Is it OK (or appropriate) to include a birth year in a team name if the team has older girls on it?

[SonicMojo]

To be clear, I'm not talking such that girls are being rostered in the wrong division, but rather claiming your team is all odd year and young for the division (9u, 11u, 13u, etc.).

Shortly before this post, a coach posted a self-congratulatory message about his young, supposedly odd-year team taking 2nd place in a tournament. Taking 2nd place is surely something to be proud of, but I know for a fact that the team relied heavily on at least 2 girls a year older than the team name.

Is it simply an ego thing? Or do you think it's acceptable or the norm to call yourself a year if just most, but not all, of the players are that birth year? What about picking up subs who are a year older? Should these teams just be called 10u, 12u, etc., instead of 2007, 2005, etc.?

Does it really matter? Does anybody care?

I know this is not a new phenomenon.

 

[SAmMaydayMalone]

It doesn't matter, especially if it's only 2/3 players. If you're good enough to win you're good enough to win.

Those who use the younger age as an excuse or a crutch, or want to congratulate themselves for beating girls that are probably just a few months older, don't know what they're talking about.

If you have a 12u team beat a 16u team, go ahead and brag.

 

[Irish196]

I'd vote for the "no one even cares" answer. I've heard of that happening a lot. The discrepancy can get even larger when you get to the tournaments that have 16 and 18u combined and have 18 year olds playing with a team that is called a 15u team because it is allowed by the rules. Or you have a few subs that carried the load but then the team boasts the win. It happens at every level and every age group. Who cares, really. If someone wants to brag about a win but they had to take someone else's players to win or brag about being a young team when they really aren't so young, so be it. I doubt too many players pick a team based upon their results in one tournament or the fact that a large percentage of the team is a few months younger than the other teams they have beaten. After a while it all just becomes insignificant for everyone other than those whose lives revolve entirely around the results of girls' softball games.

 

[24GahannaLadyLions7]

I have no problem with it. Usually, it comes down to the head coach labeling the team letting everyone know what year MOST of the team consists of. If a team is labeled as an 06, which is a second year 10U program in the 16-17 season, I would be expecting the Head Coach (not always) plus most of the team moving up to 11U in Fall 2017. If you have a labeled 07 team, I would expect a 1st year 10U team with a few 06 players on it, probably at the P & C position to help them through this year.

We have 4 06's, 3 07's, 2 08's, and 1 09 on our Pickerington Travel team. The head coach labels us as an 07, because we are a 1st year program and his daughter is an 07. Plus our main pitchers are an 08 and a 09 so I think it's alright. lol

 

[Captain_Thunder]

I think as opinion is being expressed - There are many other things to worry about...........But then it leaves one to think - So "Why Did the Coach Do It Then?"
Last time I had a team that had a couple of older players rostered on it was when my 97 team was at 13U. We just simply listed our team as 14U. I was always proud of that year distinction! We actually kept adding younger girls to our roster as we got older. Last year I ended up with more 98's on the roster than 97's, so once again, for first time since 13U - we did not add a year after our name.
There are many ways organizations label various teams in same division - birth year is a good one. But if it is mixed - then use a color or coach name.

It should be NO Biggie on both ends! LOL

 

[cz fastpitch fan]

Being a coach for a team that (I suppose) could fall into this category, I would say that my input could be pertinent. I coach Ohio Glory '01. We have always considered ourselves an '01 team, even though in just about all of the 6 years that I have been coaching this team we have had at least one '02 player on it. We consider ourselves an '01 team even though this year we have one player on the team who is '00. This athlete really wanted to play on this team, and we play in the 16U division, which is her age group. BUT..on the other hand, we also have a player on the team who is an '02 birth year, so they cancel each other out right?
The '00 player knows this is a "one & done" deal for her, unless we choose to play all tourneys in the 18U division the following year.
Like Captain Thunder so eloquently put it...."No biggie".
The only thing it really matters is the National Tourney you attend. If you have an older player on the roster, than you can't attend one of those "off year" national tourneys, like for 11, 13 or 15 year olds.
Now.....if the team is made up of 10- 16 year olds and 1 15 year olds, then that just really doesn't make much sense to me. But....they play in the 16U division and every team we play is 16, so in reality......who cares?

 

[cobb_of_fury]

I'm all for just calling the team by the Organization name and the coaches name or I don't even mind the Elite, Premier, Exceptional, Whatever but that '01 identifier is almost never correct because of the way teams are put together these days,

Realistically graduation year would be a better indicator, I'm sure it would still be wrong in some cases but I think it would be a whole lot more helpful.

What I truly hate is when a team decides to play up an age group then suddenly adds a birth year so EVERYBODY knows they are playing up - That for some reason irritates me.
If your good enough to play up play up like you belong there.

 

[coachjwb]

Personally I wouldn't want to call my team an '02 team if I had even one '01 player on it, but I could care less what the other team calls themselves as long as they're playing in the right "U" group. I suppose the issue becomes that if an organization has multiple teams playing in the same "U" group, that you somehow need to differentiate the two teams, but many organizations do that with colors.

 

[backstop09]

Does it really matter? Does anybody care?

No and no.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

IMO, including birth year in a team name should reflect how that team will progress through the age groups rather than the eldest player(s). In Cal, HS-age teams usually drop the birth year designation because they have a bigger mix of birth years and there's more turnover year-to-year. 13U teams are usually the last to include birth year to indicate they won't be going dark for HS season (we don't have MS ball and our birth years highly correlate to grade since kindergarten cutoff date used to be Dec 1).

 

[dadofpitcher]

Those teams with birth years on their title are for organizations that have multiple teams in each age group. It differentiates which team it is. My daughter is a 2nd year 16U player and has been playing since 10U. She has never been on a team that didn't have multiple birth year girls on a team of hers. She has played for 3 different organizations. The coaches and tournament directors all know who the kids are and what year they were born by the time these girls are entering 12U. It does not matter what year is listed. Tournaments are geared towards a 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, 18U and 23U format from January 1. The best example I can think of is birth year 2000 right now. Some might want to play up at 18U and some might want to stay down at 16U. A girl this age is fully grown and in high school playing high school ball against girls ranging in age from 14 to almost 19. Nobody magically gets better on January 1st. It's just a tournament guideline.