Roster size as teams age to 14U

[YOCOACH]

You really are prescient, or at least seem to know what is going on in our household. I don't think I mentioned on here some of our most recent questions.

My DDs organization went to one showcase out of state showcase, and one very local one this year. She is concerned that is not enough and I told her I would see about an individual showcase if necessary. She is 1st year 14u, so I we have some time before showcases. There are some other points you mentioned that are very relevant to us, but I can't get into that now.

One thing I can say very positively about my DDs organization is player retention. I asked the president of the organization about this before she even tried out. I was told they keep their players unless a girl is not putting in the effort and showing improvement. That was proven to be true after the tryouts in August.

In the past 8 years of college showcase tournaments, I've only had 6 college coaches come up to me and inquire about a player. 5 out of 6 of those times was after my DD had a great defensive game while behind the plate and hit a HR or 2 in the same game. The other was about my stud SS who hit a ton also,

Don't get wrong, I've had more than a few "discovered" at them but it was mainly due to their families doing the initial legwork. The overall national average is less than 1% of all SB players are "discovered" at team college showcase tournaments or even nationals. A majority of the players are found through the college camps, clinics and individual showcases and by the players and families contacting the college coaches of the colleges DD is possibly interested in attending.

 

[YOCOACH]

Sorry folks. I didn't mean to hi-jack the thread...It just kind of worked out that way.

Carry on

 

[Bob516]

A majority of the players are found through the college camps, clinics and individual showcases and by the players and families contacting the college coaches of the colleges DD is possibly interested in attending.

Excellent information, thanks.

Thanks everyone for indulging the hijack.

 

[FP26]

Our standard roster size each year (12u through 18u) has been 12 as a starting point. However, there has been exceptions. One thing we do each year is have a group meeting with the team (players and parents) to develop a schedule but then also have private meetings with each family to determine individual goals and vacation plans. In some cases it has been necessary to add a 13th or 14th player either because of injury or because of the number of family vacations. Last year at 18u we actually utilized 18 players at various times. 13 that were on our regular roster (1 of them was injured most of the summer) and 5 others that played limited time for us as pickup players. All 5 of them were previous full time roster members that were no longer playing travel ball but were willing to help us out when we needed another player. Next summer we will probably carry 18 or more. We are playing a very limited schedule at 18u and then playing several at 23u. We have some players that only want to play 18u, some that are only eligible at 23u, and others that want to do some of both.

By the way, if anyone has any experience doing 18u and 23u in the same summer, I am 100% open for some advice...

 

[1bucketmom]

Depending on the organization (from our experience), the bigger the roster = the bigger the $$$ for the HC. When a team consists of 12 solid players and then drops off significantly at #13 - run.

 

[YOCOACH]

By the way, if anyone has any experience doing 18u and 23u in the same summer, I am 100% open for some advice...

No experience here but last year I looked into it extremely hard because of DD possibly wanting to play her last year of 18U eligibility this year and the only way I could see to do that from our area would be to add some 23U players to the roster. IMO, the hardest part you'll face will be finding tournaments that have a 23U division in it. After a lot of research, there are very few opportunities for 23U players in Ohio/NW Pa. I think that I found a total of 2 23U division tournaments that were held last year. One was non-sanctioned and the other was USA. If I remember correctly, NW Pa. had only 2 also. That said, Our USSSA Director in Ohio has said he plans on adding a bunch of tourneys this year that will include a 23U division. Whether that happens or not is still TBD I guess.

 

[FP26]

No experience here but last year I looked into it extremely hard because of DD possibly wanting to play her last year of 18U eligibility this year and the only way I could see to do that from our area would be to add some 23U players to the roster. IMO, the hardest part you'll face will be finding tournaments that have a 23U division in it. After a lot of research, there are very few opportunities for 23U players in Ohio/NW Pa. I think that I found a total of 2 23U division tournaments that were held last year. One was non-sanctioned and the other was USA. If I remember correctly, NW Pa. had only 2 also. That said, Our USSSA Director in Ohio has said he plans on adding a bunch of tourneys this year that will include a 23U division. Whether that happens or not is still TBD I guess.

We have been able to find a few events on the eastern side of PA, but it is definitely limited. What I have noticed so far is that the entire mentality is different. Coaching through 18u, in most cases school ball seems to be a warm up for the players, and their true focus is summer ball / travel ball. At least for the players that I have coached... Now as college athletes, their priorities have shifted. Travel ball is now just a way for them to stay sharp for college ball. This all makes sense to me. After all, our focus as coaches has been to help the players realize their goal of playing in college. Now that they have reached that goal, all we want to do is help them reach their full potential. Just a different mindset...

 

[gamommax3]

It seems to be the rule of thumb around here for the really good teams to carry as many as their age group. So 12u=12, 14u=14, 16u=16. As they get older, there are more commitments that pull the girls away and there are less and less smaller organization teams also. The kids that are still playing seem to get consolidated into a smaller amount of teams, and therefore more girls on each team. I have seen teams with 14-16 scrambling for girls on any given weekend because of church camp, prom, SATs, college visits, that kind of thing. We are first year 14u and currently have 12, and we are actively looking for one more. We would take as many as 14, I think, if the right girl came along.

 

[tomorrow]

I was reading this old post and was wondering how roster size corresponds to the number of pitchers a team should carry?

 

[ang2bmd]

3-5 depending on the level of the team and how good the coaches are at managing innings

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