Another day in trophy chasing

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Dec 15, 2018
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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.

Learning quickly that classifications are all nonsense – or at least hard to get right. DD’s 14U team was a first year team this summer. Last fall and through the beginning of spring they placed themselves as C. The local tourney’s we played in were mostly C, and they were competitive at the start of summer, and pretty dominant by the end. Went to C nationals and steamrolled it – which was weird because locally the C teams we played we were back and forth with. Thought “nationals” would be competitive. Obviously locally we were all “misclassified”, but it worked when we played each other.

So starting this fall, coach is entering B tournaments. We went to one out of state this weekend and steamrolled it…got “accused” (or there were parent rumblings) that we were trophy chasing. Of course, we were like the 2nd team that signed up, and the tourney said “B”, so coach figured it would be more challenging.

They are in a fall league that has some “known” A teams, that starting this weekend should put us in our place. I think it's time for them to take your suggestion and slow down with the smaller 10-12 team tourneys and play some big ones.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
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There is a learning curve to most folks new to travel ball.
That said
Knowing of coaches who have been around atleast 8 years or more and moving teams up an age bracket when they dont have to and clearly shouldnt be doing so imo is crudding up competition.
They certainly aren't trophy chasing but they are chasing something lol...

The coach that has a mediocre first year 14u team that never played any real competition and still lost atleast half their games has
NO BUSINESS moving team up to 16u the next year.
Using the expression
'We will take our lumps'
Should be a red flag.

This predicament/conundrum is part of what created/forced others hosting friendlies and tournaments to be invite only to avoid junk softball.

Heres my message to you
'Coach we will take our lumps'
Clean it up first.
Be competitive in your own age bracket.
Play up once in a while to test the teams development perhaps....
But if 14u sparkler challenged you...
Moving up early to16's is no place to get beat up.
 
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May 1, 2018
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My DD a 08 just getting into 14u is a solid B player. She hits really well and holds down 1st base. She was asked to play this weekend with a C team and we went out and played. The team wasn't very good and they struggled through pool games. First bracket game .... National team steps on the field. The team she was playing with first three batters strike out...... then A team scores 16 runs before the runner on 1st steps off the base intentionally for the 3rd out.
The level of frustration my DD had was unreal. I told her as she was walking up to bat "Just swing for the fence, this game is over" so at least she could try and get a good hit against a good hitter. She got drilled in the helmet first pitch, then the pitcher stuck out the next 3.
18-0 didn't bat the line up even.
So one player playing down a little is one thing...... the whole team is crazy
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
My DD a 08 just getting into 14u is a solid B player. She hits really well and holds down 1st base. She was asked to play this weekend with a C team and we went out and played. The team wasn't very good and they struggled through pool games. First bracket game .... National team steps on the field. The team she was playing with first three batters strike out...... then A team scores 16 runs before the runner on 1st steps off the base intentionally for the 3rd out.
The level of frustration my DD had was unreal. I told her as she was walking up to bat "Just swing for the fence, this game is over" so at least she could try and get a good hit against a good hitter. She got drilled in the helmet first pitch, then the pitcher stuck out the next 3.
18-0 didn't bat the line up even.
So one player playing down a little is one thing...... the whole team is crazy
Did the National team have any close games throughout the tournament because if they did then that sounds more like an issue of a team playing in a tournament above their head vs the other way around...
 
May 1, 2018
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Did the National team have any close games throughout the tournament because if they did then that sounds more like an issue of a team playing in a tournament above their head vs the other way around...
They had one close game in the championship game...that's it. To your point I think the team she played on was over the head and the National team was Sandbagging....so it was terrible on both ends.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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They had one close game in the championship game...that's it. To your point I think the team she played on was over the head and the National team was Sandbagging....so it was terrible on both ends.
The only thing I will say is that depending on where you are, some teams may have a hard time finding competitive games locally so they either have to stay in hotels every weekend, hardly ever play or find the best local option 3 or 4 times per season 🤷🏽‍♂️ No idea if that is the case here…
 
Feb 1, 2021
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Not going to lie, when DD was hitting her stride, in 10s and first year 12s she was playing B-ball. It was far from trophy hunting though.

It was because our city built an A++ softball facility, but if you wanted to play there, they only held B tourneys. It was different back then though. Most teams were B and most of the time it was pretty competitive. Now, the sanctioning bodies push most teams up to A and B tourneys are absolutely ghastly.
 
Oct 29, 2019
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My kid plays on a good travel team.

Up until this season she still played on a rec team and in a select league(low level travel teams)

No regrets. Not sandbagging and I could care less about wins. She gets a chance to pitch, catch, play SS... and I only have to drive 5 minutes away on a weekday for a few games. It reminds her that she is a really good player and we have met some good softball friends.

I did hear complaints from other teams. In my eyes the players from the other team got a great chance to play against some good competition.
 
Jul 5, 2016
652
63
My kid plays on a good travel team.

Up until this season she still played on a rec team and in a select league(low level travel teams)

No regrets. Not sandbagging and I could care less about wins. She gets a chance to pitch, catch, play SS... and I only have to drive 5 minutes away on a weekday for a few games. It reminds her that she is a really good player and we have met some good softball friends.

I did hear complaints from other teams. In my eyes the players from the other team got a great chance to play against some good competition.

It's a matter of degree. If you are beating other teams 20-0 and they are struggling to put the ball in play, what's the point. Or if their pitcher is walking too many batters, what's the point. The games I enjoyed most were the ones where my daughter's team was firing on all cylinders and winning in a balanced way. When she played at a lower level, if her pitching was not 100%, there was a good chance we would lose on errors. When she played for a better travel team, you could usually count on fielding support and some offensive support.
 
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