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2007 LLSWS Postlude

by Dave
Friday, August 17, 2007

1. Patrick from Florida writes:
   
   "Just read your blog on LL semi's.   One thing to keep in mind.   At least here in Florida, at our LL All-star sectional tournaments (which is one level up from the initial district level tournament) a majority of the girls on all the teams were from travel ball teams.   Maybe that is just Florida.   But I would be willing to bet that the girls you are watching on TV are the same girls that play in the ASA tournaments you attend."
   
   My reply:
   
   I do know that there are travel players playing in the LLSWS.   But just because teams have travel players doesn't mean the teams themselves are travel ball quality.   And not a high percentage of travel players participate in the LL tournament.
   
   In order to play on a LL tournsament team, girls are supposed to participate in the rec league the particular LL organization runs.   Then the tournament team is picked from the league itself or via a tryout.   This is not an open tryout for anyone who wants to play but rather a tryout open to the girls from the rec league.   And once play begins, girls cannot rejoin their travel clubs until after their team has been eliminated from the LL tournament.
   
   Players eligible for LL tournament play include those who, meeting other requirements, particularly with respect to age and residency, have "participated as an eligible player in one-half the regular season games ... with the exception of school softball season."
   
   Also according to LL rules, "a player may participate in other youth softball programs prior to the first scheduled game involving that player's team.   Once play begins for a tournament team, players named on that team's tournament affidavit may not participate in any other youth softball program until that team is eliminated from tournament play."
   
   Finally, LL rules generally do not allow tournament teams to form up until after rec play has concluded.   I don;t have the rules in front of me but team selection cannot take place until something like 2 weeks before the tournament begins.   That reduced the quality of the teams because, as anyone can tell you, girls teams don't even begin to jell until after their first year playing together.   From year to year, the LL tournament team might include the same kids so the 12U teams at the televised LLSWS might have played together since they were in t-ball, but that's not supposed to be the case.   And the travel players on LL teams do not practice together year round nor play 100 games together each year.
   
   It might not be patently obvious but the last thing any travel club coach wants is to train a group of girls and have 4 or 5 disappear in order to participate in the LL tournament.   In fact, many such coaches tell their team players and parents participation in rec softball of any kind is a bad idea since travel clubs themselves, especially good ones, will practice frequently and play anywhere from 50 - 100 games and scrimmages during a year.   Playing another 10 - 20 rec games plus 5 or more tournament games is too much on girls' bodies at this age.   But aside from beating the girls' bodies up, coaches worry about being able to field a team throughout their tournament season.   They don't want to show up on elimination day of a national qualifier with 7 or 8 kids.   If you sign up for a travel team, in general, they want you committed to at least 90% of the team's tournaments and 100% committed to the important ones, many of which take place during the preliminary rounds of the LL tournament.
   
   I know of two decent travel teams which had quite a few girls who wanted to play the LL tournament.   The teams knew this from the outset.   One agreed to disband their 12U team at the start of LL tournament play.   I talked to the father of a girl on that team and he told me this was their last year of playing LL.   The team was generally upset they had decided to disband because they had qualified for nationals.   But they couldn't go because so many players had left.
   
   The second team which contained a number of LL players continued to play in other tournaments minus the 4 or 5 girls who had left for their LL teams.   We played them and beat them pretty badly.   Their coaches were upset about the girls leaving.   They failed to gain a berth to nationals this year so when those girls LL teams were defeated, they came back to a much reduced schedule.   I doubt organization officials will allow this to happen again.
   
   In addition to travel organizations not enjoying it when their girls leave for LL tournament teams and therefore discouraging the practice, there is another factoid to consider.   The girls from these travel teams who left for LL teams did not all join the same team.   For example, the team which disbanded right after gaining a bid to nationals sent kids to no fewer than 5 LL teams.   The other talent on those teams was not top level travel talent.   And because those teams could only form up beginning in late June, the travel players did not have the opportunity to teach the other kids what they know.   The teams were not travel club quality.
   
