Can an organization have to many teams ??

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I hear you ... that is also the reason many of those team played quite a few friendlies to offset cost, etc. Many teams did go to more regional world series in WV, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, etc - all week log affairs. Don't confuse going with expectations of winning/placing high ...

 

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Unfortunately the truth is that the economic make up of a lot of teams dictates a big part of their schedule.

A lot of organizations or teams have the horsepower to play an asa/usa schedule but lack the resources to take that much vacation and spend that much money.

This is getting off topic LOL.....The question is when should an organization with multiple teams in each age group pull the plug on those teams if they only have a few players on each team?

Do they wait until November? December? January?

 

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This is getting off topic LOL.....The question is when should an organization with multiple teams in each age group pull the plug on those teams if they only have a few players on each team?

Do they wait until November? December? January?

I agree with you on that being said..
I know of a few teams in this area that only have 5 maybe 8 players and they're still looking.
And by Oct. These's girls that are waiting for team to be put together are now released due to failure of Org. or coaches not being able to fill a full team.
These players then may not find a team due to their POSITION already taken or she's used as a utility player.
This really hurts the players keeping them hostage...

 

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Should be some unwritten rule that if you don't have enough by mid-Sept to field a team..... disband.. and allow the girls to go find some team to play for.

Like a secondary tryout from September 15th to September 30th. Just like the normal August ones.

It takes you coaches to do that.. set a standard between all of you.

 

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Should be some unwritten rule that if you don't have enough by mid-Sept to field a team..... disband.. and allow the girls to go find some team to play for.

Like a secondary tryout from September 15th to September 30th. Just like the normal August ones.

It takes you coaches to do that.. set a standard between all of you.

I would say end of August. If you don't have at least 9 by then set them free. I like the idea of a second tryout season, say month of September.

 

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Valley Storm and others...

I was sitting at the dinner table and got to thinking.... and this is the dangerous part... thinking

But, why couldn't there be a supplement draft / tryout ?

Makes sense to me.... let me tell you what I was thinking.


If I did smething like this ... I'd have to find ball diamonds and enough of them or pay for them.. but...


Why not advertise here on the OFC for the weekend of September 10th and 11th ( or 17th and 18th this year.. but in years to come the weekend after Labor Day) that any girls not on a full team is invited to attend a "supplemental draft" at ?????.

Have diamonds.. put diamonds specialized to each age group... and do workout drills with "VOLUNTEERS", coaches or otherwise, for the first half of the morning

Then in the afternoon after lunch and a break... Have 1 hr games scheduled for each age group at 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm ( like having two fields of 10u going, 2 fields of 12u going, etc...)... with volunteer coaches. Just make a line up and coach bases. 36 girls could play each hour in front of any travel ball coach willing to attend in each age group each hour.

I could probally do it in Goshen ( after asking because they have 10 diamonds suited for such) but the cost would be $100 per field per day = $1000.00 dollars a day.

Now, some of you coaches have diamonds that you can get for free. Why not put 10u, 12u and 14u in one location.. just say for instance in Cincinnati and then 16u and 18u in say Troy, Ohio.

Then let org coaches that are 10u-14u coaches run it and the 16u and 18u coaches run the other one.

It's the same principle of what Herbstriet ran awhile back.. just without the money making idea of it all. That thing was all about the cash.. cash cow is what I called it.

The common goal of everyone of you coaches should be one thing : IF there is a girl out there that wants to play this game.. then all efforts should be made by ALL coaches to find her a team.


Secondly, what it does is gives notice to these coaches that are stranding these girls wishing for better days of more players coming to them that there is a DEADLINE !!!!

Then it takes the decision out of this coach's hand ..... and gives it back to the parent who sees that there is not going to be no more add-ons to the current team and "IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON !!!! "

That way the yearly game of putting these girls and parents in this "bubble" can and will be over.

Just my opinion. If you all come up with something of the such and I can help hit ground balls or fly ball to the outfield... don't hesitate to ask. I'd gladly help any of you.

Up Northeast, can do the same thing. Northwest can as well. All it takes is a little bit of cooperation.

