Leaving National Teams

[_MIA_]

Maybe we just travel in different groups of parents

I see some crazies, but the parents I interact with don't have any illusions of grandeur when it comes to their daughter or team's ability.

Again, if your kid is not dominating A level teams regionally I'm not sure where that hubris would come from.

Ignorance is bliss for the most part. Unless you either make the effort to expand your horizons or are directly subjected to the National level teams it is sort of understandable that you wouldn’t know.

Maybe your “circle” has more experience and likely has had their asses kicked by a real National level team..

 

[tomorrow]

Maybe we just travel in different groups of parents

I see some crazies, but the parents I interact with don't have any illusions of grandeur when it comes to their daughter or team's ability.

Again, if your kid is not dominating A level teams regionally I'm not sure where that hubris would come from.

"Hubris" is a fantastic word to describe most of the parents and coaches I see in travel ball. Full of hubris.

 

[Tide_will_Roll]

"Hubris" is a fantastic word to describe most of the parents and coaches I see in travel ball. Full of hubris.

This and only this.

 

[uncdrew]

Yup.

I see parents all the time thinking that because they won a rinky-dink tourney in middle Georgia it means their daughter is headed for a college scholarship. Sad part is, these girls are sophomores in High School. Time has pretty much expired for them.

However, if your team has the word GOLD at the end, you're set.

 

[Agcy]

Yup.

I see parents all the time thinking that because they won a rinky-dink tourney in middle Georgia it means their daughter is headed for a college scholarship. Sad part is, these girls are sophomores in High School. Time has pretty much expired for them.

However, if your team has the word GOLD at the end, you're set.

But, doesn't every program have at least one team of GOLD caliber players?

 

[_MIA_]

But, doesn't every program have at least one team of GOLD caliber players?

Our org has multiple Premier and National teams at the 14u-18u levels and only one of those teams can legitimately contend on the National level (and half of that team is from TX)

 

[uncdrew]

But, doesn't every program have at least one team of GOLD caliber players?

For certain. And maybe even a Premier, Elite or Premium group as well.

I do take a bit more pleasure in beating teams with those silly words in their title.

 

[_MIA_]

For certain. And maybe even a Premier, Elite or Premium group as well.

I do take a bit more pleasure in beating teams with those silly words in their title.

Most of the times the "silly words" (and I agree they are silly) are bestowed upon the team by the org. In theory DD's team was the third best team in her age group in the org so they got the "Gold" distinction. However the Premier team (the second "best" team) disbanded after this season and DD's team was just good as them (and comparable to the "National" team) so they will probably be "Premier" this year...not sure what I think about that tbh.

 

[Orange Socks]

I personally had the opposite view of DD's All Star teams 12U-14U years. We won A LOT of tourneys. I took pride in that, but I didn't think we were good enough to compete in an "open" tourney. The first time I started thinking different is when we beat an B level team that squirmed their way into our All Star tourney. Not until DD made the jump to real TB I realized I was such a dummy. My All star team would have ran circles around the 14 "A" team DD got on. I thought the competition was going to so much better. Wow I was wrong. 2 years later she was playing on a true National team where the real competition was. No more baby ball.

Lucky for us living in HTX, there is enough competition and events here to keep us busy. In the fall seasons our team never travelled outside of HTX. All the teams from Dallas and Central TX came to HTX.

 

[_MIA_]

I personally had the opposite view of DD's All Star teams 12U-14U years. We won A LOT of tourneys. I took pride in that, but I didn't think we were good enough to compete in an "open" tourney. The first time I started thinking different is when we beat an B level team that squirmed their way into our All Star tourney. Not until DD made the jump to real TB I realized I was such a dummy. My All star team would have ran circles around the 14 "A" team DD got on. I thought the competition was going to so much better. Wow I was wrong.

Not sure how long ago that was but nowadays you can watch teams from all over the country play via different forms of livestreams. Also all the "big" tournament results are easily accessible via the web. Before that it would have been hard to gauge how good your team was. I mean in the bigger picture, no 12U-14U team is "good" when you compare them to College kids, or in my case initially MLB players ( I still have a hard time turning off my MLB fliter when watching...that was my reference for 30+ years), so if that is your only reference it was certainly possible to underestimate. Nowadays there is really no excuse to not have a feeling for the level of your kid and her team unless you just don't want to know or don't have the ability to distinguish between great,good and not so good..