16U?

[soreshins]

Having gone this road, I would recommend that 8th graders play 14U. Our experience was the 16U division was relatively weak. Our 8th graders were usually in the championship game with another 14U team in the 16U tournaments that we played. The good 16U players are playing gold.

I believe the exposure aspect of 16U is overstated. There are some college coaches at 16U ASA Nationals, but 16U is not the way to get exposure. When you are a freshman, move up to gold if you are good enough. You will get to play in several exposure type settings since most of the upper classmen are already committed. By the time you are 16 you should already be on a gold squad.

In my experience gold programs are looking for sophomores with a few outstanding freshman. If you are a junior, you have got to be better than the juniors they've got to make a good gold team. Even then some gold teams are not interested in juniors.

[Blind Squirrel]

Ahh time and energy. Of course, what follows is just one ignoramus parent's opinion:

Some kids have the qualities that enable them to improve their game more when playing with/against bigger, stronger, faster and more experienced players, then if they were playing with their age group. Some kids are surely not going to benefit from playing up one level or two. I know playing different sports with my (3 years) older bother and his friends really helped me when I competed with kids my age.

There is a difference between 40' and 43' pitching. Especially for pitchers. I suspect college coaches would prefer to see how kids perform at 43', pitchers as well as hitters. We felt that the more experience our kid had hitting at 43', the better prepared she would be for facing college pitching.

Many folks care about going to Nationals. I often hear that it is because the kid will learn to deal with pressure. More than the pressure a 14/15 year old feels when they come to the plate knowing that coaches from big name D1s they would like to attend are watching them? My kid's first Nationals wasn't until she was 17. She never cared and neither did we. Just our way. The right way? Can't be objectively assessed.

We were worried about having a 14 year old in the dugout with 17/18 year olds. She did in fact hear about the kid who snuck out of her house in the middle of the night to sneak into her boyfriends house (I assume it was to prepare for the next day's calculus test). She heard about drug use and getting drunk. As a freshman in High School, she learned about other HS kids who hid drugs inside apples, knew kids who were on steriods and of course, kids who enjoyed getting drunk. She didn't need to be on the HS softball team or an 18G team to hear such things at the age of 14.

In retrospect, playing up seems like the right thing to do for my kid. No way of knowing for sure that it was the optimal route. It is certainly not the best course of action for all kids and I've seen some who suffered in that situation. I would only counsel folks to act based upon their own kid's abilities/psychological makeup and not the desire to have the opportunity to embarrass themselves by having their kid on a team where they are clearly overmatched, sitting on the bench and not improving. In such situations, the teammates know the kid doesn't belong, the kid knows it and the parents are (appropriately) looked at as fools.

John

[TexasYellowBall]

I Agree with you Blind. . . . I think people have to do what they think is right. My DD has played in every division for ASA Nationals except 18 Gold. My DD is 15........Her team will be in SD this year for 16U again. Being at 16U Nationals last year, I saw for my own eyes that soreskins is wrong about 16U. I have been told by people that attended 18G and 16U that there were more coaches in Kentucky then OKC last year. I do not know if this is true.

Staying at 16U has not hurt my DD at all. Her team played in every major exposure in the south and played very well in the Fireworks last year. DD is doing well on the recruiting side.........These are choices that we have made and they have worked out so far,but we could be wrong.....I hope not.

[Abracadabra]

I Agree with you Blind. . . . I think people have to do what they think is right. My DD has played in every division for ASA Nationals except 18 Gold. My DD is 15........Her team will be in SD this year for 16U again. Being at 16U Nationals last year, I saw for my own eyes that soreskins is wrong about 16U. I have been told by people that attended 18G and 16U that there were more coaches in Kentucky then OKC last year. I do not know if this is true.

Staying at 16U has not hurt my DD at all. Her team played in every major exposure in the south and played very well in the Fireworks last year. DD is doing well on the recruiting side.........These are choices that we have made and they have worked out so far,but we could be wrong.....I hope not.

