Softball tournaments
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Anonymous
| DD has long played rec softball and another travel sport for the last two years. She decided she would rather focus on softball and we tried out for two teams -- this was recently decided so a lot of teams were done with tryouts already. Anyway, she was offered a spot on one of the teams and in reviewing all of the information, it says they typically play three tournaments per month! Is this typical?! In her other sport, she did not even have a tournament every month let alone almost every weekend! I was supportive o her shifting her focus and now I'm feeling ... I don't know about this. DD wants to do it but I don't know if she can really comprehend what this would be like. |
Anonymous
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How old is she? And are you local? Three tournaments a month is a lot, especially for what I’m guessing isn’t a national team, and especially if she’s younger than 13. Two a month is more common. And- softball tournaments can be weekend-long affairs (ie you could be gone from 6am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday you play until you lose, 3-4 games.).
But- on the weekend you don’t have tournaments many softball teams do double—headers that can involve a long drive, so you’re giving up half a weekend day for that. It’s a serious commitment. One of the best players on DDs team just decided not to play anymore because she didn’t want softball tournaments because her entire life. |
Anonymous
| What is the typical softball season? Will this be Oct and Nov and then it stops or is it year-round 2-3 tournaments a month? |
Anonymous
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OP here. She is 12. Team is "high B."
Eight tournaments late August through early November and then approx 3 per month from late March or early April through end of July. Indoor practice in the winter and possible one indoor tournament in January or February. |
Anonymous
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That’s a ton for a new player. For starters I would ask the coaches if they play girls equally- you’ll be significantly less happy to head to tournaments every weekend where she sits on the bench or is just a pinch runner.
Are the tournaments all local? Even if they are they get expensive with gas/tolls/food for the weekend. If they involve travel it gets pretty expensive. Will you have a carpool? Playing both weekends along with what I’m guessing are 2x a week practices is a lot to do solo. We only went to travel when my DD was playing in the backyard daily by herself and begged us to do this. She knew she’d have to miss birthday parties and sleepovers and get-together because she’s gone so much. And she continues to do it because she loves it so much, and be sure we parents are on board. If you’re not, maybe consider a team with fewer commitments for the first year. All that said- travel softball has been a great experience and my kid would love to play this much (her team only does 2 tournaments most months). |
Anonymous
| 3 tournaments a month is pretty typical for a higher level team. |
Anonymous
This is typical if you want to be competitive at all in softball. |
Anonymous
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Second year 12U teams tend to play a lot in the spring but I just did a check of the top local teams on Game Changer from last fall and none of them played 8 tournaments. (You may find one with a more extensive search but the point is - 8 is not typical in the fall).
A more important point is- as a first year travel player on such a competitive team, I’d want to know how much I’d be playing in exchange for giving up every weekend. If you don’t care, fine. But the poster said they were already worried about the commitment, and probably won’t be happy to show up every Sunday and barely play. |
Anonymous
| You can schedule 8 and play a lot less when it rains. |
Anonymous
| You should ask about playing time— if it’s equal or considered developmental, then The tournaments are a lot of games (which is great). If they are local tournaments, it’s not more than a typical weekend with a double header on Sundays. If the team is going to “play to win”, you should find out if she’s considered a strong player on the team. |
Anonymous
| Varies widely. Our old team played about 1-2 tournaments per month, our new team is playing 4 in the fall and 4 in the spring. |
Anonymous
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Varies wildly. I know of one 2nd year 12U team in a national org (but not their national team) that plays a schedule similar to that, though maybe more like 2 in most months in the spring/summer with 3 some months.
Meanwhile my DD is on a C level team playing 3 tournaments total this fall and no more than 6 in the spring/summer - which ends up being a pretty similar schedule to rec and rec+ combined, which is what we wanted. |
Anonymous
If they are primarily tournaments in the DMV, it's not so bad -- we always had a bunch in Loudoun County and then a couple up on MD. We sometimes spent the night in MD, but not always. We were NoVA, so Loudoun was pretty easy to deal with. If it's multiple hours travel, on the other hand, than that's different. "High B" at 12U sounds destined to be a second year 14A or 16A team with college scouting on the horizon. |
Anonymous
| And the rain-outs are real, if it's Loudoun or MD. |
Anonymous
| I’m sure you’ve picked a team by now but it’s not the usual to have 8 fall tournaments. 12u A teams don’t play that much. If by tournaments you mean they play every weekend, including double-headers, that’s normal. |