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Find Me A Team!
by Dave
Friday, February 23, 2007
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by what is becoming a common question from readers of this blog. I receive more e-mails which ask something along the lines of "can you help me find a team?" than anything else. The emphatic answer is "no, I cannot." That's because finding a team involves a very complex dynamic. I can no more find a team for any particular player than I can fit a girl for a uniform via the internet. There are so many variables involved which can only be known by the individual player and which may change via experience that it is fruitless to even try. The best I can do is suggest some structure for locating, evaluating and choosing a team.
Basically, the way I see the softball universe, there are a couple different kinds of teams. There are recreational programs which are fundamental to the sport because they provide the first experience for most girls. These programs are like intra-murals in the sense that everyone who wants to play, can. Teams are usually split up so as to create the greatest amount of balance within the league. It wouldn't be much fun if all the best girls were on one team and everybody else on the others. That's true for both sides of the equation. Girls who are not very serious about the sport would have a bad time if they lost every game by double digits. They'd no longer join the rec program because it wasn't any fun. Similarly, the very best local players wouldn't get enough challenge to keep playing if they easily won every time out. Rec leagues exist to give young girls the chance to see if they like the sport and provide older girls with an opportunity to play a game while socializing.
Aside from the pure recreational league, there is the "rec/all-star" program in which presumably the very best girls are banded together to play for the pride of the town. I say "presumably the best" because it frequently doesn't work that way. Usually what happens is a parent who is very involved in the league begins first with his own daughter, adds in her very bestest of friends - at least the ones who can play some - and then adds in the girls who he or she thinks will make this team win a few games. Typically the result is not the best possible team but it is what it is. The team plays in something like the Little League or Babe Ruth tournament and that's about it.
These rec/all-star teams usually progress into something which I think of as a sub-tournament team because parent and child are disappointed in the number of games the all-star team gets to play. So they keep the girls together for a time and maybe enter into a tournament or two or three. They encounter true travelling teams at these tournaments and begin to wonder how their opposition got so good. Eventually they decide that the way to go is to form their own travelling team and keep it together from year to year to play these same couple tournaments. They may even incorporate separate and apart from the recreational league, create a different name for the team, and get special uniforms and the other accoutrements of a travelling club.
Once this event occurs, the founders of the rec/all-star travelling club begin to see that there are certain weaknesses within their batch of local girls. For one thing, they often do not have good pitching. For another, they see all these girls who can really play the game at a very high level and think to themselves, if they could just add one or two pitchers and a player or two to the current group, they might actually be competitive. So they open the geographic draw for their team and then things get complicated. Girls who can play might join up but once they get there, they are frequently disappointed by their teammates and move on to other types of organizations which we'll get to in a moment.
A few years ago we stumbled upon such an organization by accident. We wanted to find our very young kids someplace, any place, to play fall ball. So we signed up for a fall league and were placed on a team which was basically intact for two years and which played together as a unit from spring into the fall. The league had informed the coaches of this team that they had to take on additional players because the league itself was recreational - sponsored by taxpayer dollars. So our two kids were assigned to this basically intact town rec-all star team. I overheard a parent from that team explaining to another how they were going to remain organized next year, change their name, etc. So I inquired as to whether there was any room on the team for my kids. To say I received the cold shoulder is an understatement.
The team coach explained that my kids were at the low end of the age range of the team and they would be playing some really tough games next year against older teams so I should probably look someplace else. Then I watched this team play a year after that personal shutout and found my kids were actually now far superior to every other member of the team. But the coaches didn't know that so when I wrote them, they just never wrote me back. But don't fret for me, last year we found another sort of team and then that team ended up playing against this team which had shut us out. My daughter pitched against them but our coach took mercy on the team once it was evident that we were going to pummel them into the ground. One girl touched one of my daughter's pitches but that was just a ground ball back to her and she easily threw the kid out. The other kids whiffed at everything else she threw. The best out was a K by the most socially aggressive kid on that team - one who had made my daughter feel unwelcome. She struck out on a change-up in which she actually fell down as she swung and still had time to look up from the ground and watch the ball pass over her head! After three innings, my daughter was removed to give them a chance to get a baserunner or two.
That little bit was my self-indulgence for the day but my point is, this is the nature of what I call the "sub-tournament / former rec/all-star team." This is the sort of organization to be avoided at all costs unless you are just trying to have some fun with friends - and you are very friendly with those who organized the team. This brings me to the essence of the question "please help me find a team."
The question of finding a team is generally one in which the subject matter is travel club teams. As I just got through explaining to you, there are many of these rec/all-star travelling team hybrids out there. They are sometimes difficult to pick out from the crowd but suffice it to say that if you find yourself in a circumstance in which everybody on the team lives in one small neighborhood and they all seem to be extremely friendly with one another, you've found it.
