JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
With this being tryout season, it is a time of new starts, I wanted to share our experience as we finished up our first season of 12UTB in case it lets anyone know that if they are dealing with drama/getting cut/having a bad experience, that they are not alone and things can take big turns.
My older DD is a pitcher and is getting pretty good. She is going into 2nd year 12s next spring and is steadily increasing in speed, she is hovering at 48-51 and just last month was a notch below that. I think if she continues on this arc she should be consistently low to mid 50s next year. Not crazy fast, but respectable. She has really good control and the CU is getting really good. Last fall she played on a 10u TB team as she used up her eligibility and did really well, we all liked the org and the team and the coach and it was a great experience. The coach took a look at her on the 2001 squad at a friendly last January, but she wasn't quite ready (I agreed with him) because they wanted to make a serious run at PGF (which they did).
So we went on our way into the thicket of Socal travel and had some adventures. First team lasted about 3 weeks because DD did not get any circle time despite being promised that she would be in the rotation (HC and ACs had pitching DDs). Not being a big fan of being handed BS and told it is caviar, I told the coach in no uncertain terms what I thought of him and we left.
So I soured on TB and just decided she would play rec and develop one more year. Then I got a text out of the blue from another team and he gave me a hard sell to have her join up....we guested at a friendly and gingerly stepped back into the pool. This coach kept his word and she was in the rotation and could hold her own. Got shelled sometimes but also pitched really well sometimes she showed a knack for keeping the ball in the infield and giving up very few walks. I would say that she was a middle of the road pitcher in the Socal 12u scene, a little slower than most at first but she kept the ball down zone so she was effective. During the end of the season things petered out a bit because she started to have some foot problems that we thought might be serious so we pulled her from practice for about a month to recover, get an MRI etc.
The foot problems turned out to be not so serious after a scare that she might need surgery. So she rejoined practice so she would be ready for the end of season world series (in our case it was USSSA). Just as she rejoined, the coach who recruited us was fired by the org because of a group of parents that constantly complained to the org about playing time, we looked to see how this was going to affect the team and quickly realized that it would not be a good fit any more and so we were part of the 4-5 girls that decided to leave the team due to the abrupt change, part loyalty to the coach, part just kind of being done.
So at that point I was done with the general lunacy of TB and was grateful and happy that she was invited to join the local 2001 all star team as they transitioned to 14U TB this fall and spring. I know the families the coaches and it is a really good fit. So her future was settled. She would play with this local team and grow with them and hopefully they mostly stick together and play on our HS team in the future. All good in the hood.
Then one of her teammates from the team that fired the coach showed up at PGF and pitched a little on the original team my DD had pitched for at 10U. I was stoked to see this and texted the dad telling him what a great choice he made in joining that team and how much I like the coach etc. and that he will have none of the drama we had on the team that split because this coach would fire the complaining parents in a heartbeat and doesn't have an org to answer to so no one can go over his head. I was really happy that they landed there because they are a good family and the kid is just one of those great all around young ladies.
All is still good in the hood. Until that coach emailed me and said that he wants to get both girls together and form a 2002 team around them. Now we have committed through the fall to a local team, but the ONE team that I think is the best fit also came a calling and wants to build a team around my daughter and this other great kid.
The fear I have is that my older daughter is not a baller. She is a good all around player who happens to have naturally taken to pitching pretty quickly and continues to progress. She has a decent bat, but I do not see her as a kid that can meet the expectations of being a foundational player for a team of the caliber (that 2001 team moving to 14s of his is fierce) I know the coach wants to put together. But at the same time this coach saw her pitching last year vs this year and thinks she has the goods to be where he wants her to be to make the run next year and he has a lot more experience than I do. He has never been one to blow smoke. If he wanted to do that he could have thrown her on that 2001 squad last year and collected my money but he told me she just wasn't ready yet.
Since they don't have a full squad yet, the 12s will work out with the 14s until the rest of the team takes shape and she will get her game time with the local team she is playing on, so there are no conflicts yet so she can do both for now, but by the end of November she will have to make a final decision.
At this point I am so gun shy that I want to keep her options open as much as possible so I told both coaches that she will be doing both for now and they are OK with it. If this 12U team doesn't take flight then she will continue with the local team or if after seeing her on a day to day basis the coach realizes that maybe he was too optimistic in his assessment of building a team around her. On the other hand, if she finds that she would like to use that last year of 12U eligibility up and she is doing well then maybe she finds herself on a great team with a great coach and gets to have a year of being more of a competitive pitcher before she goes back to 43 feet and starts over again.