TYB, I think your doing what you feel is best for your DD and thats fine. The point I was making was no college coach is looking to recruit your DD as a 8th grader, so to use that as the reason you played 16U dosn't make sense. I assume from your previous post your DD is in 9th grade so she was an 8th grader last year at 16U Nats. How many schools recruited your DD last year? Just wondering... My position is your DD could have played at the 14U Nats. and got just as much if not more experience, by playing more games possibly against top level teams.JMO

[soreshins]

Yellow ball

So you are telling us that your DD is being recruited (while on a 16U team) based on being seen at 16U Nationals as an eight grader? That is interesting. Are the college coaches setting up those unoffical visits through the 16U coach? Good luck getting her looked at on a 16U team. Never have heard of player making a unofficial visit from a 16U team. But that does not mean it doesn't happen.

[sbdad66]

Well I don't really know what to do based on the different opinions here. This is my take.

I think 99% of 8th graders have no place on a truely competing 18U or 18U Gold club. I would also state 100% 8th grade of pitchers have no place there either.

My DD's are 15yo and 13yo playing on a first year 16U club. Now we haven't gone though the entire year yet, but thus far I have seen fewer 16U clubs than 14U clubs. I don't know if this is because girls fall out of playing ball for whatever reasons or not. However, during tournaments, we have played both 14U teams playing up and 18U/18U Gold teams in tourn where there wasn't enough 16U's registered, so they were combined with the 18U tournament.

Without any experience at this, it would seem to me that, alot of 18UG teams playing at Nationals would have plenty of verbals, and signed players. So wouldn't it be wise as a College Coach to scope 18U or 16U Nationals for girls between sophmore and senior ages of play. It seems the coaches are looking at players earlier than they were in the past. Especially the D1 top 25 schools.

They may be going to 16U Nats, to try and get a jump on recruiting down the road. Not to make any offers, but to make out a watch list of prospects, and to see those who have contacted them about playing for thier school.

There may also be other coaches at 18U Nats. trying to complete some holes in a finalized roster for next year. May be alot of other coaches that don't work that far ahead, so they are looking to fill several positions.

This is my guess, I really don't know for sure, but hopefully will find out. Believe coaches and/or thier staff can be found at both Nationals.

[Abracadabra]

Last thing I am going to say on this subject... If you do your job making contact with the schools then your DD will be seen and recruited. You do not have to jump up 2 or 3 age divisions to do this, besides your DD maybe a 8th grader on a 16U or 18U team but, that still does not change her graduation year and when she is eligible to play college ball. And I still stand by my previous statement, that in North Texas at this time there is better competition at the 14U level then 16U so until that changes, why skip it? To many coaches want that built in excuse to lose, and to many parents want to walk around with their chest puffed out thinking their DD is better because she is on an older team. Enjoy the game for what it is, a game. Get the grades or all of this dosn't matter. My rant for the day...

[sbdad66]

I agree with what your saying Abracadabra.

I have seen way to many girls that had been or are good to great 14U players go to some 18U teams with the word Gold behind them. The kicker is almost allways these are not competetive gold teams. They are at best average 18U teams with vertually no change of qualifying for Gold Nats. And those girls that make the move usually end up with slpinters on thier butts. Sad to me, but some parents don't have a problem with it.

Better to stay at age level and play rather than move up and not!!

Maybe competition in North Texas is weak at the 16U level. I don't think its is weak on the National level. Bet you would see some stong teams at Nats. I agree with earlier poster who stated most of the 16U teams play 18U tourn. and 16U qualifiers.

[jag1]

and why would the 16u level be weak......because too many parents think their little Suzie all-star at 14u or 16u HAVE to play 18uG, even if it's some half-assed non-competitive team..! The kid really would be better served to stay down on a legitimately competitve team where she can stand-out, work on her game, keep her love for the game, AND be seen by coaches in the big games on Sunday. There are plenty of solid 16u teams in the mid-west that regularly put it on 18G teams from down there...wake up!

[Intel]

shorshins:

Lady Magic who won the 16u nationals last year had 8 players verbal off that team (5 to Pac 10 schools) before September 1st. Our Force team had 5 players verbal at Nationals last year of which 3 were to top 25 programs. My DD's friend verbal off OC Batbuster to Tenn at 16 nationals last year. Is that enough examples for you? I can list more if need be.