

Evidently, my thinking is far wrong - locally, looking at the U10 to U12 transition in our area this year and the introduction of rep at U12, - we had approximately 100 02's moving from U10 last year to U12 this year. Based on the existing rep programs that would have tried to recruit kids and the addition of one new one - in our area, there would have been approximately 74 NEW spots in rep (A & B - 2 full teams of A, rest are B) - which means for every one kid moving to U12C - there are three moving to U12A+U12B. Which I think is absolutely insane.

Weve already observed a good many kids playing B ball that in reality, have zero business being there. And, a fair few kids playing A ball, that I think really are solid B ball players, but not what i'd expect for an A player.

Curious to see what the ratio looks like elsewhere & if perhaps I need to shift my thinking on this?

Ive been wrong before, once, I think. LOL

 

[mad hornet]

Where are you from? It's like you are speaking a foreign language.

 

[Chewy_06]

Hmm. Well, sorry for that.

Canada - BC specifically.

 

[rdbass]

Ratio of House to Rep players
Do you mean -In house ? What is Rep players-Travel/ tournament players?

 

[Chewy_06]

Im not sure we have what I see referred to as travel ball teams - the closest parallel I can draw based on what I think that is - is that yes, the rep players would be equivalent to these. House / C ball - would probably equate to rec ball for you.

Here, in Spetember, kids try out for the rep teams for the following season.

A being the highest level at the age group & has the fewest number of programs out there. A ball should be drawing the best of the best available & is intended to be the most competitive program. At U14 & up, there are no residency requirements - so, an A program in Vancouver can draw players from hundreds of miles away (in theory) without any restrictions or cross boundary permits. The A programs are generally the ones that see some kids being recruiting into college ball.

B is a competitive program, but generally not AS competitive as A. They may practice less, may not travel as far or as much, and generally attract better than average, but not necessarily the best players. Many, if not most of the local associations run B programs of varying size (some are split year, some are dedicated to a single birth year, some dont run them for every age group). B programs are also restricted in terms of residency requirements by our provincial - and federal regulating bodies. At U12 and up, there is a maximum number of out of area spots allowed per team - and, for a child to play on a team outside of where they live, all of the associations offering programs at the desired level & age group are required to sign off on that child's release to enable them to play out of area - this is a highly political & somewhat frustrating subject.

House / C level is recreational ball. Kids play there for a few reasons - significantly reduced costs being one reason. Not being skilled enough to get picked by an A or B team being the other.

Maybe i shoudl have just used french! LOL