This Time of Year Blows…

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Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
Second year 14U team, headed to 16U in the fall. Local/Regional A team. Have mostly played up to 16U/18U all season. Carried 12 girls. As tryout season began, fully expected to lose two girls. One who clearly was no longer having any fun…and it showed in her play. Another who was traveling 90+ minutes to practice and was not satisfied with her role on the team, though she was well liked by her teammates. That all happened as expected. An opportunity to potentially upgrade. So far, so good…

What few saw coming was the departure, announced a few days ago, of our best defensive player, who is also one of our strongest hitters. Moving to a national level team. Damn, what a bummer. That’s a tough one. But we’ll manage somehow. Then, at our last tournament of the season (just today), our best hitter (starting 1B and lefty power hitter) announced she was leaving the team. Not clear where she is going. Head Coach had no warning. Girl has played with the team for four seasons. Brutal. Felt bad for him, he was clearly shell shocked.

Lots of tears this afternoon as some of these girls who have been playing together for 2-4 years will no longer be playing together anymore. Head Coach has already added a few pieces, but will be tough to replace two girls who consistently hit between 3-5 in your batting order. Team definitely got worse today, just as we were getting ready to step up to a more fully regional schedule in the fall.

I know the only constant is change in travel ball. But not going to lie, this kinda sucks.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I mean if those kids are good, you cannot really not expect them to seek out a team which plays a more competitive schedule at 16’s (for multiple reasons)… 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
Yup. Really no hard feelings about it at all (other than the way the one girl and her family handled it with the HC). Folks are going to do what they think they need to to put their kid in the best position to achieve their goals. All good. Still doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck…
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
It sucks. Still not as bad as losing every player since they're moving up and having to start from scratch since the head of the orgs DD is on the team and his DW wants him to take it over.:cautious:
 
May 10, 2021
149
43
Players on the team are moving up. This suggests quality coaching and development. Hopefully this continues.

Still sucks though......for sure.
 
Apr 25, 2019
285
63
We were on the opposite side of a similar story, we were the ones leaving unexpectedly. My DD was on a national organization team. This team was an entry level team (org has a base team, Gold team, and then a National team) and you have to apply for the upgrade in your tag. Well, the Wednesday before our final tournament, a Premier level team that now has the National tag reached out to us to join. We talked about it the whole way to the final tournament and decided to join this new team. Well the team manager caught us on the way out of the park and asked if we were good for the following season. CRAP!! I didn't want to lie but this was not the way I wanted it to go down. We were real honest but there were some tears shed and I am sure that they were blindsided by it. We were really close to this team but when a National team spot opened up we had to jump at it. It sucks but we were the ones doing the blindsiding. You are correct, this time of year blows...lol
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Do a lot of people actually tell their team they are leaving before the season is over? That isn't the norm around here..There is a reason there should be some break before the last games of the season and the first games of the new season...
 
Aug 24, 2018
72
18
From my experience in the NorthEast (SE PA), tryout season starts in July and tournament play ends in the beginning of August. DD committed to a new team on 7/7 and still had 2 tournaments left. If you tryouts extend into August, it seems like you are too late.
 
Jun 23, 2018
222
63
Texas
Do a lot of people actually tell their team they are leaving before the season is over? That isn't the norm around here..There is a reason there should be some break before the last games of the season and the first games of the new season...
I think it depends on your relationship and trust in the coach. We have left 2 without notice because we didn't think the coach would be fair to DD if he knew. Left one team where we gave them a month notice because we loved those guys and knew they would want only the best for DD and felt it was the right thing to do. The last team we left without notice because the coach didn't want ME on his team. It was time to go.
 
Apr 1, 2017
535
93
Do a lot of people actually tell their team they are leaving before the season is over? That isn't the norm around here..There is a reason there should be some break before the last games of the season and the first games of the new season...
That's part of what makes July/August such a a pain. You have some teams holding tryouts in early July, while other teams are still playing all of July/early August. It adds another layer of problems, for coaches, players, families.
 

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