12u ????

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From what I can see we are all about 3-5 weeks from getting the outside season rolling, why are there still so many 12u teams looking for players?

 

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This must be the norm, I think you "01fire" and maybe 1 other person raising this question...probably waiting on jo volleyball or aau basketball to finish ? Im just guessing , dont see a whole lot of chatter regarding this topic. looks like 2 teams need to fold to fill up the spots....Just kidding!;&

 

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This must be the norm, I think you "01fire" and maybe 1 other person raising this question...

 

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In SW Ohio parents simply dont know what travel opportunities are out there. There are an abundance of 10 and 12u rec teams. If I didn't find this site, I fear muddy may still be playing rec at 12. It is easy to find an AAU ball team, select ****** team, JO volleyball team, or even a competitive cheer or dance squad. I don't think that is true for softball. My dd went to 3 tryouts at 9 only to hit and field with 12s because the only other 10s there were coaches kids. Needless to say she played another year of rec at 9 before finding a travel team at 10. Thankfully I did find this site and she is developing against the right competition. I believe if travel coaches payed a little more attention to the rec leagues at the younger ages, maybe by going to scout a few rec tournies or holding a few practices at the local rec fields, numbers would go up. There are many girls playing 10u and 12u rec that would do well in travel if they only knew what was out there.

 

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I agree about coaches paying attention the better rec leagues. I also think cost plays into it. There are acouple of girls I know who could play travel, but there is no way the parents can aford it.

 

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It's not just 12U's. On average, I would say there is about 10 days left before HS and Jr. High start scrimmages...

4)Non-Interscholastic Participation
4.1)A member of an interscholastic softball squad (any student who has played in a scrimmage,
previewor regular season/tournament game as a substitute or starter) sponsored
by the Board of Education or other governing board shall not participate in a
non-interscholastic program (tryouts, practice or contest) as an individual or as a
member of a team in the sport of softball during the school's season. This regulation
is applicable for those invited to participate in a tryout, group training or practices at
a college or in contests, tryouts, group training or practices with any non-school team
such as a club. (Sports Regulation 6.3).

 

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I think to that alot of people may still be new in the age group. They think their kid is the star and may start to jump teams until finding one where playing time is garuanteed. I think that it's also the age where kids start to decide do I want to spend my time hanging out with my friends or do I want to spend lots of time at practice and games.

 

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I agree with previous post about the reasons there are not more quality players but the fact remains that it is March and travel ball starts in May for most teams. It is very late to bring on a borderline players that needs extra work to be ready for travel ball competition. If a team finds a quality player now will it cause chemistry problems with the players that have been on the team since Augaust or September? You would have to ask why is a quality player without a team at this date. I believe there are too many teams in some areas and not enough teams in other areas. I wish everyone the best in their search but I think some teams should fold. If a team folds I hope the coaches and organization would help their players find new teams.

 

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I agree about coaches paying attention the better rec leagues. I also think cost plays into it. There are acouple of girls I know who could play travel, but there is no way the parents can aford it.

In SW Ohio parents simply dont know what travel opportunities are out there. There are an abundance of 10 and 12u rec teams. If I didn't find this site, I fear muddy may still be playing rec at 12. It is easy to find an AAU ball team, select ****** team, JO volleyball team, or even a competitive cheer or dance squad. I don't think that is true for softball. My dd went to 3 tryouts at 9 only to hit and field with 12s because the only other 10s there were coaches kids. Needless to say she played another year of rec at 9 before finding a travel team at 10. Thankfully I did find this site and she is developing against the right competition. I believe if travel coaches payed a little more attention to the rec leagues at the younger ages, maybe by going to scout a few rec tournies or holding a few practices at the local rec fields, numbers would go up. There are many girls playing 10u and 12u rec that would do well in travel if they only knew what was out there.

Agreed on much of this in SWO. I find it very hard to battle the mental state in SWO in many regards. We (Static) have approached many high schools, catholic org's, and rec leaders and they just don't pass on the info. We are now on the Cincy ASA JO advisory board to help grow fastpitch with their help and a couple other local fastpitch org's from our area. We do attend events to push our name and offerings but quite honestly there seems to be a rift and/or lack of interest in joining into the fo-paux that comes with travel ball. I'll explain and by no means should this be taken as an attack, more of a stance as to where things exist here and probably in other areas. We "can't" be alone...

Issue 1:
The WEST Side of Cincy is still elbow deep in slow pitch softball. I raised to the ASA JO board's attention and they thought I was crazy. I did find out that the East Side of Cincy has many slow pitch teams eliminated and have switched to fastpitch. Without naming local rec org's, I know that most if not all on the west side are slow pitch at the ages of 11u and younger. The 12u's might as well be slow pitch its so not on par but that's a different topic.

