Looking for info on 12u teams in Sacramento.

[newbietosoftball]

New to the travel softball scene my daughter is really successful playing infield and hitting in rec ball and wants to now try a more competitive game. where do I begin? What should I be looking for? Do any of you have suggestions for me as to the teams I should be contacting? Are there teams with better coaches than others (I probably can answer this myself with a yes but I am looking for recomendations)Thank you for all your help.

[bruisedshin]

Tryout postings here:
http://www.heybucket.com/viewforum.php?f=617

DF Softball has ads as well. At the bottom of this page
http://dfsoftball.com/11Girls.html
is a button to go to classifieds. If he changes to the new season, you can just go to dfsoftball.com and find the ads from the main page.

Depending on where you live and how ready your daughter is to compete, there are a lot of alternatives. I only put teams that I'm pretty sure have an active 12U team. Some orgs like Lady Magic or Capital City Comets have had 12U teams in the past, but don't currently.

I would have her try out for the Breeze or Team California and see how she stacks up. If she's not ready for that level, some of the other organizations may be a better fit. Keep in mind, if your daughter has not played ASA ball yet, she will be competing against girls that have. Don't worry if she doesn't do well at a tryout or two.

Placer
http://teamcaliforniasoftball.com/
http://rosevilleheat.org/
http://rocklinhype.net/
http://www.rampagefastpitch.net/



Elk Grove
http://californiabreeze.org/

Carmichael Area
http://www.yardsharkssoftball.com/
http://californiarapids.com/

Folsom/El Dorado
http://foothillgoldasa.org/


Other
http://www.softballschool.com/mizunoallamerican/site/home/index.html

[ICMTM]

I would suggest looking at some games for potential teams and seeing how the coaches and girls operate. Everyone put up their best to their team's website so it's hard to judge a team based on the internet. Your daughter may gain confidence seeing the level of play she's potentially getting into. When she goes to a tryout she will be ready.

Something else I would suggest is contact potential coaches and see what they are looking for before going to workout for them as well.

[bruisedshin]

I would definitely agree. Watch the coaches and talk to the parents at the games and find out. I put the websites there to help find tryout information, not to judge the teams. A team can have a lousy coach and a great web guy. I haven't been around 12U for a while, so I don't know much about current coaching staffs.

[newbietosoftball]

Thank you for the info I was looking at a couple of the websites it looks like the Breeze has been around for a while. But is longevity a good thing? have been looking at some of the threads on this site and the breeze and Team california have some interesting posts about them. At least for the breeze team it doesnt appear to be about the 12u team.

Is this what I have to look forward to?

[ICMTM]

My experience with comp softball is where there's smoke there's fire. The problem is the size of the fire depends on the person. Competitive softball in general has a high amount of drama. Finding a coach that can diffuse that and get the girls to focus on the game is huge. Too many coaches and parents get caught up in it themselves.

[lookingIN]

My experience with comp softball is where there's smoke there's fire. The problem is the size of the fire depends on the person. Competitive softball in general has a high amount of drama. Finding a coach that can diffuse that and get the girls to focus on the game is huge. Too many coaches and parents get caught up in it themselves.

AMEN

[sportykids]

Watch out for daddy ball and parents that are overly involved.

[Old Darter]

Watch out for daddy ball and parents that are overly involved.

And where do you volunteer you 25 hours a week?

[xxxYerOut]

To answer the questions about coaches, IMO there are a few that are very experienced in 12's right now (which is not always the case in that age bracket). Not in any order..

Yardsharks - Braz / Mike is going through the ranks for the second time. Having taken his older Yardsharks through to 18u and is now in his 3rd year with his younger dd. Good softball family.

CA Rapids - Sjolie / Rob spent some years with the Capital City Comets (I want to say his last year was at 16u) Been a few years now.

Team Calif - Can't argue with the level these girls played at. While they are newer to coaching, they were trained by some of the best. As for the smoke/fire, it seemed to be more about the parent/sponsor then the team/coaches. See if workouts are available and how the air clears.

The Hype - Cobian (Rocklin) / Have some experience at the HS level. Good assistant coach that has a dd just completing the college prep program with Mizuno AA Gold. Needless to say, they been there, done that.. and at he highest level.. (I also liked their 14u coach - Smith). There is another 12u team, but no real experience of high level play.

The Breeze seems to always attract a deep group to choose from. Don't know anything about these coaches.

Roseville Heat - Cota (NO!!) Like the org, but not at this age group.