How many more teams can the state support before implosion?

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Every year we see new teams and new organizations pop up. How many more "travel" teams can we make. I thought last year was bad. Are there still that many untapped travel players out there or are we taking the NFL approach and striving for parity. Everybody and their brother's mail man are looking for players.

 

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I agree there are allot of travel teams/orgs now. Maybe the number of FP players is growing as well. There are definitely less girls playing little league softball now more than ever before.

I believe the law of nature apllies in all avenues of life including softball.

"Only the strong survive"

We will see who is still standing three years from now. Good luck to all the teams in 2010 and beyond!

 

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I see it as a good trend. We have camps and they are loaded with kids trying to get better. I see the fall off more in pitching and kids don't want to put the effort it takes 12 months a year to be a #1 pitcher.

 

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There seem to be more athletic/training facilities cropping up and in turn they are establishing organizations. Not saying it's good or bad, but it does seem like forming teams and charging to use the facilities has become part of their business model.

 

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I generally agree that more players playing is a good thing. I can also honestly say that this past summer I saw more average teams then I have in the past. Four or five years ago There was a big gap between the top few teams and everyone else. Two yor three years ago I thought that there was a huge decrease in that gap. Last year I saw the gap widen again. Simply too many teams with only 3 or 4 solid players and the rest are still works in process. Not bad players, just not as skilled as the top 3 or 4 and because of this the top teams seemed to widen the gap. I suspect that this will happen again this year as even more teams have popped up. Like I said overall I think the more players playing the better, I just think that it will take some time to close the gap again becaise the top teams will always get 10 or 11 very solid players and everyone else will have 3 or 4 of those.

 

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There seem to be more athletic/training facilities cropping up and in turn they are establishing organizations. Not saying it's good or bad, but it does seem like forming teams and charging to use the facilities has become part of their business model.

I agree and yet they claim to be a non-profit. Somebody is turning a profit, maybe not the team, but somebody.

With the current cost of property rental, heating, cooling, insurance, etc., these facilities need to run at a saturation point of usage to stay afloat. With more and more facilities popping up, it is unlikely that many of them will be around in a few years. With only GFOD, Spano and Thunderplex up north, two of the three eventually had to call it quits.

Different model using the teams to support the facility, but can you charge the teams enough to make it work. Only time will tell.

 

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hey ringer, as long as there are sarcastic guys running around trying to become the next legendary OFC status, there will be at least 5 new sprout teams!

 

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In my opinion I think it is a great thing that as many girls who want to play get the opportunity to learn and develop their skills. By eliminating the amount of teams you could be denying a young girl who may eventually develop into a great ballplayer by the time she is in high school. There is different levels of ball being played like the boys so a team should be able to go out and find tournaments that fit their skill level.

 

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I agree and yet they claim to be a non-profit. Somebody is turning a profit, maybe not the team, but somebody.

With the current cost of property rental, heating, cooling, insurance, etc., these facilities need to run at a saturation point of usage to stay afloat. With more and more facilities popping up, it is unlikely that many of them will be around in a few years. With only GFOD, Spano and Thunderplex up north, two of the three eventually had to call it quits.

Different model using the teams to support the facility, but can you charge the teams enough to make it work. Only time will tell.

I see a travel and and elite travel developing soon, or as I see in the older divisions starting to happen more by announcing "Gold" so they have to play the best of the best. With so many teams these days the "A" and "B" is going to have to be better defined especially in the lower age limits. The more teams means more tournaments or teams in a tournament, which in turn allows for TD's to maybe make a profit or more of one and your park and rec departments will start to thrive. As far as profit amongst teams that are non-profit, I'm not sure how they would profit except to buy more expensive equipment (that isn't needed) and maybe to pay for all the coach's hotel rooms. I've learned over the years if you are paying $450 to play and a min. of 11 kids on the team then the kids should be playing in a total of 8 tournaments from fall to summer and include 2 uniforms and a bat bag, if not then I'd start to question the organization as to where the money is going? And it does depend on the cost of the facility used for the winter and commonly the less elite do not practice in the winters except go to a batting cage where parents have to pay per session.

 

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I see a travel and and elite travel developing soon, or as I see in the older divisions starting to happen more by announcing "Gold" so they have to play the best of the best. With so many teams these days the "A" and "B" is going to have to be better defined especially in the lower age limits. The more teams means more tournaments or teams in a tournament, which in turn allows for TD's to maybe make a profit or more of one and your park and rec departments will start to thrive. As far as profit amongst teams that are non-profit, I'm not sure how they would profit except to buy more expensive equipment (that isn't needed) and maybe to pay for all the coach's hotel rooms. I've learned over the years if you are paying $450 to play and a min. of 11 kids on the team then the kids should be playing in a total of 8 tournaments from fall to summer and include 2 uniforms and a bat bag, if not then I'd start to question the organization as to where the money is going? And it does depend on the cost of the facility used for the winter and commonly the less elite do not practice in the winters except go to a batting cage where parents have to pay per session.

You make a good point about teams seperating themselves on the higher end and looking for only the top tournaments. I know that last year we had many teams ask us to seperate our tournament into "A" and "B" brackets and it is not that easy. Let say you have 12 teams entered and only 3 discribe themselves as "B" teams. Then the whole format that you had set up based on 12 teams doesn't work. This year we are running ASA "A" Eastern qualifiers only and so far the teams that have expressed interest are looking for good competition. I think that more teams and players is a good thing overall and like everything else in life everyone will find the level that is right for them.

