our experiences playing up
My DD has always been a good athlete. She started playing basketball at 5, baseball at 6 and volleyball at 10. She carries a 3.99 gpa (damn a- in her freshman year) She played as a varsity starter in high school in volleyball, basketball and softball. All conference all teams since freshman year. Keep in mind we are a smaller community, she goes to a 4A school, which only houses around 1300 students so of course it might not compare to your DD's that are at 8A schools. I just wanted to give you some background here.
Anyhow mentally she always seemed very mature. So when we were done playing 14U and the season had been pretty frustrating for her because the girls just wanted to mess around we talked to a good friend of ours who used to coach a gold team and who was going to be her high school coach. He suggested we tryout for a 18U team. Or travel out of town. Now traveling out of town was not a consideration as my husband is not a supporter of her playing sports and being on an out of town team he says is the dumbest thing he has ever heard and he would not tolerate us going out of town to play on a team, he feels we already spend to much money and put to many miles on our vehicles. So our choices are limited. We live in a small community, the choices of 16 teams were slim. And at that time there was only one 18u team. So here we are age 13 (wouldn't be 14 until end of November) at a 18u tryout. She did very well and was asked to play on the team. Both of us were pretty excited because these girls took care of business, they came to practice and played hard etc. But little did we know that they also were not real excited to have a 13 year old on the team we just didn't know it yet. So we show up for the first practice and they are ok, didn't talk much to DD but all focused and working hard so we didn't pay to much attention to it. The first tournament was where we began to feel that maybe this wasn't such a good idea the rest of the fall season was not fun, the more my DD played the more the 18's got upset. She had one girl on the team that would talk to her going to tournaments the rest of the season was not really fun, but we didn't want to flake out. Halfway through fall season we had another 18U team come up and ask her to play for them. So at the end of the fall season we decided to go with this other team. Practices go well, she fits it much better with this team they are anxious to see if she has a boyfriend (OH MY) etc. But overall they are a pretty ok bunch of girls. We spend the next year with this team and since all their girls now graduated the coach wanted to take a year or so off, to go see her dd play college ball. So now we are on a new younger 18 gold team, DD has a lot more in common with these girls, because they are the same age. In the last 2 years we have learned, even though DD was a better athlete at 13 and far ahead the other girls catch up. She is still the best catcher on our team but not by far. She has better knowledge of the game, pitch locations etc...but she is just an analyzer by nature. Whatever sport she is playing she impresses coaches with her knowledge of what other kids are doing etc. I believe when she is 17 (she is ahead by a year in school) the rest of the girls will have completely caught up and they will be on a pretty level playing field. Sometimes being ahead in mental or physical is a burden for them, because everyone holds them at such a high level its not always easy to live up to that. School coaches can be pretty hard on her because they expect so much, she is the youngest kid on our the team but is expected to be the leader. Being a good athlete has been fun to watch over the years, sometimes I wonder if she wished for different though. ....I guess we will never know. Bottom line...do whats best for your kid. By 18 I think most kids catch up and play a similar level. By that age the others kids have been weeded out the ones that will be swayed by member of the opposite sex, the typical teen things that might take them away from softball or other sports. What you have left is the kids that take the sport seriously whether they want to play on after high school or not. Sometimes it might be better to stay with kids your own age mentally and enjoy the super star status....not sure if we would change how we did things but wish we could have had a prerun.....
My DD has always been a good athlete. She started playing basketball at 5, baseball at 6 and volleyball at 10. She carries a 3.99 gpa (damn a- in her freshman year) She played as a varsity starter in high school in volleyball, basketball and softball. All conference all teams since freshman year. Keep in mind we are a smaller community, she goes to a 4A school, which only houses around 1300 students so of course it might not compare to your DD's that are at 8A schools. I just wanted to give you some background here.
Anyhow mentally she always seemed very mature. So when we were done playing 14U and the season had been pretty frustrating for her because the girls just wanted to mess around we talked to a good friend of ours who used to coach a gold team and who was going to be her high school coach. He suggested we tryout for a 18U team. Or travel out of town. Now traveling out of town was not a consideration as my husband is not a supporter of her playing sports and being on an out of town team he says is the dumbest thing he has ever heard and he would not tolerate us going out of town to play on a team, he feels we already spend to much money and put to many miles on our vehicles. So our choices are limited. We live in a small community, the choices of 16 teams were slim. And at that time there was only one 18u team. So here we are age 13 (wouldn't be 14 until end of November) at a 18u tryout. She did very well and was asked to play on the team. Both of us were pretty excited because these girls took care of business, they came to practice and played hard etc. But little did we know that they also were not real excited to have a 13 year old on the team we just didn't know it yet. So we show up for the first practice and they are ok, didn't talk much to DD but all focused and working hard so we didn't pay to much attention to it. The first tournament was where we began to feel that maybe this wasn't such a good idea the rest of the fall season was not fun, the more my DD played the more the 18's got upset. She had one girl on the team that would talk to her going to tournaments the rest of the season was not really fun, but we didn't want to flake out. Halfway through fall season we had another 18U team come up and ask her to play for them. So at the end of the fall season we decided to go with this other team. Practices go well, she fits it much better with this team they are anxious to see if she has a boyfriend (OH MY) etc. But overall they are a pretty ok bunch of girls. We spend the next year with this team and since all their girls now graduated the coach wanted to take a year or so off, to go see her dd play college ball. So now we are on a new younger 18 gold team, DD has a lot more in common with these girls, because they are the same age. In the last 2 years we have learned, even though DD was a better athlete at 13 and far ahead the other girls catch up. She is still the best catcher on our team but not by far. She has better knowledge of the game, pitch locations etc...but she is just an analyzer by nature. Whatever sport she is playing she impresses coaches with her knowledge of what other kids are doing etc. I believe when she is 17 (she is ahead by a year in school) the rest of the girls will have completely caught up and they will be on a pretty level playing field. Sometimes being ahead in mental or physical is a burden for them, because everyone holds them at such a high level its not always easy to live up to that. School coaches can be pretty hard on her because they expect so much, she is the youngest kid on our the team but is expected to be the leader. Being a good athlete has been fun to watch over the years, sometimes I wonder if she wished for different though. ....I guess we will never know. Bottom line...do whats best for your kid. By 18 I think most kids catch up and play a similar level. By that age the others kids have been weeded out the ones that will be swayed by member of the opposite sex, the typical teen things that might take them away from softball or other sports. What you have left is the kids that take the sport seriously whether they want to play on after high school or not. Sometimes it might be better to stay with kids your own age mentally and enjoy the super star status....not sure if we would change how we did things but wish we could have had a prerun.....