Another day in trophy chasing

[Orange Socks]

We have 18u in PA. In fact, most local 18u tournaments attract more teams than 16u. The bigger tournaments will attract more 16u. In many cases, the 18u teams are mostly made up of high school players that don't have a real desire to play at the college level. Or are already committed. Our team played 1 year at the 18u level and then moved up to 23u.

Are you saying these are 18u "C" tourneys?

This brings up another question, where are these 23U tourneys? Here in Houston, there are a lot of college players that come home for the summer. There were some organized games put together. Houston vs Bryan/College Station players, and my DD did workouts with a bunch of some very talented players. But the workouts were chill and low key. My DD really enjoyed it since she hadn't been able(let's be real, she chose not) to do anything softball since March. Because of the extreme heat here, I am pretty positive that most players are glad they are not playing tournaments in the summer anymore. I remember telling DD, this is the last time you will ever have to wake up 5am to be at the fields at 6:30am for warm ups! This is the last time you will ever have to play a game in 100 degree heat! She does not miss the TB grind. The College grind is a new but different grind.

 

[Orange Socks]

When we first started travel ball, the team was classified "B", but there was thought of making it "C". Locally, we were competitive. At larger tournaments we were fodder. This was 12u. At 14u we were solid "B". By 16u, we probably should have been classified "A", but the parents were worried about that. The players wanted to play against higher competition. So as a coaching staff, we compromised. We registered as a "B" team, but selected mostly open tournaments and showcases. Then we hand picked our tournaments with competition in mind. That way we knew we would play against mostly "A" class teams.

When DD played 16u/18u (last 4 years) you did not register your team as A, B, C Gold whatever. Where do you register? You just signed up for a tourney and played. Then of course the softball Illuminati would tell you which teams you will play and where. However, when DD was playing in a tourney, there might be a "lesser" tourney being played somewhere else with lesser skilled teams. Showcases in the fall might tell you the rule sets. "Playing under USA softball rules". Summer tourneys were a mix of round robins, and then the National tourneys. Boulder IDT, TCS Nat's, TCS State,JO Cup, USA Gold. DD played in zero USSSA tourneys in her TB career.

 

[FP26]

Are you saying these are 18u "C" tourneys?

This brings up another question, where are these 23U tourneys? Here in Houston, there are a lot of college players that come home for the summer. There were some organized games put together. Houston vs Bryan/College Station players, and my DD did workouts with a bunch of some very talented players. But the workouts were chill and low key. My DD really enjoyed it since she hadn't been able(let's be real, she chose not) to do anything softball since March. Because of the extreme heat here, I am pretty positive that most players are glad they are not playing tournaments in the summer anymore. I remember telling DD, this is the last time you will ever have to wake up 5am to be at the fields at 6:30am for warm ups! This is the last time you will ever have to play a game in 100 degree heat! She does not miss the TB grind. The College grind is a new but different grind.

We have 18A and 18B. I am not aware of any C teams at the 18u level, although I cannot say for sure that they do not exist.

There are a few locations in PA that offer 23u tournaments; Allentown, Reading, Lancaster. There are not many, but there are some. Some of them are true 23u tournaments. Some of them also have what they consider to be "open" tournaments which do not have an age limit. 23u is primarily college players. Our team consists of D2 and D3 players, including my daughter. "Open" is primarily for college graduates. Some of the players are approaching 40 years old. In fact I remember one game in which one of our pitchers (D2) pitcher, was actually pitching against her real life pitching coach (38 years old). Nice competition. 23u is a blast. Has many of the travel ball components without the grind. When we were technically "2nd year 18u" we chose to play 23u instead. Many of our players had just graduated and were moving on to college ball. So why not play against college players?

 

[FP26]

When DD played 16u/18u (last 4 years) you did not register your team as A, B, C Gold whatever. Where do you register? You just signed up for a tourney and played. Then of course the softball Illuminati would tell you which teams you will play and where. However, when DD was playing in a tourney, there might be a "lesser" tourney being played somewhere else with lesser skilled teams. Showcases in the fall might tell you the rule sets. "Playing under USA softball rules". Summer tourneys were a mix of round robins, and then the National tourneys. Boulder IDT, TCS Nat's, TCS State,JO Cup, USA Gold. DD played in zero USSSA tourneys in her TB career.

