13-U ? What Gives ?

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Why is it so hard to find true 13-U teams? Most organizations say "Come to the 14-U tryouts and if we have enough intrest we will field a younger team"

 

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Quite frankly ASA, NSA, and USSSA TD do not do a good job promoting off year oppurtunities for teams.

They would rather have girls play up than consistently organize events for girls 11,13,15 years old.

It is a shame because there are a lot of girls that get displaced trying to compete with or for the older teams.
Most organizations cannot proide the coaching for off year teams so their focus is on 12U-14U-16U only as well.

 

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I havent heard of a 13u team... the teams around my area just have 8u, 10u, 12u, 14u, 16u, 18u, and 23u

 

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Quite frankly ASA, NSA, and USSSA TD do not do a good job promoting off year oppurtunities for teams. ?

They would rather have girls play up than consistently organize events for girls 11,13,15 years old.

It is a shame because there are a lot of girls that get displaced trying to compete with or for the older teams.
Most organizations cannot proide the coaching for off year teams so their focus is on 12U-14U-16U only as well.

That is exactly right coach. The 10U Lasers were touted as the best in Ohio history. How many of those girls will get displaced when they move to 12U this year. The Silver did a good job at keeping that team together (until this year) and they had a good year because of it.

Our organization will have an 11U team and a 13U team for these exact reasons.

 

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The Buckeye Heat has an 11 and 13U team this year (Actually they've had off year team for as long as I have been with the organization).

There are some practical advantange in keeping the ages consistant. One, there are fewer turnover vs the mixed age teams so the teams can develop together more consistantly over the years. I will agree that the 11,13 and 15U teams may have tougher time playing mostly older teams but that is where the development come - preparing for and playing good competition. I really enjoy coaching the "off year" teams - some girls really respond to the "underdog" role.

 

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Johnnie, the blinking eye is freaky.....please lose it.....

 

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Find me a 13u coach and we will have a 13u team, we had a great turn out of players for this age but no coach yet.

Tim Gregory
Cincy Doom

 

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What about Rob W.

 

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Johnnies -

Scary...I think that eyeball is going to give me nightmares. I couln't even read your post....I had to get it off my screen. :'(

 

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He is our 14u coach, I am referring to an all 13u team.

 

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Most organizations are not big enough to field teams at each age level ... plus some girls/familes like to play with their friends who may not happen to have been born in the exact same year. Is there that much difference in talent at an 11U vs 12U, and 13U vs 14U? I know once you get older than that, there isn't much.

 

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ther are some good points here. There are some teams popping up that offer odd year teams. Tournaments will rarely offer these divisions because they usually have enough things to worry about so why try to invent the wheel. 13 U will have on advantage, if they stay together they will be dominant in 14 U.

 

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One of the biggest differences in 13U and 14U is 14U teams don't start until June because of high School while a 13U team can start earlier...

 

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Johnnies -

Scary...I think that eyeball is going to give me nightmares. ?I couln't even read your post....I had to get it off my screen. :'(

Ok, Ok.... two posts against my eyeball - I changed it. LOL

 

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coachjwb, you bring up an interesting point which could be a topic all by itself. How many girls choose teams to tryout for based on the fact that they have friends on that team vs. tryout for a team strictly because of the teams competitive element? Is this a root cause of so many mediocre teams? When you choose teams based on friendships alone, I think you compromise the team's potential.

For a girl to grow and mature and come out of her shell, I think it's important for her to know how to make new friends. If she just hangs with her kindergarten group, she'll get left behind somewhat as her other friends (not just sports friends) spread their wings and branch out. There's nothing wrong with keeping childhood friendships - even into adulthood. Those are some of the deepest and cherished friendships we have.

For a girl to go tryout for a team where she (or the parents) knows absolutely no one - and make the team based on her skills, not who she knows - is a great testament to her skill and ability. It also gives her a confidence boost knowing what she can accomplish on her own. A bonus is that she has also meets a new circle of friends.

To get to the point, if more kids and their parents who are "tweeners" (11, 13, 15, etc.) in travel ball would work more on skill development instead of worrying about where their friends are, the level of play in travel ball would gradually improve. If playing with your friends is your primary concern, stay with a community based rec team. There are exceptions, like the teams (who I won't mention) with very knowlegeable coaches who start a group at a very young age, and generally stick together. But those are the exception, not the norm.

 

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Sammy ... I don't necessarily disagree with you. I know my own daughter went through this every other year since she had a fall birthday and most of her best friends who played ball had spring and summer birthdays ... she was playing with girls the next grade up and definitely made some new and perhaps life long friends because of this. But if you think about it, how many new friends would girls be making if they stayed with one set of girls the whole way through? As for the other point about watering down teams, there are girls out there who may be very talented but who are introverted and may never play if they can't play with some other girls they know. So I am just saying there are counterpoints to your arguments and yes, maybe it should be a different thread. I think the main reason why there are not teams at every age level is that most organizations don't have enough girls to do this ... and I can even make a counterpoint there ... if smaller organizations do this, they're going to end up bringing up girls from even younger ages (e.g., 12's to play 13U) and could dilute the talent in this manner.

 

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My thoughts were that a true second year 14-U team would have an advantage over a team that had three or four girls second year that sat the bench so the older girls could play then the older girls move up then the less experienced girls get a chance to play the second year. Does this even make since? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Help me

 

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The real challenge with odd year teams is in making them competitive enough to do well enough (not necessarily win) to want return for the even year while competing against, not avoiding, the "older" teams. I'll stop now before I hijack this thread into another direction....

 

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Another challenge is evident in less populated areas.
In rural areas, it can be tough to assemble a competitive team at a given age group, if one accepts that it is tough to find players willing and interested in driving more than say an hour each way to practice (i.e., 2 hours for a round trip).
In such areas it is tough enough to find enough 13s and 14s to play together as 14u, let alone trying to find just 14s or 13s.
While you have to admire that some organizations are successful in drawing state-wide, you have to realize that not that many athletes are willing to make that big of a time and $ commitment.