- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
Same person who handed you the entitled sandwich..
U.S.A./USSSA age chart changes
- Thread starter SpartanHawk
- Start date
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- Feb 3, 2023
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- Jun 8, 2016
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and ask for seconds I am sure...
- Feb 3, 2023
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- Mar 18, 2023
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That's my exact point, don't change the rules for kids/teams that already had a plan. You knew she would be the youngest when you signed up, you are just happy now that she will be the oldest. This doesn't change the fact, there will still be youngest and oldest kids on the team, just based on where their birthdays fall compared to Aug 31st.
I'm thinking from an already developed "team" perspective, not one specific kid. Dropping it on teams that had a plan, only adds complications and requires people to make potentially different decisions then they had committed to before the change.
My daughter is in fact one of the kids who benefits from the rule, but I'm the HC of the "team". If all I cared about was my own daughter, I would be stoked! Unfortunately, I have to also worry about the other 11 girls and how they will be affected by this change. Just seems like a lot of annoyance for a 4 month adjustment in ages.
Is a four month adjustment really going to change the competitiveness of a team? That alone, no. BUT when you just made it so more than half my team "can" stay down, it kind of strands the older girls without a team. So punish the "slightly" younger kids by making them go up to stay with their teammates or punish the "slightly" older kids and make them find a new team. Just keep it the same as when everybody started the team and phase it in over time starting with 8U.
If they made it a delayed change so everybody building teams knows how it will play out, I think it would be the most fair.
The change between 10u and 12u is the biggest of all. Another 5 feet back and a bigger ball. Plus girls are starting to develop a lot more at 11/12 then 9/10.
I know there are people who benefit from it (my daughter is one) but I'm not sure it was worth the change for what we gain. If there was some huge concern about victory laps in the fall, just make a team that is 12U based on the old rules, have to play 12U in the fall. If they don't have to be 12U in the next year, they can play 10U in the Fall AND Spring/Summer season. Seems like that would be pretty simple and only annoy the victory lap teams, which let's be honest, who cares.
Don't even throw in all the issues with this change not being across all associations, seems like a half baked idea at best.
- Jun 8, 2016
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because I don’t want you in my office in 10 years whining that your kid went to every class but still got a C in a class you paid good money for..Why not
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- Feb 3, 2023
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You kind of answered my question at the bottom, until the other organizations do it, it’s kind of a moot point.
We do play a lot of USA softball, but at the same travel time, we could play NSA which hasn’t adopted the rule change.
I’m hoping your “team/organization” also has kids in the younger and older age divisions. The group my DD plays with has teams from 8U to 16U and kids of mixed birth years on teams. We always have players who move up to the next age division and some who stay down in the fall.
There isn’t a team of 2010 birth year players so to say.
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- Mar 18, 2023
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Our president of the org kind of told me there might be issues with different age groups of kids on the same team. We aren't a cutthroat, only the best of the best make it, kind of team. Being new to HC, I didn't think it all the way through. But this rule change seems to really make it a bigger issue then it was going to be.
I'm probably too attached to my current set of kids and will feel stabbed in the back when they pick a different team next year regardless!!
We really don't play too many officially sanctioned tournaments in our area so maybe that is how to avoid this. Seems crazy that there would be this adjustment in just one of the major sanctioning bodies without thought about how it would affect them all.
- Feb 3, 2023
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Definitely playing unsanctioned or other sanctioned tournaments is one way to just keep things going as they are.
It seems like you have a good group of kids and dedicated parents, just keeping that dynamic together has a lot of value!
We are typically the same, best kids make it, regardless of birth year. 26 tried out for DDs team, 12 made the team. Just happens that it’s about half and half age groups. We don’t have tryouts again in the fall, older kids move up and we pull from the younger group to fill those spots. 8U normally does add new kids in the fall after Little League/Babe Ruth is over.
Not every system works for every organization.
Hoping you find a balance that works for you. Now if the other sanctioning bodies follow USA in 2024, the organization president should be planning just in case scenarios.
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- Jul 31, 2019
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For me, I think the biggest issue with teams that play USA and PGF events, or USSSA and PGF
