Who is in Favor of....

[linclon]

If a team is playing within the age group of that team how is this "playing down"? As far as I am concerned, as long as the coach, parents and players are happy, why should we care? If you want to play up go for it.

 

[02Crush]

I wold like to know where you played? We saw it all last fall.

yes, but this is hypothetical. I would assume that an 02/03 team is going to find an entry-level tournament, whereas the '00 is going to be playing in a more high-level tournament.

In Georgia, where I think we both are/were, I never saw many teams staying back. I think my team played one 'stay back' team in 4 seasons. And that was a weak team against its own-age (although they beat us by a run. So perhaps I'm not experienced enough with this to comment. If what you describe happens frequently, then I can concede that it's a problem. But I think coaches and tournament directors have enough good judgment to avoid that.

 

[02Crush]

My post was not about "legality". It was about what many claim as common place in our sport. Yet in Baseball it is different and works.
Age cutoffs are not January 1 in Baseball here. I knew we were playing up. My thing was why not make the fall dates (late spring OP adjusted) since so many "claim" this is what they do or it is the right thing to do.

Since it's legal for girls to play at the same age level in the fall as they did in the spring, I think you could argue that it's actually the younger teams who are playing up and are thus implicitly accepting the risk that they will meet girls two years older.

I know it's the custom and my DD's teams have always played up in the fall, but I think it's a bad idea to start playing around with the cutoff dates just to prevent perceived rule-breaking that is actually completely legal.

Last fall when DD was on a first year 12UB team, there weren't enough 12U teams in one tournament, so they ended up playing 14UC. And I think some of those 14UC teams were going to be moving to 16UC in the spring! The size differential was scary, but after a while our girls saw that they could hang in there just fine with those teams. (They had some big hitters, but they gave up lots of errors.) It can actually be a real confidence booster for a girl to see that she can compete well against the "big" girls.

 

[Ghostrider]

Nope and nope
Sounds like you had an age induced bad fall ball tourney form a team that didn't do the complimentary play up thing...
Seen plenty of teams play up in the fall and get smeared by a team that didn't move up...12U means 12U etc...

 

[CoogansBluff]

I wold like to know where you played? We saw it all last fall.

In three years of having a team in fall in metro ATL, I've played only one team that was staying back. That was a USSSA event a couple of years ago. I don't know of any teams in our age division ('99 team) that do it. ... That doesn't mean they don't. But if it's prevalent, it's either a new trend, something more common to your age division, or my own ignorance. I should never underrate the latter. I'll ask a Georgia tournament director for one of the top groups and get his take on it.

 

[CoogansBluff]

In three years of having a team in fall in metro ATL, I've played only one team that was staying back. That was a USSSA event a couple of years ago. I don't know of any teams in our age division ('99 team) that do it. ... That doesn't mean they don't. But if it's prevalent, it's either a new trend, something more common to your age division, or my own ignorance. I should never underrate the latter. I'll ask a Georgia tournament director for one of the top groups and get his take on it.

OK, just corresponded w/ a tournament director who said that USSSA in Georgia no longer allows teams to ''stay back'' in the fall. Perhaps that's why I've not seen much of it because my team played almost exclusively USSSA the past three falls.

 

[redhotcoach]

We played Jan-Dec USSSA for a few years, now it is Aug-July, and coaches and parents just can't get it. "No your just turned 13 year old cannot play on a 12u team! I don't care if this is fall!"
Sorry didn't mean you Coog, it's that I have had that discussion a dozen times in the last month and still no one completely believes me.

 

[shockcoach]

OK, just corresponded w/ a tournament director who said that USSSA in Georgia no longer allows teams to ''stay back'' in the fall. Perhaps that's why I've not seen much of it because my team played almost exclusively USSSA the past three falls.

Not a state rule, but a national one. USSSA rule states the following on page 6 of their rule book:

Sec 3. The Fastpitch season and Team registration will run from August 1 until July
31. Tournaments and leagues played after August 1, will qualify teams for the
following summer’s State and World Series Tournaments. All teams playing
between August 1 and December 31 must play by the following year’s
eligibility classifications.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Not a state rule, but a national one. USSSA rule states the following on page 6 of their rule book:

Thanks. I didn't want to speak for the nation since I wasn't sure. ... Is this fairly new? In 2010, I was pretty sure that we played a USSSA tournament when an ''11-year-old'' team was allowed in 10U in the fall. But could be wrong. In any event, I remember no other tournaments that my team has played (USSSA or otherwise) when a team was choosing to ''stay back'' in fall.

 

[CoogansBluff]

We played Jan-Dec USSSA for a few years, now it is Aug-July, and coaches and parents just can't get it. "No your just turned 13 year old cannot play on a 12u team! I don't care if this is fall!"
Sorry didn't mean you Coog, it's that I have had that discussion a dozen times in the last month and still no one completely believes me.

It's never been issue for us. My team has never stayed back. Although my position on the issue as stated earlier in this thread is that I don't second-guess or care what other teams or players do as long as it's legal.