Aren't these kids worth that effort ?

 

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Better make it earlier than that Tim. We start playing college exposure at Ball State Labor day weekend. That means our team has to be picked 2 weeks prior to get uniforms, hotel and a possible practice and meeting before we go.

Tim

 

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I agree Tim and Tim. Teams need to be finalized early especially the 16U and 18U. The college exposure for the fall is limited to a certain time period. You cannot wait until Sept 30 then decide "well I have no pitching so im gonna fold this team". That screws all the other players on the team in my opinion because all of the better teams are full way before that point so they are left with sub par teams.

jmho

 

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If your "college exposure" teams aren't full by now... I have no idea what to tell you. Aren't those usually filled by the first or second weekend at the most in August?

I mean.. tryout usually go through August for many teams.. I think. Not sure.. just thinking that.

Then 8 - 10 days into September .. I think coaches should have an opportunity to find some others with individual tryouts ... then DEADLINE has come !!!! Giving the parent back the control of the DD.

Then the second weekend of September.. have these supplemental drafts / tryout.

If each reagion, NE, NW, SW, Central has this on the same weekend... then parents can base their decisions of which one to go to on Saturday in NW and Central on Sunday.. based on what logistical needs they have... and coaches list themselves as being at the NW location .

You know what this economy has done for softball... the same theory it has done for businesses. Gives them the upper hand on who they employ out of hundreds of applicants.

Same goes with players... now they can pick and choose.. because many orgs are hurting for players.

I just get so tired of hearing year after year ... how teams are not filled and coaches are putting these girls in a "bubble" hoping to get that 2 to 5 more players.

I know BD, I guess I am wishing on a star for a solution for these girls and their parents.

 

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@OQM - You have to reduce the number of teams in order to make complete ones. How do you determine which teams remain and which ones have to fold?

 

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@OQM - You have to reduce the number of teams in order to make complete ones. How do you determine which teams remain and which ones have to fold?

I guess that is up to the coaches of these organizations to give it their best shot to convince a parent why their daughter should play for them after the tryouts are done.

Personally, if I am a parent and Labor Day has come and we don't have a full team..... I'm looking and not waiting anymore.

If these coaches aren't willing to throw in the towel with only having 5 or 6 girls so far... then I guess as a parent I have to force the hand.

I'm going to the section in the OFC to a) advertise my DD and b) look for teams looking for players in my area.

Enough of the shenanigans

 

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I respect your knowledge Joe, except i'd disagree, some organizations DO run them to make money, and they are successful at that. Not saying there is anything wrong with it, it is America. I do agree MOST do not make money, some LOSE money.

As you get involved in helping to run an organization, you begin to see that it's not cut and dried as far as having one team at an age group. One thing is whether an organization wants to keep teams in years, such as Heat 95, Heat 94, etc. That way, the team can stay together at each age group. Also, an organization can have different levels of skill for different teams, which seems fine to me.

It's definitely not for money, as I don't think anyone makes a profit doing this. Actually, for the people running an organization, the more teams there are, the more work that exists.

 

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It all started a couple years ago, maybe 3 years. That all Orgs. are doing this now...

Teams started lets say, 14u. Then when 12u comes up next year, they become 13U. Because 14u is now only in 2nd season. 2 teams now in 14u.

How magnify that with all the teams doing it in Org..(9u,10u)-(11u,12u)-(13u,14u)-(15u,16u)-(17u,18u)..
Some orgs. have 3 teams within age bracket

The ball really starts rolling when the girls jump ship, No players coming up in Org. and coach now needs to look for players outside Org.
Coaches upset, parents upset, Players are in limbo with coach, parents... What to do...

Another problem
Coaches are pulling complete teams off and going to another Orgs, ect,ect....
The list just grows....Who's to blame??? The Girls The parents, The coaches, The Org.
JMHO...

