Rec vs. select bad mix

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I will add that taking our dd to a rec/travel tourney opened our eyes to the world outside of rec. That got us interested in travel ball. That is why we are trying to field a 12U team right now.
Being involved in those tourneys made us realize that being the best pitcher in rec did nothing to challenge the player to be better. I think it is a good mix. I think that if you don't show the girls whats out there, they dont strive to be better!
I will never complain about strong competition. I think it is good to get beat a good one every once and a while to give the girls a reason to try harder to be better.
JMHO

 

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I think this will always be a very subjective topic because there are no true definitions for elite/select travel, community travel, or rec/all star teams. ?IMHO, elite/select are those teams that come from a large well know organization and recruit from a large area/statewide. ?Commuity travel teams are just that. ?Teams that gather players from one community, thus fielding talent from a much smaller talent pool. ?Rec/All Star teams are teams that are formed after rec. league for the purpose of extending the season and giving players more experience. ?You see very few rec/all star tournaments until the end of June into July and August. ?Travel teams, whatever level, are more active early on (even during Jan/Feb) in the spring and continue often into Sept/Oct. ?I'm not sure if simply having a tryout defines a travel team or even the number of tournaments. ?I do think the time of year you have tryouts and when you start practicing does set the elite/select and community travel teams apart from the rec/all star teams. ?A typical travel team will hold tryouts in Aug/Sept and begin practicing soon afterward while as I stated before, rec/all star begin after rec. season. ?The more elite/select may even play fall ball or participate in indoor winter leagues, while a community travel team may simply practice once/twice a month during fall/winter until spring when they can get outdoors. ?
I agree with many of the previous posts including the comment that coaches should choose wisely. ?In addition, I would add that TDs should stay good to their word in that if they advertise as a rec/all star tournament only...they should keep any level travel team out. ?On the other side, I would say that rec/all star coaches, should be wary of tournaments that allow even community travel teams if you are going to be upset when/if that teams beats you or wins the tournament. ?We are a community travel team taking our players from about a 5/7 mile radius and playing 8 tournaments this summer of varying types from qualifiers to mixed team tournaments. ?At times we were competitive and other times we got spanked at the qualifiers that drew larger named teams, but we learned from those experiences and got better. ?We did attend some tournaments geared for comm. travel and rec/all star teams where we faired much better, even winning a couple, but I don't believe that we were playing down. We certainly didn't run over every team. As said before, some people will do almost anything to win. We wittnessed a comm. travel team who picked up 4 players from a very select team, playing them in key positions, and later going on to win a comm. travel/ rec/all star tournament (it was not sanctioned). ?That to me was dishonest. ?The bottomline is, as a coach you have to live with the descisions you make. ?If you choose to play in tournaments where you obviously out class the competition, then maybe you should take a closer look in the mirror. ?In the end, the girls know the difference between truly "earning" a win and simply "getting" a win. ?There is no satisfaction in the later.

 

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Wow, good points by all, now were getting somewhere! Let's start with me admitting that there are many so called "local travel" teams that play as good if not better than the so called "elite travel" teams. This usually happens somewhere between second year 12U and 14U, after teams have worked hard togather for several years. Some Central Ohio teams that come to mind are Westerville Ice 14U, Grove City Nightmare 13U, Gahanna Lions 14U and Vikings Elite 14U, At one time, they might have been overlooked, but now they have earned the respect of most of the Ohio FASTPITCH community!!!

Now 10U is much harder to gauge. This is most likely due to tournament ball being new, to not only the players/parents, but also to most coaches who are just getting there feet wet. Seeing that this is my 5th year in a row of having coached/parented a DD at 10U. I've seen the growth and improvement of FASTPITCH, not only here in central Ohio, but also all over the state!

Seeing that 10U is where a lot of complaints come from, I will give my opinion on the 10U, as to how competitive they were. It would go as follows:

Tier 1:Ohio Lasers, Cincy Doom, Valley Sting, Valley Extreme and Central Ohio Stingrays.

Tier 2:Ohio Ice, Ohio Emeralds, SGS Magic Red, Ohio Top Guns, Sylvania Sharks, and Ohio Danger.

Tier 3: GFOD Thunder, Buckeye Heat, MOV Flaming Fury, North Union Ladycats and Ky Explosian.

Now this is not meant to offend anyone in anyway, and is just my opinion on what I saw for this year at 10U, and is not a reflection on organizations as a whole. For example, the Ohio Ice and Buckeye Heat at the 16U level, are 2 of the best teams I saw in the entire state and for sure a tier 1 team for there age group.

Lew, thanks for the compliment. I know Martain has worked hard to improve FASTPITCH in the Northwest part of the state. I hope that his new organization attracts many more girls into the travelball community. Finally, good luck to all the young ladies/families at tryouts and hope that you continue to enjoy our sport.

 

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Do we know of a tournment where an "Elite" Travel Team played in a All-Star Rec Tourney in the 12U division as mentioned earlier? Just because a team is playing with an elite program doesn't mean that they are not a new/young unexperienced 11U team. I don't know of any personally.

Thanks in advance.