   I'm not sure I have made my point but what I'm after is that on any of these LLSWS teams, you maybe have 2 bona fide "A" level travel players.   On a top ten (at any nationals) team, you have 11, 12, or 13 bona fide "A" level travel players with a couple exceptional ones.
   
   Note that there was no team from southern CA in the semi-finals.   Yet a very high percentage of Div I college players come from SoCal.   The same is true for Arizona, Florida, Texas, Washington, and a few other states.   In Florida, you have over the past two decades created one of the best youth travel systems in the country - a good number of FL kids also play college ball.   Yet there was no Florida representative in the semi-finals.   There was a Texas team but I'd be surprised if that was representative of travel level teams in Texas - it was a very small community with not a huge number of 11 and 12 year old girls from which to pick a team.
   
   
2. Bryan from Iowa writes:
   
   I felt complelled to write you after reading today's post..."Green Pastures".   I too watched a little of the games last night and was very dissapointed ... You see my 12 year old has been playing ASA travel ball for 4 years now.   I have seen tremendous level of play at the 12U level.
   
   When watching the LLWS semi-final games I really expected that higher level of play.   This sounds terrible to say, but my daughter walked by the TV (she loves to play, but hates to watch on TV) and stopped for a few minutes & then said, 'They stink.'   Painfully honest, she is at times.   I am not being arrogant, but there are MANY teams in the 12U "A" class in Iowa that would run-rule those teams.   I was confused at the grass infield & the lead off rule.   Both make no sense, and slow an otherwise exciting game.   To be honest, I have never seen a Little League Softball game before ... just ASA.
   
   In the past 4 years, my family has been indoctrinated to ASA fastpitch softball.   And we love it!   My daughter's team has traveled to quite a few tournaments that require overnight stay in a hotel (part of the fun for the girls, you know) and play between 60-80 games each spring and some in the fall.   You know, a typical ASA travel team.   We spend gobs of money, but trade it for memories that last a life time!"
   
   My reply:
   
   Bryan, I agree with you.   My 12 year old daughter mostoly agrees with yours.   My daughter, however, does like watching softball on TV and in person.   She was glued to the set for most of the NCAA games which were televised this year - we buy a college sports package.   She also watched a high school aged "all-star" game recently.   She accompanies us when we go to watch local high school and college games.   She is a student of the game.   She thought the level of play was pretty low.   She thought the pitching was poor.   She did not stay to watch much.
   
   
3. Chris from Tennessee writes:
   
   "Prior to finding your site, I had never heard of LLSWS.   You have been pretty critical of LLSWS in the past, and after watching the semi-final games and part of the finals, I think you are spot on.   I was not at all impressed with the play I saw.   I coach a 12U travel team that played C class ball this year (my team was all 11 year olds but 2) and hope to compete at the B level this coming year.   As you state in your article from yesterday, watching from TV can be deceiving, but I have no doubt that my team could play with and probably beat all of the teams in the semi-finals, and I don't think we are that good.   One of the things that I think hurts youth softball is the fact that there are so many sanctioning bodies these days.   We play predominately USSSA because that is what is most popular around here.   Yet I know that on a national level ASA is where we should strive to be."
   
   My reply:
   
   Chris, I don't always mention USSSA but I mean to include them in the travel mix.   I totally agree with you that there are too many sanctioning bodies.   It is confusing, when one is starting out, to figure what is the best kind of play to pursue.   In my area, we mostly play PONY at 10U and 12U.   Then the girls move on to a lot of NSA, though many stay with PONY.   By 14 or 15, the best girls are all playing ASA and showcase tournaments, some few move to FAST which is gaining ground.   As I understand things, in Florida, a lot of teams play FAST.   In some states, it's ASA or no play.   Yet even in my state, some teams play ASA.   A few participate in something called ISA but even those teams sometimes go to nationals put on by PONY and NSA.   While there is no question that ISF is the worldwide governing body for softball and ASA is the US body, the teams which compete in the various sanctioning bodies' tournaments typically do so in pursuit of the "right level" of play.
   
   

Labels: little league

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