independent teams joining an large organization
- Thread starter dgat7
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WARRIORMIKE
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What a coincidence. I am actually looking to merge my league with three to four others to make it a giant softball program. Benefits that we are facing are it will make us stronger as a whole rather than compete against each other. Also the league we are taking over has really run itself to the ground and there is no one there to help bring it back up. Few of us decided to fight for this park to get all the leagues together. With my history of coordinating and successfully starting a softball little league, this is one project I hope to be beneficial to our city. I will also have a staff that is extremely strong and knowledgeable being that they have done softball for many years, before I was even born. So should be good. Let see what happens.
Some reasons I can think of when we did this (in about this order as well)
#1: Access to fields
#2: Access to a group pricing on gear/uniforms/etc
#3: Possible assistance in recruiting - through 'reputation', siblings, location, history of players going through org, etc
#4: Easier access to 'guest' players
#5: Ability to run a tournament as fund raiser (hard to do as an individual tea)
#6: Access to charity status (501.c already in place)
#7: Access to more experience at all levels (on the board we had two board members who had been through 8U-College with other daughters)
My DD played on an independent team for 5 years. We were a Church team that started out as a 9 year old rec all star team. Every year we managed to move up a level - C-level TB, low-B, high-B, low-A. Every year it became harder and harder to attract top level talent to compete. Finally in second year 14U we decided to join an organization as we made the move to play high level A-ball. It gave us instant name recognition and got us into some futures showcases that we would never have been invited to as an independent. But I still miss seeing the look on opposing coaches faces after telling them "we are a Church team"...right after we beat the pants off them! LOL
The biggest benefit of joining a well respected organization will be recruiting. It is much easier to get into showcases and to get college coaches to come watch you play if you are part of an organization that has a history of getting girls scholarships.
The biggest benefit of joining a well respected organization will be recruiting. It is much easier to get into showcases and to get college coaches to come watch you play if you are part of an organization that has a history of getting girls scholarships.
- Jul 28, 2008
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As a DI coach said to my friend's daughter, "I will not take you until you get onto teams A, B or C. Yes, the team you are on has done a fantastic job training you, but I need to see you face the top players in the country to see how you do. The team you're playing on will not get the chance to play the competition you need to face."
She switched teams and got recruited by that coach afterwards.
She switched teams and got recruited by that coach afterwards.
All good points.
The downfall to big organizations is they become money driven. Have paid coaches (include free travel & hotel), and paid administrators. Usually their goal is to promote the absolute top couple of teams in the program. To promote the organization itself.
To do this, almost every one has a few "less talented" teams who are not going anywhere. These teams usually are stacked with extra players. These teams are there to help pay the bills. Costs more, which to many, including myself, is a big factor in choosing where to play. They travel more, which costs more, when the majority of players will end up in college close to home, and the local tourneys do fine.
Don't be one of those teams. Better to stay independent, control the action, and keep the costs down.
The downfall to big organizations is they become money driven. Have paid coaches (include free travel & hotel), and paid administrators. Usually their goal is to promote the absolute top couple of teams in the program. To promote the organization itself.
To do this, almost every one has a few "less talented" teams who are not going anywhere. These teams usually are stacked with extra players. These teams are there to help pay the bills. Costs more, which to many, including myself, is a big factor in choosing where to play. They travel more, which costs more, when the majority of players will end up in college close to home, and the local tourneys do fine.
Don't be one of those teams. Better to stay independent, control the action, and keep the costs down.
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- May 10, 2010
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The large orgs. are becoming watered down in our area. Pretty soon it will be org. A with 30 teams playing org.B with 30 teams as the only teams in a tournament or showcase. SB is becoming more about the orgs and their egos than the players and to me that is bad. Honestly the best recruiting team my dd played for was an independent team. I googled an org once to research them and their non profit status came up. I was shocked at the amount that was on the page. I also do not understand traveling all over the country if the school your dd wants to go to is 100 miles from home.
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