As a parent I don't know that we could ask for more than "polite, welcoming and considerate". I have been on both sides of the tryout season, and neither one is easy.
Tryout thoughts (sorry for length)
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As a parent I don't know that we could ask for more than "polite, welcoming and considerate". I have been on both sides of the tryout season, and neither one is easy.
Here is my advice… My DD is 13 years old and is a fairly good player. She is a RHP and plays CF and SS. Pretty good bat (could be much better) and is fast and has the tall and long frame.
I’ve had my plan in place since Mid-June. We are part of a very good organization at 12U but I wasn’t sure if she could make the 14U team for this club. So here was my plan. Mid-June I began to reach out to 14U teams and coaches to see if there were any guest play opportunities. Since DD is a pitcher I began to ensure that she was pitching from 43 feet. This included getting her on a 18U REC team so she could pitch from 43 feet against live hitting. Not only did this give her this experience, she pitched well against the older REC players. Confidence!!
We took advantage of a few guest play opportunities and made some really good contacts for when the season ended. We had 3 invites for tryouts for the teams she guest played with. While we were doing this I was asking all coaches that she played for, for feedback. Got some great advice. I began to form a list of potential teams DD would try out for. This list included teams that she did not make in the past. Wanted them to take a second look after a year or two removed from the last tryout.
As soon as our 12U season ended I asked our coach to release her and I reached out to a solid “B” 14U team to ask if they needed help at nationals. I had heard that they needed a pitcher (from our pitching coach). They shared that they would love some help. I offered to pay a full tournament share but they declined and invited us to Salisbury for the week. DD had a chance to pitch 2 full games and really shined tossing a 6 inning shutout and giving up only 2 runs to an “A” team in 7 innings. Her confidence was very high after that week! No pressure on her at all as she was helping a team of strangers.
At this point I began to get emails from coaches that she played for or guest played in the past 2 years. They want to bring her in for tryouts as they were looking ahead as their season had ended.
I learned not to be an rear at the games as one umpire called my cell and said he umped a game that DD had pitched and now he’s coaching a team and wanted DD to tryout. You never know!!!
Tryouts began and we selected a good group of 5 teams that she wanted to tryout with. 1 was her current team as they were moving to 14U, 2 were teams I knew she would make, and 2 were far reach “A” teams that I thought she had no chance to make. I personally contacted the coaches to let them know that she would coming and that she was thrilled to attend their try outs.
Before the tryout I spoke with DD about confidence and how she needed to deliver a strong handshake and look the coaches in the eye (basic stuff but I see girls miss this all the time). She shinned at tryouts and all but one ended in the coaches saying “Please wait here, we want to speak to you and your dad”.
I received great feedback and she received offers from all teams. I asked a ton of questions and all coaches were very honest. In one case she tried out for the best team in our area (based on record and WS win). They wanted her… but not for pitching for SS and CF. They were very transparent that they had pitching and she could work to earn a spot but they had 4 pitchers. We thanked them and moved on. It has to be a good fit for both sides and we truly appreciated their honesty.
Last bit of advice, it only takes 1 try out.. If your kid does her best and they say “we would like you to come back to another tryout” thank them but don’t go back. DD never had to go to more than one tryout. This maybe different for pitchers but one tryout is enough. Instead use that valuable time to attend a different team’s tryouts. Some teams may not need the positions that you DD is great at…
Oh, and the team that made her wait? That was her current team that is moving to 14U. She got an offer a few days after that tryout and she is staying. Were all those other tryouts a big waste of time? NO! Your kid needs to learn how to approach a tryout. There is a great article on FLOsoftball about Batbusters tryouts. Read it!
Good Luck!
I’ve had my plan in place since Mid-June. We are part of a very good organization at 12U but I wasn’t sure if she could make the 14U team for this club. So here was my plan. Mid-June I began to reach out to 14U teams and coaches to see if there were any guest play opportunities. Since DD is a pitcher I began to ensure that she was pitching from 43 feet. This included getting her on a 18U REC team so she could pitch from 43 feet against live hitting. Not only did this give her this experience, she pitched well against the older REC players. Confidence!!
We took advantage of a few guest play opportunities and made some really good contacts for when the season ended. We had 3 invites for tryouts for the teams she guest played with. While we were doing this I was asking all coaches that she played for, for feedback. Got some great advice. I began to form a list of potential teams DD would try out for. This list included teams that she did not make in the past. Wanted them to take a second look after a year or two removed from the last tryout.
As soon as our 12U season ended I asked our coach to release her and I reached out to a solid “B” 14U team to ask if they needed help at nationals. I had heard that they needed a pitcher (from our pitching coach). They shared that they would love some help. I offered to pay a full tournament share but they declined and invited us to Salisbury for the week. DD had a chance to pitch 2 full games and really shined tossing a 6 inning shutout and giving up only 2 runs to an “A” team in 7 innings. Her confidence was very high after that week! No pressure on her at all as she was helping a team of strangers.
