What is the youngest age group in your area?

[amanda_cake]

I hear everyone talking about their 6U teams, their 8U teams. That is virtually unheard of here. You can travel about 45 minutes to play 8U, however. It is coach pitch. Our association starts at 10U, with girls younger than that welcome to play teeball. They have the option of playing some coach pitch (baseball) or coming up to 10U (the recommendation).

What is your youngest age group? Is it coach pitch, kid pitch, machine pitch? Do you have All Stars? Tell me about it.

 

[redhotcoach]

We have 8u travel, but not very popular....my 8yr doesn't play in it.....my feeling is it is too much too early. I want her to make her own decisions about what activities she likes after trying them. So it is rec league soccer, softball, basketball, and etc. until she narrows it down what she likes.
8u travel and rec is coach pitch here with rec being very popular and travel very few. 6u rec is coach pitch 3 then hit off of the tee very popular also.
An unfortunate trend we are having is numbers of girls are dropping greatly between 10u and 12u. I suppose we lose the girls that are just seeing if they like it.

 

[amanda_cake]

Right now, our current trend is losing 16U girls. They are able to play HS ball, so many of them chose to do just that. However, that season alone is not enough if you ask me. It is easy to do both, if you work at it. Also, another issue is that a lot of the better girls are aging out this year. The ones who are friends with them and of similar skill level, but a couple years younger are not likely to stay. They are used to playing better ball and don't want to be on a losing team, be without their friends, or have to deal with the younger girls that are coming up.

 

[Bishop]

Our rec programs are hit and miss. If enough sign up there are 8u tee ball. It usually ends up co-ed baseball tee ball. Our travel program starts at 10u but we routinely have players as young as 7 playing on our 10u teams. 10u we have started having 2. One playing A the other B with the younger/newer kids.

16 is the magic number around here too. That's where we see the biggest drop in returning players. Drivers licences and boyfriends. There aughta be a law or something against em. It doesn't hurt us too bad. There has always been enough out of district kids who want to come play with us to make up the numbers.

 

[SoftSocDad]

We offer t-ball/coach pitch to 6u and then we're player pitch/coach pitch for 8u. We start having the all-stars option during 10u.

Our travel teams start at 10u, but the occasional 8yo does that if their parents really want it.

Nationwide, it's tough to keep ~13-15yo girls in sports at all. That's just one of those things. And girls who quit sports at 13 rarely come back.

Locally, although I don't have numerical data to support it, we seem to lose more than we should in the 9-12yo range. There are some nuances in our league which might keep the games from being as enjoyable as they ought to be and I believe that accounts for a lot of the girls and/or parents choosing not to return after 1-2 seasons of involvement with the league. Yes, there are those who are enjoying the experience, but even through rose-colored glasses, it looks like too much of a crapshoot.

 

[SoCalDad]

In rec ball we have 6U teeball/coach pitch, 8U coach/player pitch and then 10U, 12U and 14U. 16U and 18U are exclusively travel. Our bell curve has remained fairly static over the years. Enrollment peaks at 10U with about 10 teams and then tapers down drastically where the past 4 - 5 years we can barely roster two 14U teams. What is quite promising is our 6U and 8U enrollment has been increasing. This year we fielded 6 6U teams and 8 8U teams. I have some concerns that our 10U enrollment might be impacted soon as several of the larger travel associations around me have announced new 10U team tryouts for next year. While I am a strong supporter of travel I personally feel 10U is too early to put the stress of the SoCal tournament circuit on a team. If a girl has the skills to play up, I am fully onboard.

 

[TheRogue]

We have a large rec-ball program here, starting in the 6U neighborhood (Kindergarteners), up through 8th grade. 100's of girls get to get some exercise, and parents get a chance to yell and scream; that's great, and what rec-ball is for. Then they get to high-school, and girls and parents are upset they can't make a team; the ASA girls are heads and shoulders above them. Our rec program is 100% about sharing time and having fun, very little good instruction goes on. But, when you're paying around $40 for a t-shirt and get to play like 15 games vs. the $100's (thousands!) spent on ASA ball, that's what happens.

 

[Lozza]

T-ball is generally U10s here, but you can play modball when younger (which is U12s) I started at seven and its not uncommon for kids that young to be playing U12s.

 

[SoftSocDad]

My wife was under the impression that a kid just 'excelled' at rec ball for 8-9 years and then went and played for her HS team, which would be all that she'd need to do in order to compete for a D1 scholarship.

I suspect that most people starting their kids out in t-ball/8u have no idea about the competitive softball world.

 

[BigBamaFan]

Our program starts out at 6U which is 3 strike coach pitch then 1 swing off the T.8U is girl pitch untill 4 walks then coach pitch no stealing.