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ABC_Baseball
90 Posts |
 Posted - 08/15/2012 : 09:44:10
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This is our first year doing travel ball. I had ideas of a great program and team in my head. I had made contact with a coach from one of the big programs in the area so I thought we had the inside track and my son had done a solid job at multiple workouts. After all, we were asked to come back to multiple workouts prior to the large tryout. At the end of the day when it didn’t work out, I was on to other options which I knew we would need (better to be safe than sorry).
Politics cause my son to be squeezed out of our safe/fall back option. Internal problems between coaches of our rec. park’s all-star team caused plans of creating a new travel team to blow up. There were other tryouts but I was less comfortable with them because I didn’t get the right feel from the coach, knew top players were lost to other programs and just had no clue about another option.
We have been on all star teams that carried too many players. We have been on teams that just didn’t have talent. My son always works through and continues to play hard. I know that he hates the losing and that the one team with too many kids just doesn’t work b/c you can’t get the time needed to develop. At the end of the day, we don’t want to end up in either one of these types of situations again.
It seems that most travel teams have a core group from somewhere. They add a couple of others and if you are not part of that core you are kind of blind. I just don’t know what type or level of team we are going to end up with. It seems that everybody outside of maybe East Cobb and 643 were still looking for 1 or 2 players after their big work out.
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ramman999
241 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2012 : 10:24:49
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I am probably going to catch a ton of flack for saying this, but I've never been one to hold my tongue. This is just my theory; I don't know it to be true, I just suspect it is.
A good program will have about an 80% retain-age rate year over year, if they pick the right families, play at the right level, and the parent egos are in check. - ultimately that means they hold on to their top 2/3 of the roster, and turn over the bottom 1/3 - usually those are the disgruntled parents anyway, because their kids are in the grinder fighting for playing time - they are either the weaker players, or caught up in a redundancy issue (ie. the 3rd catcher on a team with 2 other catchers and doesn't get much time behind the plate). As you go up in level, this still is the case, however a player in the bottom 1/3 of a major team could be a top 2/3 player on a AAA team, or on another major team, so on and so forth.
A majority of teams are set through 7- 8 players - Some simply go through the charade of "open tryouts" to see if the grass is greener on the other side, meaning can I top grade out my bottom 3rd. Others are legitimate about the process and truly take the best kids/family fit.But they leave open those last 1 or 2 spots to see if by chance there is a kid out there that is better than their bottom 3rd players, or to safeguard the team in case of an injury.
Most parents on the bottom 3rd of teams are out on the tryout circuit to see if the grass is greener on the other side, meaning can my son move up and out of that bottom 1/3 bench rotation. A kid that is the 10th player on one team might be 8th player or higher on another team. We don't invest our weekends to see our kids sit on the bench - we want to see them in the field, developing. Can't fault anyone for wanting better for their kids.
You are correct in the sense that there can be a good ol boy network within the travel ball world, no different than at the local rec parks. It sometimes comes back to who you know, who you network with, but if your son has talent, you can break through. There is always a team for a good ballplayer. |
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jacjacatk
154 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2012 : 10:25:10
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| IMO, unless your kid is 14+ it doesn't matter that much where he plays (and even then, I'm not sure it matters much for most kids), just that he gets to face competition at or slightly above his level and that he has fun. There is no perfect team, so don't stress about trying to find one. |
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4bagger
131 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2012 : 13:04:20
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You're right JacJac. I see so many families completely stressed out over which team they play on and always wanting to be on that elite team. I have seen some of those that finally make it to elite come back and ask why they were so concernec about making that team. Not enough playing time, coaches keeping players in one position, constant threat of being dropped from the team to make room for someone "better" who wants to join the team, etc.
Find a team your kid likes and where he will get playing time and play against the same level competition or better and enjoy the game. |
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AllStar
762 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2012 : 17:48:09
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It was his decision.
If I were him, I would have gone to a couple of tryouts just to see what is out there, but he was happy this season so he's going to stay the course. Fine by me. We know what his role will be, we understand where the team stands in the pecking order. It's all good.
High school is the main goal anyway. We picked that one. :) |
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So parents, how do you feel about your decision?
