Advice on finding a new team.

ChrisDennis13

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
55
Reaction score
7
Points
8
First, I will clear the air. My 2010 (10u) daughter is currently on a travel team and we are not looking to leave that team. We are NOT jumping ship. The Coaches are fully aware of the following situation and are hopeful that we can find a new team.

Currently, she is on a team that is 40% 2010 and 60% 2011/12. The 60%, right now, have no plans to move up to 12u next year meaning the 4 or 5 girls that will age out need to find a new team. The organization we are with has offered us, I will call it "charter" for lack of a better word, if we want to keep those girls together and build a new team with their organization. This is very thoughtful and we would love to keep the girls together. The problem is, we have no one to coach the team at this point (If you know someone in the Stark County area interested please respond below) and we would have to find 5 or 6 2010 girls to join the team and be a first year 12u team.

In the event that this does not happen, we will need to find an existing team for our DD to tryout for and hopefully join.

My questions to the older more seasoned parents is: When should we start looking and how should we go about engaging those teams? Is it bad form to do it while at a tournament your current team is in? Do you post your DD availability on forums such as this? Do you give stats, positions, locations? How do you determine is a team is truly an A, B, or C team? Currently her team is a(n) okay/decent B team depending on the day and player's moods. (We lose to very good teams like Finesse Bragg (0-8) and this past weekend to the Phantoms (0-2), Have good tight games with Mad Dogs and Starz, but then smoke other teams in the same class by run rules.) How do you know if your kid is good enough to even tryout for the better teams?

Any advice would be great. We would like to find a full 2010 birth year team, so we can stop jumping around and move up with the team moving forward.
 

HITTER23

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
1,140
Reaction score
364
Points
83
Location
S.W. Ohio in lil Detroit
Enjoy the summer with your current team, take a few minutes every outing to watch some games of teams in your preferred area/level wherever youre playing . Dont worry about where she is talent wise, a TRUE coach will make her a good player, this is the unicorn youre looking for. Make contacts, introduce yourself to coaches and lay ground work, ask about tryouts etc. Take this acquired knowledge to tryouts in July/August to these and other teams in case the charter thing doesnt work out. Look at travel ball as if its the MLB and the DD is a free agent after this season. Send my commission to ............
 

Passion4theGame

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 30, 2014
Messages
1,178
Reaction score
657
Points
113
Location
Central Ohio
Website
www.cincydoom.net
Best advice I can give would be to enjoy the team she’s with now. Worry about the new team after this season. She and the team need no distractions during playing. I would say come early July most teams will have their tryouts posted so start checking the dates and make yourself a calendar and start going to tryouts.

Look on this forum in coaches polls to find out the top 10-15 teams. A lot of solid coaches out there right now in the 12u division.

enjoy it while it last. Before you know it she will be close to graduating HS in the blink of an eye.
 

HITTER23

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
1,140
Reaction score
364
Points
83
Location
S.W. Ohio in lil Detroit
Best advice I can give would be to enjoy the team she’s with now. Worry about the new team after this season. She and the team need no distractions during playing. I would say come early July most teams will have their tryouts posted so start checking the dates and make yourself a calendar and start going to tryouts.

Look on this forum in coaches polls to find out the top 10-15 teams. A lot of solid coaches out there right now in the 12u division.

enjoy it while it last. Before you know it she will be close to graduating HS in the blink of an eye.


Exactly what i meant by enjoy what you have now, years fly by. And you can see there's no guarantees, more than likely, you're not with the same group of girls/parents from year to year.
 

M & R Davis

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
99
Reaction score
58
Points
18
Location
Central OH
Great advice given so far. I found great value in watching a few innings of various teams. You get a very true picture of how the coach is in real life scenario versus how they may be at a tryout when trying to recruit his next players. We were able to eliminate many teams just by knowing the fit wouldn’t have been right for us.
 

yocoach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
596
Reaction score
349
Points
63
Location
Youngstown, Oh.
Along with watching some other games and teams while at tournaments as was mentioned above, I would strongly recommend talking to the parents in the stands of teams you are interested in trying out for. Not just one set, but several if possible. You might be surprised by how many complaints you might hear but a vast majority will be based around playing time. The real question you want to answer in a roundabout way is if their DD is a better player now than when they started and why i.e. is it due to the coach or something else such as more game experience, private lessons, etc.
 

ChrisDennis13

Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
55
Reaction score
7
Points
8
I appreciate the advice everyone. This was our first year of travel and our family has enjoyed it. I have one of those kids that does not complain about practice, asks to see certain private trainers, and hates losing more than she likes winning kind of attitude. I just cannot see us going back to rec ball. Nothing against rec ball, the kids, coaches or parents, but we have been to serval rec ball games this year and the difference is night and day. I do not think she would grow or continue to enjoy the sport there. She is way too competitive.

Sounds like we need to mingle more and relax. This is why I asked you seasoned parents! Thanks everyone.
 
Top