12u Spring Teams

[Old Darter]

Stealing Home....
Two negative posts back to back. Looks like someone has an axe to grind.

[Sftball Junkie]

Its got to be hard to form a new 12 team right now. Nor Cal does not have enough quality players to support the amount of 12u teams out there now and we have another 3 or 4 teams being formed as we speak. All of the teams who had tryouts this last weekend had a low turn out. A lot of Rec players showing up not a lot of A Ball players looking to move. Hopefully this means we are becoming a little more loyal to those who have put out the time to help develop our girls instead of always trying to find the greener grass on the other side.

Not sure why anyone would be surprised with the comment that Lady Magic tries to keep the girls together through 18g. Most Large orgs try to keep their teams together through 18g. one huge key to success as a team is playing together for a length of time. The biggest reason most girls leave a top org team is they are in the bottom 2 or 3 and not seeing playing time. If you are in the starting 9 and see the time you want in a top org with a good coach why leave? Coach's watch players and when they see top 5 players jumping teams season after season it throws up red flags and those players stop getting picked up. Parents srcrew things up for their kids daily.

[raahraah]

Hey titupdude....don't know where you got your information about the Breeze 00 team, but it is wrong. Tryouts were held, the 12U Spring/Summer team is formed and ready to GO!

[Iluvblue]

Most Large orgs try to keep their teams together through 18g.


Dont agree with that statement. Go look at the sites of the top 4 org, whoever you think that is, and see how many of those kids were playing 14u then 16 or gold and have been in the same org for 3 or more years(obviously that stuff isnt listed, so no real way to know). Id say the number of players that have done that in norcal is 50% or less. Just a guess on my part, but I dont see it much higher than that.


one huge key to success as a team is playing together for a length of time.

Agree 100% with that statement.

[Sftball Junkie]

I hear what your saying blue.
It would be very interesting to see how many of those who left those top teams left because the parents were looking for greener pastures. Once they hit 14's and up you know how it goes.. Recruiters are not looking at my baby it must be the coaches fault!!! I would bet more leave do to parents then leave do to the coach getting rid of them.

Most of the coach's I have know over the years would rather keep the core 8 or 9 players then rebuild every season.

[Iluvblue]

For us it is imperative to keep the vast majority of our players together for more than a season.
. Part of what I want to accomplish with the Monarchs..... teach em, keep em, move em up as much as possible.




I would bet more leave do to parents then leave do to the coach getting rid of them.


Well what do you mean? The number one reason kids leave IMO is playing time. Nobody wants to spend the money and the time to travel all over and then not get quality playing time. And playing time only against the weak teams yiou know will crush doesnt count in my book.

Next reason would be positions played, or not played.

3rd reason would be they just dont click with the coach. Obviously, these are just guesses on my part.

Just curious, if a team is going to always look for the better player, why cant the player look for the better team???

[EvilProdigy]

Any idea how many girls Eaton got to stay with him for the team??? Is Johnny Commings coaching the team????

No I'm not coaching TC. Nothing personal though, Chris was not a bad guy at all (sometimes timing is against us when starting something new). I wanted all of the girls from TC to stay together no matter what the team name is or was. I feel they have the ability to be a great team and in the very short time they played together they proved it to me and to many others that they can be one of the best and beat some of the best, So that being said, 9 of the 14 have moved to Team Xtreme and I look forward to seeing how well they do after they actually get a few months of playing together without all of the clout and stigma that may or may not have been associated with this wacky fall season. They are a very solid core group of awesome young ladies, they have all shared the same experience in taking a chance/risk and leaving great teams many had been with since they were 8 years old, My daughter included as I coached for one of these teams for quite some time. I wish all of you a great Spring season and good luck to your young ladies.

[Old Darter]

I would bet more leave do to parents then leave do to the coach getting rid of them.


Well what do you mean? The number one reason kids leave IMO is playing time. Nobody wants to spend the money and the time to travel all over and then not get quality playing time. And playing time only against the weak teams yiou know will crush doesnt count in my book.

Next reason would be positions played, or not played.

3rd reason would be they just dont click with the coach. Obviously, these are just guesses on my part.

Just curious, if a team is going to always look for the better player, why cant the player look for the better team???

I agree with all three of your reasons ILB, but those might just as easily be the PARENTS reasons and not necessarily the kids. Most players do want playing time at the position they want to play, but most kids that age also want to be a part of a team with players they like (developmental social needs). While M&D may not be happy with her situation, she might be okay with it. I find it hard to believe that a 14yo ( no one in particular, thou I know of several) who has been on 5 teams in 2 years has made those decisions. More likely, it is M&D moving around looking for greener pastures so DD can get her scholarship (which rarely works).

[Iluvblue]

Well lets get real.... in probably 95% of the cases, mom and dad are deciding where their kid is playing, not the player. And when you are talking about 12u and even into 14u those numbers will be their highest.

IMO, the coaches need to give people reasons to stay. I coached in 14u for quite a while(because I love that age) and my last 3 or 4 14 u teams, I rarely had kids leave(I also rarely replaced anyone, twice carrying the exact same roster from Fall into Summer). That goes for player 11-12 just as much as player 1-2. Everyone says people leave for greener pastures....... well what does that mean? Does that mean a higher quality team? Does that mean a team that charges less in fees? Does that mean a team where said player will have a better opportunity to play her desired position? Does that mean a team that has better coaching? A team with less drama? A team closer to home?

There are a myriad of reasons players switch teams, and IMO, it is up to the coach of the team to address those reasons as much as possible if they want to keep players. If a team is constantly struggling to keep players, they should look in the mirror before they go looking to blame all of those people that are leaving.

Most teams wont keep 100% of their players, and most teams dont want to keep 100% of their players, but I cant imagine why a team wouldnt want to keep 10 out of 12 or 12 out of 16 which is somewhere in the 75-85% range.

I just returned 22 out of 26 players between our 16u and 18g teams. Only 2 players left on their own, and 1 of those 2 was because they wanted to continue pitching, something that I made clear wasnt going to happen on our team moving forward.

Parents want their kids getting taught.... that to me is the single most important thing teams need to do to keep the players they have. Everything else is secondary.