 

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Not a big fan of A and B tourneys......let the creme rise by playing each other......most teams know what tourneys and where they should be playing to get top level competition.....new teams learn very fast which tourneys to play and which ones to stay away from...have always tried to check level of competition before deciding which tourneys to play...... my concern in reading the posts .... seeing many teams that say need a few more.....what happens if they never come and the team folds.....thats not good for the girls thinking they have a team and maybe they do maybe they don't.....what a mess if they don't....I think natural attrition will take place some will fold, merge, or whatever...hopefully all the girls get to play!!!

 

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Not a big fan of A and B tourneys......let the creme rise by playing each other......most teams know what tourneys and where they should be playing to get top level competition.....new teams learn very fast which tourneys to play and which ones to stay away from...have always tried to check level of competition before deciding which tourneys to play...... my concern in reading the posts .... seeing many teams that say need a few more.....what happens if they never come and the team folds.....thats not good for the girls thinking they have a team and maybe they do maybe they don't.....what a mess if they don't....I think natural attrition will take place some will fold, merge, or whatever...hopefully all the girls get to play!!!

I have the very same thoughts. Hope it works out for the DD's.

 

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In SW Ohio it seems that the only missing piece for alot of teams is pitching. Many teams at the 14U and 16U level are looking. If teams fold it will be for this reason. It will be to hard to compete (even at the B level) if you are short on pitching. From other posts it seems that teams have one good pitcher and that may be it. If teams and organizations start to fold there will be a lot of quality position players looking for teams.

 

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It looks like tons of teams are looking for those last 2-3 players. The market will sort itself out. I think what happens is that most teams and organizations go into tryouts kind of assuming they will get more girls and more talent than they actually get.

I think for 16-U and 18-U teams, the ones who want to play only top competition can still do that, just by carefully selecting their tournaments. If you play something like Stingrays, Compuware, GAPSS, Loudonville (18-U), Colorado, Best of the Best, ASA "A" National qualifiers, and maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting about, then you won't have hardly an easy game all season.

 

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There may not be more overall girls playing softball but everyone now has to get the best for their little princess. I know of a girl that plays travel ******, travel basketball, travel softball and one other i cant remember. Why they have to play travel at each of them and how they can stand it I have no idea. Some of these parents make their kid play as high a level as they can get into or pay for for each and hope they get good at one of them to get that magical scholarship.

 

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I don't think that more interest as reflected by more teams is a bad thing. Some teams will fold or merge which I think is a regular occurance. While there's still teams looking, there's still girls looking for teams on this forum. (some unfortunately from their postings because their team folded). The top tier teams will still attract the top players and will play the top competition.

 

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If the parents are doing it for a "scholarship". then the are doing it for the wrong reasons. Save that $$ and invest it. Then use it to pay for college. We bit the bullet each time our children were born, financially. If our kids go to college on any type of scholarship, Daddy gets a new boat! I think I will call it "Plan B".

 

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I am one of those coaches "still looking". At 10u there seems to be quite a few teams trying to fill up. I know the type of players and more imprtantly parents I need to have a great season and that isn't just measured by wins/losses. We want to build a great core that can learn and grow together for many years and to do that you need patience. I am in better shape than last year and I know there are still players out there who will be looking through the fall. Shoot last year I didn't find my last pitcher until 4 weeks before our first tourney when her dad realized the rec team she was on was not going to challenge her. She ended up being most consitent pitchers. Everything balances out in the end.

 

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It's not the number of teams out there that I question it is what are the reasons that new organizations and teams are cropping up.


Is it that a group of people or a person thinks that they can do a better job than the current situation?
Is it that their dd didn't play enough last year?
Is it that they got upset at the team last year and just want to hurt them?
Is it that there is not another team within 50 miles and they are filling a gap?
Or is it a rec team that won every game they played last year and think they are ready for some real competition?

I don't know what these coaches think, but I know how I feel about teams that hold players back locked into an under-performing team because that is where their loyality is, which isn't a bad thing it is just that the girl deserves more than that team can provide. Every coach should realize when a girl or group of girls mature beyond their ability to coach and chase them away from the nest to more fruitful hunting grounds.

 

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We were a new team to fast pitch, but not a new organization at all. We've been together 5 years. The first 4 in slow pitch.

If we could get a pitcher like some of you bigger organizations seem to hoard, we'd be a bigger threat to some of you. Some of the teams we faced this Summer brought in their 4th pitcher and she was better than our best pitcher.

Honestly, our team all got along so well as a group in slow pitch and we didn't want to split up when we went to fast pitch. We have basically had the same 8 girls for over 5 years now, and some of the girls had played together since they were 6 years old in coach pitch. If we could get a more experienced pitcher I think we would hold our own with most teams out there, no matter how big the organization. We want to push our girls and don't want to back down from bigger, better teams. We like a challenge. We'd just like a fair fight with an experienced pitcher since ours has since left for a "bigger organization".

In slow pitch, we played up an age bracket all year long to make us better prepared for the SEAA and USSSA World series last year and it payed off greatly for us as we came in second in the SEAA and first in the USSSA.

So, my point is, I guess, I don't think all new teams are watering down the field, but instead creating more challenges and competition. At least our goal is to become better and challenge better teams and develop our girls in the process and get them ready for HS ball. We want to be the best we can be. I'd like to think some of the bigger organizations respect that.