TRYOUTS SO FAR ( GOOD OR BAD)?

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3 more tryouts this weekend brings our total to 9 tryouts for 7 teams and about 30 more gray hairs for me. All in all..... all tryouts were good, some were more to the point and others were drug out but it is fun to see the other side of organizations. It was fun to run in to the same players and girls at different tryouts, one player accused us of following her. It was great but I am glad it is over. good luck to the everyone AND THANK YOU TO THE COACHES AND THE VOLUNTEERS THAT TOOK THEIR TIME TO LOOK AT ALL PLAYERS.

 

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The Miami Valley Vipers had an excellent turnout. It was well organized. Thanks to everyone for a great experience
The Outcast Fastpitch also had an excellent turnout. Good Luck to this new organization

 

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Took the dd to several this past weekend. We saw everything from dis-organized to way too much "fitness" if you know what I mean.
She was offered spots on all 3 but chose the team with the middle of the road tryout.
One of the tryouts seemed more like a boot camp than a tryout. Softball is short bursts of energy not continuous running for 40 minutes. You can tell a good coach within 5 minutes just by what he or she has the girls doing at tryouts. fielding-hitting-pitching-and sprinting will just about tell you all you really need to know in my opinion.

Lets all snap back into reality for a second. I talked to a parent this past weekend that would not allow her dd to play for a team because the schedule didn't include traveling to colorado-mexico-texas-and other places. The team fee was over $1000.00 plus uniform fees-travel expenses and other costs. She said her dd wanted to play college ball and that was the only way to do it. It seems that less than 1% of players actually get scholarships to play at big colleges. Is the thousands of dollars spent on those types of team fees and traveling really worth it to the average player?
Seems playing ball within a 100 mile radius of Columbus is just as fun and a bootload cheaper.
Or am I just blind to all of this fuss? How can the average parent really afford to spend $5000-$6000 every summer on travel team fees-hotels-food-gas-and all the other expenses?

What is the average team fee anyway?

 

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Coca-Cola
sent you a pm

 

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I would like to say that we set up a private try-out with SilverCreek Starrz and that was a great experience for us. A true showing of the coaches. They interacted with her wonderfully. Instead of just looking at what she did at the moment they offered small bits of advice and tips of how they like to see things done. It was great! I was told that their group tryout was the same way. Fantastic!

 

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Rob and the Starz are great people you cant go wrong

 

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Miami Valley Express--Learned alot still have heard nothing from team(said 48 hrs been 2 weeks not waiting anymore)
Doom-- Awsome try-out Freindly couches heard from team next day
EMR--Awsome try-out Friendly coaches heard from team next day
Magic--Well organized was told will recieve call by 8-31-07 (sorry not waiting that long)

 

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Sudden Death Softball tryouts went very well. We had a good turnout, and all the girls showed off their skills. We also called everyone within 48 hrs. We are looking forward to our next tryout dates on August 25th & 26th. If you are still attending tryouts, make sure you add us to your list. Come see what our organization has to offer, you won't be disappointed.

 

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We attended the Vipers try-outs this past weekend and received a call Monday night. The try-outs were well attended and well organized. Even though my 14u dd did not make the cut, I would recommend this team to anyone.

We also attended the Outcasts try-outs Sunday night. Another well organized & attended event and we are planning to go back for the second try-out on next Sunday.

 

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Any exposure is good exposure and the extra practice never hurts.

 

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I attended several in the Toledo area and all had good numbers despite some reports. Several very good teams will be out there next summer from that area. And the demise of the Magic was a falsehood! Plenty of good players at their tryouts. Was sorry to hear longtime coach and head of the Fostoria Redhawks Thom Loomis has resigned. He will be missed.

 

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Tryouts are either over or pretty close to being over.... :-? Any final thoughts on how tryouts went this fall?

 

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Yep looks like tryouts are just about over. Most good players have found a place to play by now.

What I find really weird about this thread is how many coaches put down how well thier own tryouts went. Not really sure that this topic was intended for them to tell us how they did. Kind of thought it was more for us to tell them how they did. Oh well, nothing like blowing your own horn.

 

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I personally would like to hear what parents and players liked or disliked about tryouts.

I helped run 2 weekends of tryouts, and would be happy to hear, good or bad on how we ran our tryouts.
Shayne Yeater
16U Mid Ohio Lady Bullets

 

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As a parent who attended several tryouts with my dd, I thought they went well. Attended(formerly GFOD) Mid-Ohio Thunder and Mid-Ohio Bullets. Both were well organized and the coaches were great. The only thing I would like to see more of is hitting some live pitching. The pitches seemed to be coming in quite high, off the machine, and didn't see many girls hitting well. Would have liked to see what they could do with a live pitcher, how they adjust, etc. I think that gives you a better overall idea of the hitters real abilities.

 

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We tried the live pitching this year, took a loooong time. I put my most consistant pitcher on the mound and she was struggling to throw strikes. They stop pitching every day and they have trouble getting into the grove. The batters wanted to wait on the balls they knew they could hit well so they were too picky on what to swing at.. I thought it was a good idea at first but don't know if I would do it next year.

I hope everyone found a team that is a good fit for you that is very important. good luck ladies.

 

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Live pitching can sound like a good idea, but it almost always ends up being less than satisfactory, especially if you've got a large turnout for tryouts. If you've got 30 young ladies, you can imagine the problem. Two rounds against the machine (one in the cage and one on the field) will give a coach a good idea of a young woman's swing mechanics, which is all one can really look for. You look for what she can do right now and what she can fix between now and next summer. And live pitching means that, finally, a young woman gets fewer swings. I'll admit that pitching machines can be "off," but they can also be adjusted. The math also works against live pitching -- if you want those trying out to get a good number of serious swings -- say 30, and you have the aforementioned 30 young women, that's approximately 900 pitches. Even if you have them go "live" only have the time, that's 450. You see the problem. There are other difficulties as well.

 

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I think that live pitching is a great idea but somewhat impractical to do in a tryout format. What most people are looking for is what does a players swing look like, and what is her approach to hitting and bunting. As well as a number of other things.

 

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I took my 11yr old to quite a few tryouts before we found the best fit. I noticed quite a few different things at each tryout, but most of them were pretty well done. I really liked the 11U Buckeye Heat, instead of lining girls up at a single spot, (like at 3rd or SS) they allowed them to chose a position. Then they ran thru some regular infield/outfield drills, like you might do in a practice. After a while they asked the girls to pick a secondary position. One of the things that this really showed was not just the skill of fielding and throwing, but the knowledge of the game. It was the only tryout that did that, and I really thought it gave a ton of info on each player.

 

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Tigerlillies 13u/14u - Lots of girls and never a promised phone call
Diamond Dogs - well-organized tryout
North Coast - "come back next week" - waste of a Saturday when only a couple spots were open.