We registered through ASA (USA Softball) although many of the tournaments we entered were USSSA. At 12u we started as an ASA team and it just seemed easier for us to register that way each year for roster and insurance purposes. Most tournaments are not too picky regarding class (A, B, C), and that is why I wonder some times if it is really worth it. I'm not opposed to a classification system, and actually think one could be useful, if it was used correctly. But I have yet to see one used correctly. As we gained experience, we started to learn what type of teams would frequent each tournament. We could make it a point to enter tournaments that would challenge our players.

 

[Vertigo]

There is a local team here that always claims they are “16U eligible” but play “up” in 18U tourneys (UTrip). They recently just won 18U A States.

I have 2 questions:

Are you really “playing up” from 16U to 18U? Most girls are fully developed by 16U and if they play HS ball, are playing with and against that age group already.

Can you really claim that you’re the State champion if only 4 teams entered the whole tourney?

Granted, I already know the answers to both, but just find it comical that this team always posts on their site about the “really tough competition“ they faced and how they overcame the heat, wind, rain, fire, flood, etc. to win it all!

 

[Orange Socks]

We registered through ASA (USA Softball) although many of the tournaments we entered were USSSA. At 12u we started as an ASA team and it just seemed easier for us to register that way each year for roster and insurance purposes. Most tournaments are not too picky regarding class (A, B, C), and that is why I wonder some times if it is really worth it. I'm not opposed to a classification system, and actually think one could be useful, if it was used correctly. But I have yet to see one used correctly. As we gained experience, we started to learn what type of teams would frequent each tournament. We could make it a point to enter tournaments that would challenge our players.

This right here is the evolution through age divisions how you figure out what tourneys you should be playing. You don't really need to be classified. Where it becomes a problem is when you have a lights out team playing down. We were playing in a 12u All star tourney which is usually just Rec all star teams. There were two teams that were year round teams that entered the tourney. That was the day I realized, that we don't need to be playing All stars. During the umpire I asked the coach how did your team get in this tourney? He said the TD invited them. I said "Well, I hope you get what you want out of this tourney" We went on to beat this team. which put us in the finals. We lost to a pretty dang good intimidating team. After that tourney, we won 3 in a row. I didn't have confidence to play up since we were a Rec ball team... full of studs!!!! LOL. I took that team into the fall and played open tourneys with the kids that wanted to continue to play and picked up others.

 

[Orange Socks]

There is a local team here that always claims they are “16U eligible” but play “up” in 18U tourneys (UTrip). They recently just won 18U A States.

I have 2 questions:

Are you really “playing up” from 16U to 18U? Most girls are fully developed by 16U and if they play HS ball, are playing with and against that age group already.

Can you really claim that you’re the State champion if only 4 teams entered the whole tourney?

Granted, I already know the answers to both, but just find it comical that this team always posts on their site about the “really tough competition“ they faced and how they overcame the heat, wind, rain, fire, flood, etc. to win it all!

Ha! When I see parents facebooking about their tourney, I like to find out who they played, and I usually find myself laughing. I liked playing smaller tourneys because they were more intimate, but once we started playing tourneys with 50 or more teams, I liked it better! Especially Boulder IDT and TCS Nat's with all the big time programs from around the country. I got tired of playing the same teams from our area.

 

[Rick M]

USSSA lists 94 teams as 18C from around the country:


Edit: tried to post a link but it didn’t work


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[livingontheroad]

I don't even know what a C is.

but even back when my daughter was playing there were average A teams that played B world series so they could win something.

Strongest ball was ASA. Any of the top 25 finishing team at ASA would have walked away with 1st place in any USSSA or such world series. So call it what it is...... Most of those A teams are not elite teams. In fact some teams played those Nationals as a warm-up for a ASA.

But the problem is many parents pay a lot of money and they tend to want to have a vacation for their Nationals trip.

 

[The Man In Blue]

That maybe true, but why would you go to a lower tournament and pitch? I would think you would like to test the waters w a 12" and 40' because in 2 weeks thats where you will be throwing from. We were 3 errors away from beating both, so it's two great building blocks for next year.

I should have been more obvious ...