Team has changed...should the tournaments?

[Anonymous]

We just moved and DD joined a travel softball team that has been quite good for the past few years. They're a young 12B team but playing all 12 open tournaments for the spring. After we joined we learned several of her teammates are injured, including their best pitcher and shortstop, who are out until the summer. So that dramatically changes the team, and they got beaten badly at their tournament over the weekend.

I don't care if they win or lose but I'm wondering if coaches ever reevaluate after players get injured. Why not change and play 12B tournaments instead? Still good competition and more in line with where the team is now. Or are those things set in stone?

[Anonymous]

Not softball, but on the baseball side--our coaches do not seem to reevaluate based on who is actually on the team. They signed us up for a showcase tournament with the weakest roster we've had in years, and when parents pointed this out to them, they just shrugged. We got destroyed and we had no business being there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not softball, but on the baseball side--our coaches do not seem to reevaluate based on who is actually on the team. They signed us up for a showcase tournament with the weakest roster we've had in years, and when parents pointed this out to them, they just shrugged. We got destroyed and we had no business being there.

Primetime?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just moved and DD joined a travel softball team that has been quite good for the past few years. They're a young 12B team but playing all 12 open tournaments for the spring. After we joined we learned several of her teammates are injured, including their best pitcher and shortstop, who are out until the summer. So that dramatically changes the team, and they got beaten badly at their tournament over the weekend.

I don't care if they win or lose but I'm wondering if coaches ever reevaluate after players get injured. Why not change and play 12B tournaments instead? Still good competition and more in line with where the team is now. Or are those things set in stone?

Don't know about softball but a lot of sports we've done have required teams to put in deposits/payments pretty early so it may be that there would be a big cost associated with backing out of your existing tournaments and finding new ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just moved and DD joined a travel softball team that has been quite good for the past few years. They're a young 12B team but playing all 12 open tournaments for the spring. After we joined we learned several of her teammates are injured, including their best pitcher and shortstop, who are out until the summer. So that dramatically changes the team, and they got beaten badly at their tournament over the weekend.

I don't care if they win or lose but I'm wondering if coaches ever reevaluate after players get injured. Why not change and play 12B tournaments instead? Still good competition and more in line with where the team is now. Or are those things set in stone?

Don't know about softball but a lot of sports we've done have required teams to put in deposits/payments pretty early so it may be that there would be a big cost associated with backing out of your existing tournaments and finding new ones.

Why couldn’t they play in the same tournament just down a division (assuming it’s not sold out).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just moved and DD joined a travel softball team that has been quite good for the past few years. They're a young 12B team but playing all 12 open tournaments for the spring. After we joined we learned several of her teammates are injured, including their best pitcher and shortstop, who are out until the summer. So that dramatically changes the team, and they got beaten badly at their tournament over the weekend.

I don't care if they win or lose but I'm wondering if coaches ever reevaluate after players get injured. Why not change and play 12B tournaments instead? Still good competition and more in line with where the team is now. Or are those things set in stone?

Don't know about softball but a lot of sports we've done have required teams to put in deposits/payments pretty early so it may be that there would be a big cost associated with backing out of your existing tournaments and finding new ones.

Why couldn’t they play in the same tournament just down a division (assuming it’s not sold out).

If they have lowe divisions, maybe. But if they have been holding a spot in the upper division for your team and turning teams away then they may not allow the switch. Doesn't hurt to ask them.

[Anonymous]

If you played last weekend, I'm assuming this is the McLean Magic team in the Shamrock Smash? That's USSSA, which I think recently changed their rules making it harder to back out of tournaments. That said, a phone call to Eddie Small explaining the situation would probably take care of it.

Simply playing B isn't going to fix this, though. There isn't a whole lot of difference in USSSA between B and Open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you played last weekend, I'm assuming this is the McLean Magic team in the Shamrock Smash? That's USSSA, which I think recently changed their rules making it harder to back out of tournaments. That said, a phone call to Eddie Small explaining the situation would probably take care of it.

Simply playing B isn't going to fix this, though. There isn't a whole lot of difference in USSSA between B and Open.

OP here. No we just moved (to GA) but still USSSA. But that's good to know thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you played last weekend, I'm assuming this is the McLean Magic team in the Shamrock Smash? That's USSSA, which I think recently changed their rules making it harder to back out of tournaments. That said, a phone call to Eddie Small explaining the situation would probably take care of it.

Simply playing B isn't going to fix this, though. There isn't a whole lot of difference in USSSA between B and Open.

OP here. No we just moved (to GA) but still USSSA. But that's good to know thanks.

Not PP, but also at least here in the mid-Atlantic USSSA also mentioned they are going to be more aggressive moving teams between divisions for parity (and then bumped about 4 teams in every age division from B to A across MD and VA). So I would think if that's the goal then potentially there'd yes be space to call your area director.

[Anonymous]

As a team manager, we register the team and collect fees all in advance. If changes are to be made with competition level, ect., those usually have to be done in the 1st week after the brackets are posted. After that, you are locked in.

Some coaches just don't bother with changes and miss that window. You really have to be proactive and makes move right away with the list comes out. And often, coaches/ clubs will get a look at the brackets ahead of time to make changes.

So, your club/ coach may have not been paying attention. Or, they were and thought it would be fine to proceed as is.