There should be an avenue for them but I just don't think its travel ball. I was able to play in my town league until I was 16.. Maybe that is what they should do
Is HS ball becoming *BETTER* than TB?
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There should be an avenue for them but I just don't think its travel ball. I was able to play in my town league until I was 16.. Maybe that is what they should do
Not going to happen, when the alphabet organizations make money off of # of teams.... All of them will encourage more teams to join.
Same thing here in NY!! Some organization have four 12U teams, four 14U teams and they still advertise for players because they don't have enough
- Nov 29, 2009
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Then what happens is the large organizations start shuffling players between teams to fill gaps on certain weekends and the outside teams start complaining. If you stack a team with all the top talent then you have internal dissension in the program. Try to balance the teams out and you end up with a bunch of "Also Ran's" at tournaments. The program loses the name draw at tryout time. Not to mention the fight for players amongst the coaches at tryout time. You have coaches telling players to tank their tryouts so the other coaches won't want them. Clicks start to develop and the whole "Us" feeling is lost within the program. It's a no win situation for everyone involved.
- Dec 7, 2011
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ROFL on this topic.
I will have to come back to this one on a regular basis this "spring" for a continual hoot n hollar.
HS state winner last year would get run-ruled by any TB-A team in this state. You have got to be talking lower-level TB-B or C teams.
My point being that the high level national play teams just draw the cream of the crop. Period.
Trying to remember a good IL team we faced - Oak Stars I think was their name. I would love to see the best HS team get schooled by them.
I will have to come back to this one on a regular basis this "spring" for a continual hoot n hollar.
HS state winner last year would get run-ruled by any TB-A team in this state. You have got to be talking lower-level TB-B or C teams.
My point being that the high level national play teams just draw the cream of the crop. Period.
Trying to remember a good IL team we faced - Oak Stars I think was their name. I would love to see the best HS team get schooled by them.
- Apr 1, 2010
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I'm not sure if my DD will play in college or not, but she wanted to play more than a few months a year and she wanted to play at a higher level. IMO college ball is for girls who want to play in college, LOL, and at least at younger ages, tb is for girls who find it fun to play more games more competitively than rec offers.
I do think that as the girls start to get older, they tend to either get more serious and want to be on a high level tb team or they let softball fall by the wayside and start dating, working, etc.
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There is enough separation of skill in our area that coaches could be placing their teams in ASA, NSA, and USSSA tournaments where they can compete, without steamrolling everyone. This allows kids 8-18 the opportunity to play as competitive as they desire. If players pay for tournaments without serious indoor training they could pay 300-500.
- Apr 1, 2010
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Town league? I don't think that was an option for DD. As far as I know, it's either rec or A/B/C level tb and the only way to play year-round is to go with an alphabet. I do know they have league ball down in Olathe, but that's an hour drive. If you're going to drive your little 'un that far, it might as well be for a tb team. :-D
I've always figured that the B/C levels are there for a good reason. They let girls play more and learn more. They're a stairstep if girls aspire to A ball, or they're a wonderful place to stay for girls who decide they want to play a lot, but simply want to play for fun. Like CB, I don't see the harm. More girls getting an opportunity to play seems like a good thing IMO.
Can we put this in perspective. Are we talking about a 14U tb team or possibly a 16u? Those would be the ones that I would put in competition with Varsity teams. If we are talking about an 18u tb team it's not even a fair comparison. Many varsity teams are comprised of underclassmen, very few that could compete at that time against people 4 years older. You wouldn't take the best 10U travel team and throw them against a decent 14u b team.
Believe it or not there are three guys on our HS coaching staff that are unpaid volunteers. And amazingly all three of their DD's are starting varsity... only one of them honestly deserves it.