 

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Every year I see where a player is on one of our "lower" teams end up moving up to an Elite or Gold the following year because she had the opportunity to play. I sometimes see the reverse, a girl is on a higher team and end up losing out and falling to a lower team because of the talent below her pushed her out.
Some programs just want one or two teams because the lower teams "embarass" them when they are not competing as well as they would like. Our "standard" teams are a feeder system for our Elite and Gold teams. We have a choice of using the rec program for our feeder, stealing from other programs or use our standard teams..... wasn't too hard of a decision.
As most of you know we do have an indoor facility. Obviously it takes "MONEY" to maintain it. It seems like "MONEY" is a nasty word in some people's vocabulary when it comes to girls softball. It took almost $50,000 to open the facility and takes thousands of dollars per month to keep it open. Our facility has been an awesome place for year round practices, coaches and players clinics, meetings and more. Many of our players chose Wizards over other programs because of what we offer. It took "MONEY" to give them this. We are going into our forth year with Wizard World and it has been very successful during this economic hard times. Offer a good product and people will pay for it.
We will probably have 22 total teams this year which is slightly above last year. All teams have at least 9 player and most have 10-12. We expect the teams with 9 players to be full within a week. We will still be telling dozens and dozens of girls "NO" that they did not make a team.
Now, here's a secret that I will share. We take great emphasis on fundraisers for our players. We already have had some players earn $300-400 because of a fundraiser in the first two weeks. It is very possible to become a Wizard and not take a nickel out of your pocket. Some players had credits to their accounts for the 2011 season that is being applied to their 2012 account. We as a program work hard to make this possible for our players.
It doesn't matter what it cost to play softball as long as they are getting their money's worth. We work even harder at trying to provide this to them with well qualified trained coaches that is a continuous endeavor and bringing in outside instructors.
To each their own, but this is working for us.

 

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I agree about cutting girls loose if you don't have enough at the beginning of sept. Our first yr dd was on a team with only 9 girls the whole year. Many weekends had to pick up players because coaches dd had jo volleyball. Made for a long season. When tryouts rolled around next year very few showed up. He only had 7 or 8 with little prospect for gaining anymore. We at that point went to a private tryout and bailed. He did end up fielding a team that year but I wasn't about to risk another year with a less than full roster.

 

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If what we're mostly talking about here are the younger age groups finding a place to play this time of year (with most org's tryouts being done already), then you should know that we don't hold our tryouts until 8/27, 9/10 and 9/17. If you know of girls who need a place to play, bring them to the Ohio Fury tryouts. We don't have to have every stud on one team, we will coach the girls. Someone is talking about "supplemental drafts" and things of that nature -- it's not necessary. Some org's may want to just have their tryouts for the younger girls later. For the older...if you haven't filled your roster in time for fall tournies, then it may be time to give up on it???
If interested in our tryouts, let me know.

 

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I respect your knowledge Joe, except i'd disagree, some organizations DO run them to make money, and they are successful at that. Not saying there is anything wrong with it, it is America. I do agree MOST do not make money, some LOSE money.

Which organizations are for-profit and making money? I didn't know there were any in Ohio. I know some guys out west make money doing this, but for a coach to make money coaching travel ball, he would have to charge everyone at least $1,500 per player. Even if you did that and had 12 players, that's $18,000 in revenue and at least half of that is going to come out in expenses, leaving $9,000. Yes, that's possible, but who is charging $1,500 per player in Ohio?

 

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Joe, we all run programs to make money.... we need money for uniforms, equipments, facilities, entry forms, insurance, banners; some programs pay coaches expenses and some pay coaches as well as other program expenses.
No one said "profit".

 

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Joe, we all run programs to make money.... we need money for uniforms, equipments, facilities, entry forms, insurance, banners; some programs pay coaches expenses and some pay coaches as well as other program expenses.
No one said "profit".

LOL. The phrase "make money" means profit.

From dictionary.com: make money, to make a profit or become rich: You'll never make money as a poet.

 

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Now, don't be bashing each other...

Wizards just lets any girl who has the desire to play ball.... have a place to go to do so with their different levels of teams. Everybody uses a feeder system.

You can't fault anyone who tries their best to provide a place on a team for any girl and give them opportunities to get better and move up.

God bless them for trying to do so.