Issue 2:
Leaders of rec org's don't want to lose their players to select. Nor do they wanna lose their coaches. Why, they have an org to keep alive and for that I respect it. I'm very very close with leaders of two different rec org's and their "control" and need to maintain player counts and available coaches for sure comes before the growth of the players. You can site examples of this not true and I'll agree, but, I'll tell you that for the three to four examples of them "releasing players" or building "A" rec teams or even select teams is by far the minority to a level of less than 5% of their org stays un-touched. To me, very short sigthed. Until leaders in these org's lead, quit pounding the head count chest, and make the growth oppurtunities available to the girls, the SWO region will not move along without aggressive recruiting which leads to the next problem.

Issue 3:
Recruiting at events has known to be a bad thing when pulling from rec ball. The parents and coaches see it as a favortism thing. I'm speaking from experience and amongst people I've known for years. No hear-say. Now that I've been doing this for 7+ years, my exposure to players is quite good and my oppurtunity to recruit "the right way" has been regularly challenged. I'm not crazy when attending the events. No fliers on windshields, not talking to parents during games, just basic conversation and probably not even noticed as recruiting. My fault for not being over the top. The response is dismal. Now, that leads to another issue... When discussions of travel ball are discussed they assume it's too expensive, too much travel, you name it and until they see it is doable even for the most trying family situations, it can be worked out but it has to be a fit and desire. I just don't see the desire in our area for the girls to be the dominant fastpitch hub. Sad but true. Hard to overcome a culture that is ok with what they have in not seeing another oppurtunity in softball, possibly even better than what they have or know about it. Myths are aplenty in this arena.

Issue 4:
Socquer is dominant in our area. I'm actually ok with that. Who cares where the athletes go just so they exploit their desires and athletes. Many many rec socquer teams and select teams have probably 30-50% of the talent tied and unattainable. So, the numbers drop when it comes to divying them up for the remaining activities. The other portion are divided up into AAU BBall, some tennis, and a little bit of volley ball and swimming. So, not a bad thing, but, the reason we have less numbers.

Issue 5:
The preverbial "daddy ball" , "new org", "new coach....my team start-up's", "disgruntled coach/parent dismissal start-ups", "knock-off or me-two org's", or how ever you state it.... watering down of the available talent has been discussed on this forum to no end. That will always be an issue and SWO for sure has it. Over promising big tournament attendance at tryouts and never getting the bids to the elite leave people with bad tastes and that leads them to leaving. Claiming to be one type of program vs the other is another issue which leads to team proliferation and watering down. Poor coaching, control freaks, yellers, or just all about themselves coaches create rifts and uncertainty and we have that here just like anywhere else. Not a new thing, but, notable issues.

I know I may have left some areas out, but, this is just part of the state of affairs for SWO recruiting and team building. Overall, SWO has gotten a ton better but team counts growing has hampered the result of building teams earlier in the season. There are new legit teams and org's doing the right things so options are getting better and many are great. Hopefully we have began to flat line on the new org start-ups in this area. I could name org's but won't for the sake of missing some, but, we have some pretty cool things coming along. Coaches here are learning to recruit from rec leagues and such along with learning how to be coaches vs name dropper and college exposure coaches at 10 and 12 years old. New fastpitch leagues have taken solid root even though some have been dismantled (like the closing of Pastime Park and it's league). Evolution is good, competition is better, and hopefully enough of us get out there and teach the rec leagues what travel ball is with facts and legitimate fastpitch disciples vs the garbage that can go on. Without touting the Static horn, we volunteer for rec orgs and even several high schools now to help them with hitting and other aspects of the game not to mention our involvement with the Reds RBI and Urban Youth Academy. So, it's takes a large effort and time dedication to step up the ultimate goal which is to help the girls get to a higher level whether its for their rec team, travel team, and high school team. It's about THEM, not us!!!!

One other thing, most in rec have no idea OFC or the Softball Zone exists. As an earlier post stated, it's still not well know this microcasm of a sporting oppurtunity exists on a forum. We need the parents on each team to help promote the knowledge that this site, it's members, and players are all about. So, spread the word!!!

 

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You would think more school coaches would be running summer clinics for the young players in the community like football and basketball do. Teach fundamentals build the program and steer the better players toward travel ball. The more the players learn before they start school ball the better the school team.

 

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Yeah - what Les said I would like to drive one point that Les home even further which is I believe is crucial to grow SWO talent level & our competitiveness in the fastpitch arena - getting involved with the community/local softball organizations. Not theat we have all the answers but people don't know what they don't know. The response we have had when getting invovled w/ all the aforementioned groups (area High schools, rec orgs, RUYA etc) has been outstanding. Once they see that all we really want to do is help the kids then the whole TB mystic / negativity goes away & leads to the coaches / leaders of those organizations get bought to what we teach. Its been a fun process & it gets even better the more we train/help kids who never had this much info available to them. They soak it up like a sponge!!!