I don't know how common this kind of experience is, but it is what our family experienced this year and how we came out the other end. Lotsa ups and downs, some good and bad surprises, but in the end still watching my little pony run around a field and enjoying every minute of it.
My older DD is a pitcher and is getting pretty good. She is going into 2nd year 12s next spring and is steadily increasing in speed, she is hovering at 48-51 and just last month was a notch below that. I think if she continues on this arc she should be consistently low to mid 50s next year. Not crazy fast, but respectable. She has really good control and the CU is getting really good. Last fall she played on a 10u TB team as she used up her eligibility and did really well, we all liked the org and the team and the coach and it was a great experience. The coach took a look at her on the 2001 squad at a friendly last January, but she wasn't quite ready (I agreed with him) because they wanted to make a serious run at PGF (which they did).
So we went on our way into the thicket of Socal travel and had some adventures. First team lasted about 3 weeks because DD did not get any circle time despite being promised that she would be in the rotation (HC and ACs had pitching DDs). Not being a big fan of being handed BS and told it is caviar, I told the coach in no uncertain terms what I thought of him and we left.
So I soured on TB and just decided she would play rec and develop one more year. Then I got a text out of the blue from another team and he gave me a hard sell to have her join up....we guested at a friendly and gingerly stepped back into the pool. This coach kept his word and she was in the rotation and could hold her own. Got shelled sometimes but also pitched really well sometimes she showed a knack for keeping the ball in the infield and giving up very few walks. I would say that she was a middle of the road pitcher in the Socal 12u scene, a little slower than most at first but she kept the ball down zone so she was effective. During the end of the season things petered out a bit because she started to have some foot problems that we thought might be serious so we pulled her from practice for about a month to recover, get an MRI etc.
The foot problems turned out to be not so serious after a scare that she might need surgery. So she rejoined practice so she would be ready for the end of season world series (in our case it was USSSA). Just as she rejoined, the coach who recruited us was fired by the org because of a group of parents that constantly complained to the org about playing time, we looked to see how this was going to affect the team and quickly realized that it would not be a good fit any more and so we were part of the 4-5 girls that decided to leave the team due to the abrupt change, part loyalty to the coach, part just kind of being done.
So at that point I was done with the general lunacy of TB and was grateful and happy that she was invited to join the local 2001 all star team as they transitioned to 14U TB this fall and spring. I know the families the coaches and it is a really good fit. So her future was settled. She would play with this local team and grow with them and hopefully they mostly stick together and play on our HS team in the future. All good in the hood.
Then one of her teammates from the team that fired the coach showed up at PGF and pitched a little on the original team my DD had pitched for at 10U. I was stoked to see this and texted the dad telling him what a great choice he made in joining that team and how much I like the coach etc. and that he will have none of the drama we had on the team that split because this coach would fire the complaining parents in a heartbeat and doesn't have an org to answer to so no one can go over his head. I was really happy that they landed there because they are a good family and the kid is just one of those great all around young ladies.
All is still good in the hood. Until that coach emailed me and said that he wants to get both girls together and form a 2002 team around them. Now we have committed through the fall to a local team, but the ONE team that I think is the best fit also came a calling and wants to build a team around my daughter and this other great kid.
The fear I have is that my older daughter is not a baller. She is a good all around player who happens to have naturally taken to pitching pretty quickly and continues to progress. She has a decent bat, but I do not see her as a kid that can meet the expectations of being a foundational player for a team of the caliber (that 2001 team moving to 14s of his is fierce) I know the coach wants to put together. But at the same time this coach saw her pitching last year vs this year and thinks she has the goods to be where he wants her to be to make the run next year and he has a lot more experience than I do. He has never been one to blow smoke. If he wanted to do that he could have thrown her on that 2001 squad last year and collected my money but he told me she just wasn't ready yet.
Since they don't have a full squad yet, the 12s will work out with the 14s until the rest of the team takes shape and she will get her game time with the local team she is playing on, so there are no conflicts yet so she can do both for now, but by the end of November she will have to make a final decision.
At this point I am so gun shy that I want to keep her options open as much as possible so I told both coaches that she will be doing both for now and they are OK with it. If this 12U team doesn't take flight then she will continue with the local team or if after seeing her on a day to day basis the coach realizes that maybe he was too optimistic in his assessment of building a team around her. On the other hand, if she finds that she would like to use that last year of 12U eligibility up and she is doing well then maybe she finds herself on a great team with a great coach and gets to have a year of being more of a competitive pitcher before she goes back to 43 feet and starts over again.
I don't know how common this kind of experience is, but it is what our family experienced this year and how we came out the other end. Lotsa ups and downs, some good and bad surprises, but in the end still watching my little pony run around a field and enjoying every minute of it.