When must you make the move... or do you?

[jdint]

This is a go to team name for Orange Socks and makes me crack up every time. LOL.

I thought he was taking a shot at Kentucky. They refer to themselves as the Hittin' Kittens.

 

[Orange Socks]

I thought he was taking a shot at Kentucky. They refer to themselves as the Hittin' Kittens.

It's better than Hairy Ketchup Bottles.

 

[WI Dad]

You said it all when you mentioned the coaching. Great coaching is nearly impossible to find at every level. National teams are a hoax. If they were so great national team's would supply every college with every softball player. That's far from the truth. It's just something cute for players and parents to say at gatherings.

I have been very blessed to have both of my girls highly recruited. They have never played on a national team. Never wanted to. They were found with little or no marketing. Coaches and athletic directors are searching high and low for excellent athletes, teammates, and students. The best advice I can give is make sure that your girl keeps incredible grades and participates in community projects.

Honestly when the smoke clears being a collegiate athlete it's not all it's cracked up to be. So many bail within the first couple of years because of academic requirements

Although academic's are very important I think this statement is misleading, you go look at some of the best "national teams" in the country and they do supply most college programs, and guess what if your daughter is discovered at a camp of a bigger school, and they want her, they are going to tell you to move your kid to national team xyz. Or say your daughter plays for small team and kid from larger team name have same skill set who do you think that school is going to choose?

It's a really tough decision to make, but you have to do what's in the best interest of your kid. 14 is a good age to move. When and if you do move though be ready because there is a transition specially into high A level.

The biggest thing besides the price tag national teams have established relationships with college coaches, relationships that ensure they are getting in the right tournaments on the right fields. Relationships with college coaches right now are invaluable.

 

[radness]

Try to convince your coach to move the team to one of the big organizations.







That is the easiest solution. You keep the coach and team and get the name recognition. We have all the big name organizations around here always looking to add teams.

Regarding name recognition, last fall we moved from a decent local team, with no name recognition, to a better more regional team with a known name (one of our teams won the Atlanta Legacy) It has made a HUGE difference on getting eyes on my daughter. In 3 months time on the new team my daughter went from only mid-level DIII interest to DI and DII offers with $$. The bigger name schools just did not show up to watch our old team.

imo
This sounds like the solution however having the same coach means still on the learning curve of the coach.
In big organization there are usually more average teams than top teams.
( live in the hometown of batbusters and firecrackers)
It just a name with many jerseys here. Its the coaches name on the team helps identify top tier. And now even that gets watered down.
The big org MAY have suggestable influence for the coach to take on a batter schedule!...that is if the coach realizes there may be need to step up the schedule.
But unfortunetly not all big org's oversee all teams to assist them.
So again the same coach simply changing org's with their team..doesnt always mean its going to be better.