how many is too many teams for 1 organization

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i have been following softball in NWO for the past few years. I have noticed this year that 1 organization has several teams in the same age group. I totally respect the organizer of ths organization, but what happens to the talent pool. I have heard from several people that they are lookin elsewhere to play and some of the top players going south.
food for thought but are we chasing are outstanding players to play elsewhere??
I constantly hear about teams lookin for pitching, there is only so much to go around.
Are the top organizations in NWO gonna even be competitive next summer?? Irish,Magic Peppers??
It will be interesting to see what happens at t-ments trying to enter that many teams from the same organization. Will it lesson the competitive level or do you put all those teams in the same pool ???
Any thoughts on this please no bashing of any organization, i am all about the kids playing ball but just curios...

 

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In western PA, there's an organization with I think six teams in one age bracket (or maybe it's more this year). I do think it lessens the competitive level, but I'm sure their feelings differ.

 

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This is nothing new down here in Texas. We have several large organizations that do just what your talking about.

If you suck up all the players then there isnt any competition to beat you now is there? If you lose to one of your own organizations teams then its all good right?

Elliott.

 

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Soft,
It is sort of a catch 22 situation.... One of the oldest adage is to play against better competition... so, if we provide these "extra" teams the opportunity to play, will they get better??? In my experience, the answer is yes. Without providing names here, I could tell you girls that would not have played 3-4 years ago but got the opportunity and are now on top teams.
Now, does it dilute the talent?? Not if the teams were picked one at a time.... and basically these teams were to a large degree.
We have always had team go South to play... Lasers and Buckeye Heat have been recruiting up here for the past few years.... I wonder why????
Now, the plan is to provide these "extra" teams more intensive training over the Winter and Spring. Check out the website for the training program.. www.eteamz.com/fast2 and you will get some idea.
The coaches are meeting every week starting this week for coaches training.
When the program sits down to enter tournaments, every effort will be made to spread them out so not too many teams from the same program are in the same tournament. However, if one "extra" team was in a different pool, would it even matter since they basically only play in their pool for most of their games??
I understand your thinking and we have debated this ourselves..... we come down to the question " who are we to say that this or that girl is not good enough to play??"
There are quite a few girls from this program that only took the "left overs" for the first two years that are now playing on top teams... I guess that is proof enough to me that it may be worth the effort.
At this stage we have about 24 total teams in place and expect another 3-5 teams. It should be interesting.

 

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Not speaking for other organizations, but often things just kind of work out this way. The different teams in the same organization in an age group may make it seem like talent is being diluted, but most of the time it wouldn't work to try to combine the teams into one better team. The reason it wouldn't work is that each team takes on its own personality and the girls on that team want to play specifically for that team. What would end up happening is this: Say the Buckeye Heat, for example, has three 16-U teams and decides to announce that there will only be one team and one of those head coaches will be the coach. The one team that would remain would pretty much just be the team that the remaining head coach already had. There might be one or two adds or drops, but that's all.

 

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Having a number of teams in an organization isn't the problem is the teams are put together by talent level. ?The idea of this organization was to give everyone a chance to play at a higher level. ?They way things exploded this year was unforseen to them. ?This means to me that the people of NWO were sick of the old programs and were ready for a change. ? As FAST said it has produced some talented players ?that would never have been given a chance if not for this program. ?Keep up the great work FAST! ??

 

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Have you considered that within an age group there are actually "two" age groups. For example, for an organization with two 14U teams, one may consist of all 13Us and the other all 14Us. Some do this in order to quailify for 13U nationals offered by USSSA.

 

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Overall and only temporarily, you could view a massive expansion of players coming to travel ball as a watering down of talent. As all of these players get increased on field experience, their individual abilities will improve and as a whole the level of softball being played will be raised. This doesn't happen overnight. In the short 6 years between my 2 daughters, the emphasis on playing travel ball in the Summer has greatly escalated. High School coaches strongly encourage their players to seek that all important expanded playing time. All of us parents involved in our daughter's softball realize the value of playing 6 to 7 games in a weekend. In the past 4 years 2 NWO High Schools have won Div. 1 State Championships. I know both teams had quality travel players on them. Quality comes from experience. You can't limit experience to a choice few. You will only create a larger gap between ability levels. In a nutshell, the overall success of travel players, let's say Varsity High School Stars and College Scholarships, have awakened so many players and parents to the benefit of travel ball.

 

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If you lose to one of your own organizations teams then its all good right?

Actually, sometimes is worse than losing to an outside team!

 

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Actually, one of the many joys that I have had with softball was to see two of our teams in the finals of a tournament. That means that we had the two best teams in that age group on that weekend. Now, my next goal is to see 4 of our teams in the same quarter finals of the same age group..... or maybe see each one of our teams in each age group win the tournament...... a good quality tournament.
The odds are way against us... but if we can dream, lets dream big.

 

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FAST your 2 posts contradict each other, 1 you are gonna spread teams around the other you are gonna have teams in the quarters of a t-ment (dream). WITH THE QUALITY OF T-MENTS IN NWO. I dont see many teams traveling. I have been fortunate over the past few years not to face the same teams over and over. It makes it interesting for the kids. Wew will see what happens

 

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True..... but that's ok...... in most of the tournaments we will spread out our teams... but maybe just one tournament we will attempt that feat.... maybe not this year... but sometime.