The rec-all star hybrid often morphs into something else which is a true tournament team. What happens is somebody who organized the team begins to realize, like I said before, that there are certain deficiencies on the team which cannot be solved by "local girls." They also decide that this tournament thing is preferable to town and all star ball. If they could only find a way to compete. They allow the team they organized to disintegrate but keep the four or five best players. Then they add in a bunch of girls from outside their area and do a lot better than the old team did. If they do well enough, they begin to build a reputation and a true travel team is born.
Gradually the team seeks out better and better competition, eventually playing tournaments sanctioned by one of the bigger organizations like Pony, Fast, NSA, or even the top rung, ASA. From year to year the team remains pretty much intact with just a few girls realizing they can't play at this level, moving away, or just finding other teams for one reason or another. Players are replaced either via recruitment based on reputation or through formal tryouts in which the truly best performers are added to the mix.
Sometimes, after a bad experience, such a team will split in half and two travel teams are born. Each then conducts big tryouts or bands together with another group which has undergone the same experience. Eventually the teams with the best kids build such a reputation that often whole organizations are born in which all age groups or at least most of them are covered.
Sometimes these larger organizations are built a little differently. Sometimes they result from a parent-coach who sees the lay of the land for what it is and just decides to start a whole organization. Sometimes, perhaps too often, this comes about because the parent coach has multiple kids who are serious about softball. These organizations often have large holes in them. For example, they might field a 16U team or several, one 14U team and a 10U team with nothing in 12U or 18U. They may actually conduct tryouts for all age groups but the interest level and coaching staff is just not there to field a full slate of teams.
I remember a good organization (it's still around though for how much longer is anyone's guess) which was highly competitive. We went to the tryouts for ulterior motives which I won't get into and were surprised by how few girls were there for a particular age category. Later I heard from several people who had attended tryouts for this organization in that age group and they had been approached about coaching the team. In the words of one such parent, "here's this guy who doesn't know me from Adam and he's asking me to coach a team which costs more than a thousand dollars to join. He doesn't know if I know anything about fastpitch and here I was coming to his tryouts in the hopes of getting my kid some higher quality coaching."
At this point, I come to what I think of as the real travel club organizations. What happens at this point frequently is the parent of a kid who played while this invention was undergoing creation and evolution has decided to make something better than he has put together to date. He has extended his sphere of softball friends to include a large number of serious (about softball) people. Players want to be on his teams. Coaches consider it an honor to be chosen to coach his teams. They conduct tournaments, clinics and fundraisers with big name people which everyone in surrounding communities wants to attend. Everybody knows who they are and aspires to one day be involved with the organization. Their fame has spread beyond state borders and may be manifested in a national reputation. When they conduct tryouts, girls from out-of-state show up to try to make the cut. They play more than one out-of-state tournament and get themselves into the serious mix at nationals.
Now, please recognize that there are variants of these basic types which you will undoubtedly encounter. But it is often difficult to get a grasp on just who is who when you aren't from a particular area. Many of the questions I receive from players looking for a team involve relocations. It can be very difficult to discern between local all-star hybrids and run of the mill real travel organizations. But there are some clues such as how long the organization has been in existence; how many age groups they cover; whether they hold their own tournaments; what kind of tournaments these are - national qualifiers, ASA "A," Rec/all-star, etc.; do they conduct clinics that are not just practices for kids on the team; do they relationships with other organizations.
You can find the answers to most of your questions regarding an organization by perusing their web site, assuming they have a web site. A fastpitch softball team without a web site, should consider getting at least something online. It isn't a good sign when you encounter an organization which does not have a web site.
You want to see that this organization provides contact information for a decent sized coaching staff at various age levels - that is if this is the sort of organization you seek. You also want to see something on there about their tournaments and clinics. And you should be able to learn about their typical schedule - how many and what quality of tournaments they play. This should tell you about all you need to know about a team at least in the sense of what you can learn about them before you make contact.
The real learning about a team occurs once the team has been organized. Sometimes even the most apparently well run organization is really just a rec/all-star organization in which the folks running it happen to be very good at pretending they are something they're not. Some of your decision making must be done in person. Don't ever be afraid of being a pain in the butt by asking lots of questions. When you're fact-finding, it is your right to ask as many questions as you want. Just make sure you are asking the right kind of questions. Don't for example concern yourself only with whether my kid is going to get lots of playing time at which position.
Ask more general questions about the organization. How was this formed and when? How many teams and players are involved in the organization? How far of a draw does it have - how many towns are the girls from, what areas? What kind of tournaments do you play, where? Do you ever send teams to nationals, which ones? How long has this particular group been playing together? How are coaches selected and is there any particular overall organizational coaching philosophy? You can come up with your own batch of questions but the point here is they should be concerned with issues which provide you a flavor of what this organization is all about.