At this point I began to get emails from coaches that she played for or guest played in the past 2 years. They want to bring her in for tryouts as they were looking ahead as their season had ended.
I learned not to be an rear at the games as one umpire called my cell and said he umped a game that DD had pitched and now he’s coaching a team and wanted DD to tryout. You never know!!!
Tryouts began and we selected a good group of 5 teams that she wanted to tryout with. 1 was her current team as they were moving to 14U, 2 were teams I knew she would make, and 2 were far reach “A” teams that I thought she had no chance to make. I personally contacted the coaches to let them know that she would coming and that she was thrilled to attend their try outs.
Before the tryout I spoke with DD about confidence and how she needed to deliver a strong handshake and look the coaches in the eye (basic stuff but I see girls miss this all the time). She shinned at tryouts and all but one ended in the coaches saying “Please wait here, we want to speak to you and your dad”.
I received great feedback and she received offers from all teams. I asked a ton of questions and all coaches were very honest. In one case she tried out for the best team in our area (based on record and WS win). They wanted her… but not for pitching for SS and CF. They were very transparent that they had pitching and she could work to earn a spot but they had 4 pitchers. We thanked them and moved on. It has to be a good fit for both sides and we truly appreciated their honesty.
Last bit of advice, it only takes 1 try out.. If your kid does her best and they say “we would like you to come back to another tryout” thank them but don’t go back. DD never had to go to more than one tryout. This maybe different for pitchers but one tryout is enough. Instead use that valuable time to attend a different team’s tryouts. Some teams may not need the positions that you DD is great at…
Oh, and the team that made her wait? That was her current team that is moving to 14U. She got an offer a few days after that tryout and she is staying. Were all those other tryouts a big waste of time? NO! Your kid needs to learn how to approach a tryout. There is a great article on FLOsoftball about Batbusters tryouts. Read it!
Good Luck!
Last edited:
- Aug 11, 2016
- 126
- 28
So... being in the loop could include sending skill videos? How about video clips of DD's offensive and defensive plays in actual tournaments, would that also help?
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Just reading through this thread - interesting - - after this past season my daughter's team broke up - they were an independent team but had good talent. Anyway, we had to find a new team. She's a 2018. I sent my daughter's skills video and profile sheet to coaches of organizations we were considering and asked if they were looking for someone with her skills. Got interest from everyone we sent it to and I'm sure it's true that they felt pretty good about DD before the tryout and the tryout helped them confirm what they already knew. This also gave me the opportunity to talk with a couple of coaches before tryouts (they'd reply with yes we're interested and feel free to contact me with questions) and was able to determine ahead of time that it wasn't worth either of our time (too costly, too much travel, etc.) and so we were able to weed out which tryouts to go to that way too.
My thought on the latest question here is that definitely yes, skills video and video clips would be useful for this too.
My thought on the latest question here is that definitely yes, skills video and video clips would be useful for this too.
I am finding this all very interesting. DD is 11 and just finished her second summer of softball both years rec league. She decided that she wanted to play more and play with girls that wanted to win and take is seriously. So I started looking around for teams posted some information about her on a local fastpitch board and got a lot of responses. We went through the responses looking at distance from home and level of play. We decided to look only at C level teams as I thought that would be a natural transition and I don't think we would ever be tb parents. We went to three tryouts in a week, well one pure tryout and two come practice with the team. The first tryout seemed very organized lots of girls and some real talent, even the girl who couldn't field a lick knocked the cover off the ball, and they had plans to move from C to B in the spring. DD left saying she didn't want to play with that team. The next day they contacted as saying they wanted her on the team, and DD attitude changed quickly, however they were going to have three catchers and after talking with her decided there would not enough playing time for her to improve her skills. Still don't know if that was a mistake or not. That was Sunday on Thursday DD was invited to practice with another team that was a longer drive away. This team seemed very rag tag only had like five players and raved about DD and asked her to join the team right away. I asked for some time for us to thank about it and the coach called me everyday for the next four days. On Friday I got a call from the Dad from a pitcher from DD rec team who was a couple of years older and also played B level ball along with rec for fun. He said a friend of his needed a catcher for his team and that he gave DD rave reviews. So we arranged to practice with that team the next day. The team was good but not overwhelming and they also planned to move from C to B in the spring. DD did not have a great practice she was dragging from 7 hours of softball three tryouts/practices plus her fist catching lesson that left her sore, and from being out in the sun all day the day before at a water park. They decided to pas on her which turns out to have been a good thing as they weren't really looking for a catcher but just another player. It also turns out they lose a lot. So DD joined the rag tag team, that now has 12 players including one of friends, she his making friends with the new girls. She is one of two catchers and has developed a rivalry of anything you can do I can better with the other catcher. So after all of my worry of am I doing things correctly is she going to find a team. They start fall ball in five days, first tournament in two weeks and they might actually be pretty decent. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to tell the story and also get feedback on where i screwed up. Thanks.
