What constitutes a "B" team?

[FJRGerry]

My daughter and I are one tournament away from finishing our first year of travel softball (at the 12U level playing & coaching) and just ended a state USSSA B tournament this past weekend which was dominated by two teams. I had asked our head coach what defines a "B" level team and his reply was it's the coaches' decision at the beginning of the season. I had thought if a team was established they are automatically an "A" level team, but apparently I'm wrong.

Two questions: what is official definition of an A level team vs. B level team? And if there isn't one, what should be the definition?

 

[calgofo]

Not familiar with USSSA rules but found this on their website.


Sec 6. Division of play. USSSA will offer two divisions for National and World
Series play, which shall be A and B, except in 9, 10, 11, 13 and 15 &
under. Each state will adopt an acceptable method to classify teams. The
main criteria for classifying teams shall be the overall defensive and offensive
strength and overall experience of the team. Teams will be classified
by their State Director.

 

[Cannonball]

In ASA when my dd's team formed last year, we didn't know exactly what we had teamwise. We were told by our ASA Director that we were "A" and should not even apply to be a "B" team. Over half of our team last year could have been second year 14U. So, this year, we are still "A." Next year,

 

[NVfishing]

I was under the impression a B team is formed with players from a local league and girls must participate in that league to be on the travel B team.

A teams are teams that are not restricted by a local league. They may or may not play in league.

If a girl plays for an A team and quits she can't join a B roster even if she was in the local league.

 

[cshilt]

This is by no means all inclusive, but one way to sum it up is:

Class C: All-star rec league
Class B: Holds tryouts, plays mostly local tournaments with little travel
Class A: Holds tryouts, recruits players, extensive travel, plays showcase tournaments

 

[sluggers]

For the ASA, each state determines what is an "A" team or a "B" team.

So, the definition of a "B" team in Illinois is a team that doesn't play in more than two "A" tourneys and doesn't finish in the top 50% of the tournaments. Illinois Amateur Softball Association (ASA) - Illinois ASA ?A? and ?B? Classification

In Massachusetts, a "B" team has 100% of its players from the same city or town and play within the same ASA Recreational League. Rule Changes

California has yet another set of definitions.

This sounds much more complicated than it really is. All real softball people know which tournaments attract the best teams. Those are the "A" tournaments. The "B" tournaments are those attracting "second tier" teams.

Also, in some states you could be an "A" team in the NSA and a "B" team in the ASA.

 

[Ken Krause]

Of course, there certainly is no lack of A teams that enter B tournaments to up their win totals and their hardware counts. Some A teams will go into B tournaments if their Ace pitcher gets hurt and thus they don't feel they can win the A tournaments. They can compete, but if they can't take first they won't go.

One differentiator between an A and B team at the older age levels is that the girls on the B team like playing softball, but they're not fanatics about it, aren't particularly athletically gifted, and probably have little desire to play in college (other than maybe D3 or NAIA if they happen to choose a school like that for the academics).

An A team will have bigger, stronger athletes who are more self-motivated to improve their skills, practice on their own regularly, dedicate themselves to conditioning and have a more serious approach overall. They want to compete at the highest levels against the best they can find.

Both are perfectly legitimate. They're just different mindsets.

 

[SnocatzDad]

This is especially confusing for me at USSSA. ASA and others have Regional "A" end of year tournaments, that way if your a top notch team, but not with a top notch travel budget you can go somewhere within driving distance and play the best teams in your area outside the select few who choose to go to USA/ASA Nationals.

USSSA Holds one "A" tournament in Florida or Texas. It's poorly attended because the teams that are great and want to travel, want to play ASA, not USSSA, and despite the fact that USSSA is based in Florida the majority of the teams that play USSSA are in the midwest. The USSSA Central "B" tournament is attended by the best teams in the midwest and is comparable to an ASA "A" Northern Regional. This year at 14U there are 85+ teams competing at USSSA "B" Central in Kansas and only 15 teams (5 from Florida) competing at USSSA "A" Nationals. IMO word of mouth on how good the competition and organization at the tourney is, has helped grow the USSSA Central tourney to be the premeir National (after ASA Nationals for teams with the travel budget) in the midwest.

Speaking with other MN teams we all pooled feedback on ASA Northerns, PONY, USSSA, NAFA and AFA and many made the decision that USSSA was the place to be. So here we have teams playing ASA "A" but registered USSSA "B" because that is the fall back plan if ASA Nationals falls through. We actually have one team that won a paid berth to 14UA ASA Nationals in Georgia who is passing on it to play USSSA in Kansas because the parents vetoed the added expense.

 

[llabtfos]

This is by no means all inclusive, but one way to sum it up is:

Class C: All-star rec league
Class B: Holds tryouts, plays mostly local tournaments with little travel
Class A: Holds tryouts, recruits players, extensive travel, plays showcase tournaments

i think that's a good general description.

we have a B team that started out as C. (We are from a small town and drive anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half for city ball tournaments in ASA and USSSA.)

 

[MTR]

From ASA Code

Girls’ Class B Fast Pitch. Teams and players who participate in
Class A tournaments, or higher, that lead to a National Championship
Finals, shall not be eligible to participate in the Class B competition.
Girls’ Class B teams must be made up of players who participate in the
same league.

Basically, a B team in Junior Olympic ball are supposed to be local, not travel ball players.