Too many or Too few??

[YOCOACH]

The hardest thing that I had to wrap my head around when moving from rec to TB was that not every girl who played TB had the same goals. Some are playing because they were too good for rec and wanted to play better competition. Others are playing to make their HS Varsity team only and don't want to play after that. Still others are playing as a road to play in college; not necessarily a scholarship but to maybe earn a spot as a walk-on. Then you have those players on the Athletic Scholarship chase. I would submit to you that the first two groups of players (which I will call group A) outweigh the second two (Group B) as far as numbers are concerned. Thus, not many of those same players and their families from group A want to spend thousands of dollars to travel far and wide on top of the team fees let alone the time. They have a tendency to stick closer to home and compete.

So the organizations that you are talking about, the true A level or Gold level organizations, although fewer in my area, don't have much of a problem finding players that want to go the route of group B. The organizations that are caught between groups a and B are the ones that are suffering in our area as far as player shortage because they end up with a mix of both and never seem to completely satisfy either.

I'm not so sure it's an excess of teams or a shortage of players situation as opposed to a majority of players not having the same goals as a particular organization.

 

[redbirdone]

The problem I see in my area right now (southeast) is a lot of teams start off advertising themselves as "A" teams. Mom or dad and a friend or two decide they are not happy with their current situation so they form their own team with their kids, who are usually not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They get a late start, often still looking for an "ace pitcher" or "top flight catcher" way after all the traditionally big name orgs have held tryouts and set their rosters. So then they struggle to fill the roster and end up with lots of B and even a C player or two. Then they have a hard time coming to grips with this as they can't compete with the true A teams. This is mostly in 10u and 12u right now. I'm not seeing this at the 14u level, at least to the same extent.

Add to that the growing supply of parents with checkbooks who want their kids to be associated with "A" ball or "travel ball" and you get an overall watering down of play. The top level teams have not been watered down, and are dominating as much as ever right now.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

Agree that it's pricing out many players. But how is that related to the number of teams and coaches?

I wasn't picking on you, just trying to give a broader opinion on the subject. I think that there are too many teams AND not enough "A" ball players at the highest level. I think we lose to many "A" players and it creates a ripple effect from "A" ball to rec ball.

So is the answer both?

 

[CoachKevin]

I do find it amusing that a big Organization in my area has several teams in each age. One age (16's) there are like 4 different teams...all of them looking for players????

 

[abbygale]

I think that there are a few organizations who have many extra teams due to daddy/mommy coach thinking it legitimizes little Sally's team. I think that would be a lose/lose for all parties.

 

[Jquick823]

So I have to ask and this is not directed at anyone just a question because it comes up a lot. But as abbygale said about mommy/daddy teams. Why does that matter? Isn't there a place for all teams and girls in this sport? Does a team coached by 3 dads or 3 moms really take "girls" away from the "A" teams? Honestly they take $$$ away but they don't take top 9 players away in most cases and if they do you weren't getting them anyway.

Team last year was coached by 3 dads and 2 moms and we went to 4 title games at the "A" level. This year we went to a team with a better tract record at the older ages but not sure how a parent coached team doesn't have a spot in this sport. I think we should all be impressed with the parents that do this for the kids. This season out of 27 girls there's maybe 8 dads MAYBE!

 

[JJsqueeze]

The problem I see in my area right now (southeast) is a lot of teams start off advertising themselves as "A" teams. Mom or dad and a friend or two decide they are not happy with their current situation so they form their own team with their kids, who are usually not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They get a late start, often still looking for an "ace pitcher" or "top flight catcher" way after all the traditionally big name orgs have held tryouts and set their rosters. So then they struggle to fill the roster and end up with lots of B and even a C player or two. Then they have a hard time coming to grips with this as they can't compete with the true A teams. This is mostly in 10u and 12u right now. I'm not seeing this at the 14u level, at least to the same extent.

Add to that the growing supply of parents with checkbooks who want their kids to be associated with "A" ball or "travel ball" and you get an overall watering down of play. The top level teams have not been watered down, and are dominating as much as ever right now.

I think this nails it, but with a twist. The teams that emerge from the sea of mediocrity to be able to challenge the top teams are the ones that have truly good coaching. Take those top teams out of it and there is a lot of parity in player skill, so coaching and game management are the things that separate the rest. You want a good team to join? look for a team without a name that has a winning record and you will find a good coach.

 

[riseball]

Ok but to me (with all respect to you) its not working. I know of really good organizations that cant get girls. I'm talking of organizations that have been to Nationals and have placed girls in college and some have college coaches running teams or the organization.

If they cannot get players maybe they are not as good as you think? Successful teams should never have a problem attracting quality players. If they are you must wonder why players are choosing lesser teams over them.

 

[YOCOACH]

So I have to ask and this is not directed at anyone just a question because it comes up a lot. But as abbygale said about mommy/daddy teams. Why does that matter? Isn't there a place for all teams and girls in this sport? Does a team coached by 3 dads or 3 moms really take "girls" away from the "A" teams? Honestly they take $$$ away but they don't take top 9 players away in most cases and if they do you weren't getting them anyway.

Team last year was coached by 3 dads and 2 moms and we went to 4 title games at the "A" level. This year we went to a team with a better tract record at the older ages but not sure how a parent coached team doesn't have a spot in this sport. I think we should all be impressed with the parents that do this for the kids. This season out of 27 girls there's maybe 8 dads MAYBE!

Absolutely there is. Many TB teams and organizations, both small and large, wouldn't exist if it weren't for parent coaches. Where many of us have a problem with it is (as an example) when Suzy is the #6 pitcher on a C level team and gets no pitching time. They think that she's being slighted so to right the perceived wrong, they start a TB team and Suzy's their #1 pitcher or starting SS when not pitching and draw quality players away from other teams/organizations. At least until they get their eyes opened at tournament or, if they're extremely lucky, practice time. By the time this usually happens and the players want to leave, the other teams are either set, combined with another team due to lack of players or folded leaving these players with few opportunities to play unless they get lucky.

 

[redbirdone]

TB teams in my area do a bad job of placing kids in college; and HS coaches are doing none. Why it works for football and not softball, I don't know, except that maybe there is no travel football.

Football is unique in how kids are recruited. Every other college sport, recruitment is typically done outside of school ball. My former boss has a son playing college basketball at a mid-major. Recruiters didn't come to his HS games (don't forget it's NCAA season same time HS plays). His recruitment was done 100% through AAU tournaments and coaches. Same goes for tennis, one of our kids teammates plays HS tennis and committed to an SEC school. No college coaches at HS matches, but they all turn out for the big junior USTA tournaments each year.

Most high school coaches have very little to no role in college athletics recruitment, unless they also coach a travel or AAU team outside of high school, or played in college and have some high level contacts and credibility.