Travel versus Club is there a difference?

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Jun 8, 2016
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USA (formerly ASA) has A,B, and C ratings. B & C are allstar teams from the rec leagues. A teams can get players from anywhere. In Northern CA, USA A tournaments have fallen on tough times.

USSSA does exist in CA but the A,B,C ratings are self rated but then will change as you play tournaments. They are mainly tournaments for local teams that don't travel very far.
Ok, DD's team has played a few USA tournaments in the past but I didn't notice any ratings.
 
Dec 5, 2017
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They have. In OK you typically play mostly USSSA in 10's and 12's and then transition away as you get to 14's. As 1st year 14's, they are playing maybe 4 or 5 this spring that are USSSA.

What tournament are you playing in? Road to the Show?
Yes, I believe that is the one.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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Yes, I believe that is the one.
Those tournaments have teams from all over the place. The WCWS tournaments (Road to the Show and OKC Challenge) are usually pretty good (but a step below PGF tournaments) for 10's and 12's and not so great for 14U and above. More than likely a lot of the best team(s) in 12B will 11O teams (unless there is a 12B team in it that is sandbagging it..) Usually the best 11O teams play 12A but I just looked at the Who's Coming list on USSSA and it seems that there are no 11O teams in 12A this year.
 
Last edited:
Dec 5, 2017
514
63
Those tournaments have teams from all over the place. The WCWS tournaments (Road to the Show and OKC Challenge) are usually pretty good (but a step below PGF tournaments) for 10's and 12's and not so great for 14U and above. More than likely a lot of the best team(s) in 12B will 11O teams (unless there is a 12B team in it that is sandbagging it..) Usually the best 11O teams play 12A but I just looked at the Who's Coming list on USSSA and it seems that there are no 11O teams in 12A this year.
Thanks for the info. We are just hoping to do well and have a good time. We're doing this tourney rather than a big end of year, beach trip. This way we are finished at the end of June and have all of July off.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Thanks for the info. We are just hoping to do well and have a good time. We're doing this tourney rather than a big end of year, beach trip. This way we are finished at the end of June and have all of July off.
It should be fun. Everybody that goes to the WCWS enjoys themselves.

Hopefully it doesn't rain. We played in it last year and unfortunately the TD is a well-known dufus and didn't have a real good plan for rain..some of the games ended up being played on baseball fields with mounds..Hopefully he has a better backup plan this year.
 
Nov 22, 2019
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I'm guessing this is a regional thing, but here in NJ there is a distinction between travel ball and club ball. When we refer to a "travel" team it's a town travel team that is only able to pull players from that town or a few neighboring towns if there is a regional high school. Typically those teams play league schedules and might play a couple of unaffiliated tournaments - the talent level varies greatly from year to year for these teams because they can only pull from a relatively small pool of players. They would typically have much more reasonable fees to join the team. There are exceptions when we have very strong town travel teams, but, by in large they would mostly be considered low B or high C level teams. "Club" teams can pull from anywhere, and run the gambit with regards to talent and are constantly recruiting. Most will strictly play a tournament schedule, although some still play in leagues. It's pretty typical here for a girl to start playing rec, play town travel (if there is a team in her area), and then move to a club team by 12U.

In NJ, there isn’t a huge difference at 10-U and 12-U between travel and club. And many town travel teams draw girls from other areas.

Last year my daughter played club in the fall and for a town travel team in the spring/summer at 10U. She didn’t live in the town she played for.

The travel team was far superior and often beat club teams. It was also much cheaper, and they’d bring in trainers in the winter, They also had probably had the 2nd best pitching duo and trio in the state at 10-u. My DD and her teammate also guest pitched at a 24 team, 5 state tournament with a town team (the only town team in the tourney) and helped them go 6-1 and reach the semis. That team could outhit many club teams, but had no pitching, thus the the two guest pitchers.

As you get older, though, probably starting 2nd year 12-u, the club teams begin to take over for the most part. And then 2nd year 14-u onwards, there are only several club teams in the area (NJ, Eastern PA, NY) that get national recognition.
 
Feb 24, 2022
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Interesting discussion. USSSA is by far the most popular and highest level of competition in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, Conn). And they have A,B,C level designations and rankings. USA would be the second most popular tournaments in our area, but the level of competition is usually a step down. Their designations are generally looser and tougher to figure out because they don't have a ranking system. Typically, the highest rated teams have to travel out of the area to play "national" level competition.
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
Interesting discussion. USSSA is by far the most popular and highest level of competition in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, Conn). And they have A,B,C level designations and rankings. USA would be the second most popular tournaments in our area, but the level of competition is usually a step down. Their designations are generally looser and tougher to figure out because they don't have a ranking system. Typically, the highest rated teams have to travel out of the area to play "national" level competition.
I would disagree about CT since Dave broke away from USSSA at Fastpitch Nation. I know there are still some other USSSA events there, but most go to FPN. As for NY, there's a veritable monopoly on Long Island by USSSA for softball, but they don't attract any teams from off the Island. It's mostly rec and town ball teams that as they get better leave the Island or the girls change organizations to teams that do leave. The issue here is the cost of permits for good fields. Most of the local events are played on fields that were dragged once in 2013 and haven't been lined since Bush was in office.
 
Feb 24, 2022
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No 12-u team in Eastern PA is ranked an A in USSSA, not even the one qualified for PGF Nationals. 🤷‍♂️

Yeah, that's a different discussion all together :)

It's crazy how much leeway there is for coaches and organizations to manipulate team classifications. Without 1 national sanctioning organization I'm not sure what the answer is. Our team actually got bumped up to A by USSSA after the Fall season. We had a very good season and I think it will challenge the girls, but I also think that 12U is in a down cycle this year in NJ. Not sure that the talent level is where it was the past 2 years at the 12U level, but that could just be my perception changing as my daughter has gone from a young 12U to an old 12U.
 

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