So that's a bit about organizations and teams, and how you should inquire about them. The more important issue is really about the prospective player. If you're the one playing, I have to ask you what age group are you in, do you plan to play school ball, what are your objectives in finding a team, are you aspiring to a college scholarship or even the opportunity to play in college with or without a scholarship, what is it you are really looking for? A player should understand where her game stands today and where she wants to take it. If a player wants just to see lots of action against pretty good competition without being pressed by coaches and the competition into stepping up her game, then the top level organizations should probably be avoided. If, on the other hand, a girl wants to reach as high as she possibly can, she ought to try out with every decent organization she can find and then make up her own mind about where she would like to play based on interactions with the other kids at tryouts.
When I contemplate this sort of question, there is a side issue which often arises. Sometimes parents will write to me and ask my opinion of a strategy they have put together. They allow their kid to "play up" on an older team in order to get a better experience. They don;t want to spend the money or drive the distance to practice every other day that a higher level team in the appropriate age group would entail. Instead they'd like their kid to play against soi so competition but in an older age category. I'm not against this strategy per se - it was common when I was growing up. But there are some problems which should at least be considered.
When, for example, an 11 year old plays for a 14U team or a 13 year old plays for an 18U team, there are significant maturity level differences which can be problematic. 14 year old girls are frequently well past puberty while 11 year olds are just entering into it. 13 year olds might be smack dab in the middle of puberty while a couple 18 year olds on the 18U team are, shall we say, not quite pristine virgins. I don't like talking about the whole sex thing but, as I'm sure you are aware, ball players do not hold back much from their teammates regardless of age differences. And at these ages, this does very much become an issue. You have to ask yourself what ancillary issues you are willing to face in order to allow your kid to play up rather than play with a higher level, more expensive but more age appropriate group.
Let's just summarize this discussion to see if we can draw it to a close. There are all sorts of organizations out there but they generally fall within or around a couple categories. There are well established, well run organizations which have been around the block several times. There are also teams which are just the local all-star team which is now playing tournaments to give the girls some challenges and additional playing time. There are other organizations which are far more sophisticated than the all stars who organize girls from a broader geographic area, play better tournaments, and generally provide more challenges while keeping together a decent group from year to year. You can try to learn about these organizations and tea,s through whatever means you have a available. The internet is one such tool. You have to know what the player herself's abilities and goals are to find the right match. And ultimately you have to make the decision in person after you've had the chance to quiz coaches and members of the organization. Ultimately it is probably better to find the right level of team in the right age category unless you have a very mature, street-wise kid.
As a final discussion item, I want to speak to parents of kids who are very good softball players in their local leagues and want to step out about a couple of issues. This is the other kind of "help me find a team" inquiry I get. First off, if you venture into the travel world, you are going to see some kids of very high abilities. Do not react to these by thinking to yourself that my kid just can't play like that. That isn't true. Anybody who works hard at this game because they enjoy it, can bring themselves up to a very high level. That's not to say every kid has the potential to make Team USA or even obtain a scholarship. But every kid has at least enough potential to become quite good provided that she receive proper coaching and work at her game. Playing against really good players is the route to excellence. Joining a team even though your one reservation is this may be just too difficult, will most often result in incredible development.
Also, please do not stick with the local all star team or get your kid playing up an age group on a less demanding local team rather than checking out travel merely because you want her to play with kids she knows. if you venture out to travel, one of the things you will experience is your daughter retains all her local friendships while supplementing them with new ones from outside your immediate community. That can only be good in the sense that your daughter should become somewhat more socially sophisticated. Your kids will be exposed to far more than they can possibly get otherwise when they play for a genuine travel organization with a broad geographical pull.
I never really understood just how protected and homogenized my kids upbringing had become until we ventured out to travel ball. If I ever think about it, the local experience is just too limited. Everybody in our town is in about the same socio-economic range, has about the same sized house, shares common values when it comes to things like school, etc., etc. This has its place but it limits the experiences a kid learns to cope with. The travel teams we have been associated with involve a far broader spectrum of economic levels and life experiences. My kids have attended religious ceremonies I wouldn't have even dreamed about without them having been exposed to kids from several other towns. They play with kids who have very high and very low income levels. They encounter kids who are both far more highly academically ambitious than they are as well as kids who are truancy problems. They see the world more for what it actually is now that they play travel ball. And many of their closest relationships are with kids from out of town. They don't have to fall into the usual cliques when they see these kids. It provides them the freedom to actually be who they are without all the typical social competitiveness.
That about sums up what I wanted to say about finding a team. there is a whole world out there and it is complicated. But you're an intelligent person and can figure things out for yourself. My job is not so much to intruct but rather to spur thought in you. Good luck in your search.Labels: parents, teams
 
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