USSSA ALL AMERICAN... IS IT WORTH TRYING OUT?

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May 10, 2019
83
18
Sorry if I posted in the wrong section. My daughter is 8 (9 in June) so I'm wondering if it's even worth trying out yet. I'd say she's top 3 on her team, if not the best. However, she's still 8 so is it worth the cost of trying out and attending? We're are right outside of Orlando, Fl by the way. Thanks in advance!
https://usssa.com/allamerican/fastpitch
 
Jun 11, 2020
38
8
Sorry if I posted in the wrong section. My daughter is 8 (9 in June) so I'm wondering if it's even worth trying out yet. I'd say she's top 3 on her team, if not the best. However, she's still 8 so is it worth the cost of trying out and attending? We're are right outside of Orlando, Fl by the way. Thanks in advance!
https://usssa.com/allamerican/fastpitch
Can be a good experience for a young girl to see what competition level at a higher level can be and learn that hard work can supplement natural talent.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
DD tried out twice 11 and 12s.
Didn't make it.
Wanted to do it at 14s when she had turned the corner. She made it as a direct select.
We had to rush down to Florida after playing that years triple crown in myrtle. Got to Florida and she had a great week. Wonderful experience. Made it to championship game. I think it's a great one time experience. The coach for DDs team in Florida was a recent college graduate and stud player. She keeps in touch with DD to this day.
 
Nov 17, 2020
145
28
Huntley, IL
My DD tried out and was a direct select at 11u a few years ago. The tryout was not nearly as professional as I thought it would be. To the point that they had parents of 11u players actually helping with the tryout influencing player ratings. Also keep in mind, that if your going to the West Lafeyate, IN event the location is in the EASTERN TIME ZONE. This facility is just over the boarder in EST, not CST. Thankfully, we went early to warm up, we almost showed up an hour late.

USSSA All American Games made some significant changes last year. The year we went the regions were broke out in such a way that the tournament was basically rigged. If you were in any region other than the Atlantic you could not win the event. I did my homework prior to the event and found that southeast or Atlantic regions had won the event the last 6 years. I started asking myself why? I found my answer pretty quick. We all know that they hotbeds for softball are FL, TX and CA. Well the regions were broken down so that TX and CA were broken into two different regions and effectively splitting the talent into two different teams. While TX and CA were split, FL was all together on its own. This meant that one of the largest hotspots in the country for softball was whole, while all others were divided. In the end I basically determined that they were trying to showcase the FL talent since USSSA is based in Vera, FL.

When we attended the event and I started talking to parents from other regions, the parents in the Atlantic region informed me that at their tryout, it was made very clear to parents that if their child could not attend MANDITORY practices prior to the event, they would not be chose for the team. This region had an opportunity to practice because it was the smallest region, only 2 states, GA and FL. The other regions are so large they could never pull this off. This is in direct contradiction to the event rules. In addition, it was obvious that the coaching provided at the event was vastly different per team. The Atlantic and southeast teams had D1 college coaches that had volunteered to coach that specific region. Having an opportunity to possibly evaluate some talent, while the other teams had volunteer junior college players as head coaches.

As for the event. It was definitely a LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I don't care where you play or at what level, your most likely the BIG FISH in the little pond. My DD was really good and was a direct select out of about 50 players at 11u. She was always a strong player, but when she got to FL, she realized very quickly what softball is like in other parts of the country. She immediately realized she was now the small fish in the big pond. In my personal opinion, this was worth every penny I spent on this experience. When we went back for the 12u Great American Games in OK with USA Softball, she took a totally different attitude and approach going into that event. She took what she learned from her 11u USSSA experience and put it to use.

Having done both the USSSA All American Games and the USA Softball All American Games I can say without question, the USA Softball program in OK was a much better experience. At the OK event, the girls are GARANTEED to play on the WCWS Stadium field. My daughter played 3 games on that field and still talks about it today years later. Every year we watch the WCWS, we talk about her games on that field and it brings a smile to her face. During the USSSA All American event, they stadium was NEVER OPENED to players or parents, not even to tour and take pictures. Just another point of the USSSA event that was disappointing.

Anthony Travel
USSSA uses Anthony Travel and requires you book everything through them for the event. But, they don't tell you the whole story. What they don't tell you or advertise is that if you push them, they will let you have a buy out code for your hotel stay. In the end, if you have hotel points your stay will be much cheaper with the buy out code, but they don't advertise that it is available.
 
May 10, 2019
83
18
All really good information.
Maybe, I can get in contact with someone from usssa to get more info too.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
We "skirted" the Anthony travel by claiming to stay with a relative near the space complex. They didn't ask for proof.
I've never complained about an ump.. but in the chip the ump was definitely in the bag for the southeast team. Me and the other pitchers parents sat behind home plate and our kids got the sec strike zone. Its was too funny. Parents stayed from semi game and warned us. We looked at each other and laughed at them. By the end of the game they were giving us the I told ya so treatment. :)
 
Dec 6, 2019
382
63
We did it few years ago, but only as an excuse to go to Disney. Now that it's not held at Disney any more, we wouldn't be interested. It was a good one-time experience. We still see most of the girls from the team at tournaments. We had one of those teams where the official coaches were overwhelmed by a few parents who already knew each other and they ended up running roughshod over everyone. Logistically it was pretty bad. We had to stand in line for 4 hours early in the week to get a jersey for the initial team meetings, when they could have just been handed out by the coaches at the meeting. Whatever. She got to play at the ESPN WWOS and thought that was pretty cool.
 
Aug 6, 2013
392
63
My DD tried out and was a direct select at 11u a few years ago. The tryout was not nearly as professional as I thought it would be. To the point that they had parents of 11u players actually helping with the tryout influencing player ratings. Also keep in mind, that if your going to the West Lafeyate, IN event the location is in the EASTERN TIME ZONE. This facility is just over the boarder in EST, not CST. Thankfully, we went early to warm up, we almost showed up an hour late.

USSSA All American Games made some significant changes last year. The year we went the regions were broke out in such a way that the tournament was basically rigged. If you were in any region other than the Atlantic you could not win the event. I did my homework prior to the event and found that southeast or Atlantic regions had won the event the last 6 years. I started asking myself why? I found my answer pretty quick. We all know that they hotbeds for softball are FL, TX and CA. Well the regions were broken down so that TX and CA were broken into two different regions and effectively splitting the talent into two different teams. While TX and CA were split, FL was all together on its own. This meant that one of the largest hotspots in the country for softball was whole, while all others were divided. In the end I basically determined that they were trying to showcase the FL talent since USSSA is based in Vera, FL.

During the USSSA All American event, they stadium was NEVER OPENED to players or parents, not even to tour and take pictures. Just another point of the USSSA event that was disappointing.

My daughter was a direct select the summer of 2019 for the Central Region American Team. That year her team won the 13u championship and played the game in the big stadium.2E58C438-0A4A-4F84-A968-142C1335A436.jpeg
 
Aug 6, 2013
392
63
To answer OPs question, as long as you know your going to allow your daughter to have some fun playing with different girls from around the US you will be fine. It is fun for the girls and tiring dodging rain, lol. My daughter had a great time and we made some great friends and now that we have moved to VA we get to see our PA friends regularly. That is really awesome.
 

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