Been whirlwind of a last Softball Weekend. When the travel ball season started we had our Tourney/showcase schedule all mapped out. Play 3 local tourneys, 1 local showcase a trip to Long island and end the year with New England’s finest.
At the time it made sense to or our newly formed missmosh of a team. Get your barring by playing locally then a not so quick trip to LI to play some different competition and end the year for this 16u B team to an 18u showcase in Mass. sounds good right?
Well this “showcase” wasn’t good for our girls at all. We were out of our league. Playing up so we can be seen. Was good in theory. Assuming you can hang. Well scoring 8 runs in 6 games while giving up who knows how much didn’t do too much for our girls confidence. Couple things were against us from the beginning.
1: Our team was imploding with little to no direction from the organization. We found out our coaches weren’t returning 2 weeks ago on social media. Leaving 11 girls without knowing if they had a team next season. “Come to tryouts to earn a spot on one of next years teams”.
2: when schedules came out we found out our hotel was 45+ min from the field. Makes getting to that 7:30 am start a little rough. Mad rush to change bookings couple weeks before the event. Got that completed but come checkin the new closer hotel was anything but new. IDK maybe the people running the showcase should actually vet out the hotels??. Run down, under staffed and crawling with critters. Saw the ants but who knows what else was lurking. So Friday was mad dash for most parents to get alternative accommodations. Spent 45min on the phone getting a new hotel. Others opted to stay and braved the bugs. Nothing says team bonding like 11 families spread over 5 different MA or RI hotels.
3: the games themselves. Yes we were overmatched but do you need to keep stealing bunting and advancing extra bases when your up by double digits in the 3rd inning? Not to mention arguing every play like you’re in the World Series.
4: game balls:: would it kill the organizers to have more than 2 balls available per field? HR balls hit into the woods are tough to find. We actually ran out of balls 2 times in 6 games. You’re pulling In big bucks and can’t afford a couple cases of balls??
5: game sites: touting dozens of college coaches is great but how many of them make it to the outskirts?? The venues are 30+ miles apart. Was at the field for 2 of the 3 days and saw 1. Yes 1 coach. Granted our girls may not be college game ready but a few of the players on the other teams were. How many of them got to show off there speed stealing second in a 13-0 game (yes tongue firmly in cheek) at 2:00 pm on a Sunday 2 hours after the host left with the balls???
Bottom line I’ve seen local events put on by LL organizations run better. The money charged for these types of events is obscene.
The pressure put on orgs to enter these events is just as bad. Not every team is a “showcase” team. Not every team needs to waste the money to prove their worth. Getting players onto a college team doesn’t have to be the only goal. Games should be competitive and fun. Losing 5/6 games isn’t fun. Putting a 16uB level team in an 18u showcase isn’t in anyone’s best interest.
Is there a place for showcases? Maybe? Should every girl aspire to play in college? Maybe not? Should everyones goal be to spend 2k to play 6 games in clearly an alternate site just so you can claim we play showcases? I can think of better ways to spend the money.
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At the time it made sense to or our newly formed missmosh of a team. Get your barring by playing locally then a not so quick trip to LI to play some different competition and end the year for this 16u B team to an 18u showcase in Mass. sounds good right?
Well this “showcase” wasn’t good for our girls at all. We were out of our league. Playing up so we can be seen. Was good in theory. Assuming you can hang. Well scoring 8 runs in 6 games while giving up who knows how much didn’t do too much for our girls confidence. Couple things were against us from the beginning.
1: Our team was imploding with little to no direction from the organization. We found out our coaches weren’t returning 2 weeks ago on social media. Leaving 11 girls without knowing if they had a team next season. “Come to tryouts to earn a spot on one of next years teams”.
2: when schedules came out we found out our hotel was 45+ min from the field. Makes getting to that 7:30 am start a little rough. Mad rush to change bookings couple weeks before the event. Got that completed but come checkin the new closer hotel was anything but new. IDK maybe the people running the showcase should actually vet out the hotels??. Run down, under staffed and crawling with critters. Saw the ants but who knows what else was lurking. So Friday was mad dash for most parents to get alternative accommodations. Spent 45min on the phone getting a new hotel. Others opted to stay and braved the bugs. Nothing says team bonding like 11 families spread over 5 different MA or RI hotels.
3: the games themselves. Yes we were overmatched but do you need to keep stealing bunting and advancing extra bases when your up by double digits in the 3rd inning? Not to mention arguing every play like you’re in the World Series.
4: game balls:: would it kill the organizers to have more than 2 balls available per field? HR balls hit into the woods are tough to find. We actually ran out of balls 2 times in 6 games. You’re pulling In big bucks and can’t afford a couple cases of balls??
5: game sites: touting dozens of college coaches is great but how many of them make it to the outskirts?? The venues are 30+ miles apart. Was at the field for 2 of the 3 days and saw 1. Yes 1 coach. Granted our girls may not be college game ready but a few of the players on the other teams were. How many of them got to show off there speed stealing second in a 13-0 game (yes tongue firmly in cheek) at 2:00 pm on a Sunday 2 hours after the host left with the balls???
Bottom line I’ve seen local events put on by LL organizations run better. The money charged for these types of events is obscene.
The pressure put on orgs to enter these events is just as bad. Not every team is a “showcase” team. Not every team needs to waste the money to prove their worth. Getting players onto a college team doesn’t have to be the only goal. Games should be competitive and fun. Losing 5/6 games isn’t fun. Putting a 16uB level team in an 18u showcase isn’t in anyone’s best interest.
Is there a place for showcases? Maybe? Should every girl aspire to play in college? Maybe not? Should everyones goal be to spend 2k to play 6 games in clearly an alternate site just so you can claim we play showcases? I can think of better ways to spend the money.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk