ECBRickyB: You have caught Papa off guard as I was not informed that the Bandits were playing up an age group although I have been told that we would play a few 12U tournaments this coming year.
I don't know what the advantage might be or what the disadvantages are. I do know that I believe to get better that any team must be pushed to their maximum effort to get the win. Personally I believe that we find this push in the 11U division but the record will show only 2 losses in the 10U Division so I think the consensus was that we should strengthen the schedule to push them harder.
Is is realistic to believe we can win in the 12U age group. The answer in my mind is no but I have learned to never underestimate this little group of overachievers. The best thing for the Bandits right now and the sooner they get it the better they will be for it and that is a good dusting. If they use the dusting the right way they will become a better team because of it.
You never know what the advantage of anything is until you put it on the line and find out the hard way. I think one thing playing up does is to lighten the expectations of the boys as sometimes this expectation thing wears them down. They are only 11 years old and still little boys and should not have so much pressure to win put on them. And please don't get me wrong as the pressure does not come from the Coaches or the Parents but from within themselves. The Coaches, Parents, and even Papa's only expect them to have fun and enjoy the game.
So I guess the answer to your question is that "We shall all wait and see"
Slicing the cheese thin are we. Might have been 3 but I think one of the losses was when we were playing two age groups up getting ready for Cooperstown and we thought that playing on the longer bases would help us in Cooperstown and it did. The number of losses wasn't the point as much as the lessons you learn from the losses. Last year is gone and none of the wins or losses will carry over. This is a new year and we expect it to a tough challenge. One of our goals this year is make sure that we stay in front of teams that expect to beat us as this kind of battle makes should make us all stronger.
papa; I think Titan1 may be referring to the loss the Bandits suffered to Stixx Baseball at the TC Fall State Championship. I could be wrong about that though, what about it Titan1 is this the 3rd loss you were talking about?
Gosh Darn 10BB: How long are they going to count that 1 run loss to the Stixx. A blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then. Let's get that one off the books and move on to the next one.
Papa is probably not counting the Fall games at all since the Bandits really don't play much of a Fall schedule. We only played in 2 tournaments this past Fall.
Titan1; the player you asked about is doing real well. He and his dad have been working on his hitting alot and I'll tell you when he came to the Academy we were all impressed with his bat speed and the power he has. The other Ga. boy is great also and will be a big asset to our pitching staff and more than likely he will take over the lead off position in the batting order.
If the Bay Bombers can gel as a team with the two new additions, I can see them only being challenged by the Bandits and MBA Pride. I sure would like to see the Bandits drop back down so we can see who the big dog is right out of the gate. No affiliation with either team, but starting a good ole fashion friendly rivalry among two good organizations would be fun to watch. I would love to see these teams square off several times this year.
Realist: You will see much of the Bandits in the 11U group and it will happen soon. We plan on playing more in the 11U than in the 12U. We have a plan and whether it is a good plan or a bad plan will only be known after the first few tournaments. Last year we came out of the gate fast and wasn't pushed early. When the Super NIT came around and we faced Mizuno the long and short story was that we were not ready for what they brought to the table.
We might not come out of the gate as fast this year and expect that we will lose early and often but we also feel that when the big games are ready to be played in our own age group that we will be ready to play the big games. We look forward to playing the older, stronger, and faster guys and maybe when we drop back down we will be more ready to play than we were last year.
Hope it works but we really won't know until after the first tournaments in the 12U division.
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Posted - 01/18/2010 : 16:28:08
