Travel Baseball

I've got a few thoughts about this as a parent and what I've observed, both from my current jr. high daughter currently playing select softball in the Houston area, and a high schooler who played club (select) volleyball.

First off, my experience is the volleyball parents are much more unbearable than the softball parents.  I'd stand off in corners of the volleyball facilities at times to watch my daughter's games.  The parents for my daughter's current select team are really great, though, as are the coaches.  So I'm hoping that team sticks.

My softball daughter, now 13, didn't start playing ball till 9 years old.  In our area of Texas, 9-10 years old (10U) seems to be about the age where the good softball players start branching off into select, though in the specific rec league I put my kid in, many of those girls it was either second year 10U, or first year 12U.  Due to mine's lack of experience, she played her first year 12U still in rec, but it was blatantly obvious that the best talent, especially the good pitching, had left rec for select.  In fact, on our 12U all star team that summer, we had one legit bracket pitcher.  The other 3 pitchers on that team had learned to pitch for the first during that 12U Spring season.  Brutal.  I remember when I was in baseball, you still had your best area players on rec ball teams at that age.  "Select" baseball was a high school thing for good baseball players who weren't playing football.  Guess times have changed.

So after that summer, we joined a select team.  Played strictly C-class that Fall, then in the Spring moved to "B team" that was playing open class tournaments.

We were ignorant to the way select ball was done, but I learned quick that it doesn't matter if you call yourself a C, B, or A team.  You can be a C team that is good enough to beat A teams, but you stay "C" so you can chase trophies in C only tournaments, and there's some "A" teams who go 0-4 (lose your two pool games and get crushed in double elimination bracket) in every single tournament they play in.

I guess I was expecting select ball to be more like club volleyball.  All the teams in the Lonestar Region are ranked after every weekend of tournaments, and that determines seeding and divisions for future tournaments.  The #200 team ranked team ain't going to go up against the #2 ranked team.

But select softball ain't like that at all.  I guess it's because girls switch teams during seasons, and girls from say...an Impact Gold team, might pick up with an Illusions team for a weekend, especially pitchers.  There's no "picking up" in club volleyball.  If you're on a specific club, you might get asked to join the higher ranked team at that club in a tournament to see if you'll be promoted, but for the most part your teams are basically set the entire Spring.  So guess that makes ranking volleyball teams for tournaments easier. 

I'm not a huge fan of playing the sport non-stop all year, but my volleyball daughter attended a highly competitive 6A school where literally every girl on the JV and Varsity teams played club in the Spring, and my softball daughter is attending the same school where is seems every girl trying out in the class before her and in her class next year for the team plays select.  Don't want them getting left behind if they're still wanting to compete.

Now not every high school in the area is like that.  Bella's volleyball teams would play against other 5A and 6A schools where it was obvious few, if any, of the girls played club, and they'd crush them.  With softball, there's 5A and 6A schools down the road that some of her teammates will play at, and they will be one of maybe two or three girls on the team who play select.  But as long as mine wants to keep playing and make JV next year, then hopefully make Varsity down the road, it's almost as if she's forced to play year round to keep working on her skill.  She's not such a natural athlete that she can drop the bat for a good bit of the Fall, pick it up and play amongst the competition in her class to make the school team in the Spring.

As a parent, I'm not thrilled with that prospect, but guess I have to roll with it and just try to take as little stress from the sport off my kid as possible, because like another poster mentioned, year round with a sport at an early age lends to a strong possibility of burnout.  

Thats basically the same feelings I have. Excellent  assessment from a parents point of view.

Another great assessment from Coach Chris who has coached many young men the right way. While Coach Chris wants to win and is competitive he teaches kids the right way how to play and act on and off the field. First class coach and program. Remember the little league team from New Orleans who won a few years ago? All those kids were travel players who played rec just to have a shot at the world title. I believe that was John Curtis junior high team. I plan on catching some of Coach Chris games this season. They also have some cool looking uniforms. Best of luck to the 11U Pilots team this season and text me a schedule when you can.

His words were skill weak, play heavy. Basically play a lot of games to get reps but not really ever work on fundamentals.

Most teams only carry 10 players. The problem is when these players get older and have to sit the bench it messes with them mentally because they have always been told how good they where when they really weren't.

One thing that I like about Coach Chris program is chasing rings is the last thing on there mind. They do a good job of blending and developing kids while also trying to win.