Recruiting Travel Players at 12u

[RedeemerKing]

Is recruiting players to join a team at 12u considered bad form?

By recruiting I mean—Basically reaching out directly to parents of talented girls you know in other organizations or have faced in tournaments.

 

[HunterMO]

There was an instance of this recently that I had heard about. A girl had made a commitment to a team and then left for another organization after they reached out to her.

My personal opinion is that an organization has every right to reach out to parents/players if they feel said player can help them. It’s ultimately up to the parents/player and what’s right to them. They can always say no.

 

[Long Baller]

Is recruiting players to join a team at 12u considered bad form?

By recruiting I mean—Basically reaching out directly to parents of talented girls you know in other organizations or have faced in tournaments.

I thought that was pretty much the norm.

 

[BT3100]

I asked the head of our Org a few years ago why he placed the parents phone numbers on the website with players profiles. I said aren't you worried about kids getting poached. He said if kids want to leave let em leave. Were on our 5th year at that org and it's grown from 3 teams when we started to 13 teams today. Guess he was right. Create a good culture, develop players and they will stay and attract others to follow.

 

[uncdrew]

Yeah, it's pretty normal. Some coaches do it respectfully and above-board, others are slime balls about it.

 

[BobM4]

Is recruiting players to join a team at 12u considered bad form?

By recruiting I mean—Basically reaching out directly to parents of talented girls you know in other organizations or have faced in tournaments.

Not bad form. The best teams continually recruit. The good players on your team will stay if you improve your team. They will leave if you do not.

 

[Hawk_]

That's fine, just don't do it at a tourney while they are playing with that other team. Had coaches do that to my players all of the time. Literally beat a team 10-0 and they tried to talk to my 3rd baseman. She was like..."we are better than you, why?"