Softball: Is USSSA moving to the 8/31 cut-off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Do they suck? I mean, I think most girls are more than ready to move up after two years at an age level. Why would they play three years at 12u even if the rules allowed it. My daughter's team mostly played 14u tournaments our final spring of 12u and we had two 11s. They are a 14u team now with two girls who are still 12u eligible.

They don't suck but why would half the team want to move up to play against much older girls when they could be so much more competitive against 12U? Also that's the age when the pitching distance changes again...why not maximize your time at the "easier" level?

Because you don't get better playing at an "easier" level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Do they suck? I mean, I think most girls are more than ready to move up after two years at an age level. Why would they play three years at 12u even if the rules allowed it. My daughter's team mostly played 14u tournaments our final spring of 12u and we had two 11s. They are a 14u team now with two girls who are still 12u eligible.

They don't suck but why would half the team want to move up to play against much older girls when they could be so much more competitive against 12U? Also that's the age when the pitching distance changes again...why not maximize your time at the "easier" level?

My kid pitched both 12U and 14U this season. Difference in results was almost entirely about the difference in competition. It's so much less of a chance than 35 + 11" ball to 40 + 12" ball.

But also - in the USA Softball sanctioned tourneys your team is already experiencing this and you just didn't know it. They moved 2 years ago (IIRC).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t a date change like that blow up a lot of teams? Our 12U team has 6 girls with Sept-Dec birthdays (including the coaches daughter). I assume they’d play another year at 12U and the rest of the girls would have to find another team? That really sucks!

Do they suck? I mean, I think most girls are more than ready to move up after two years at an age level. Why would they play three years at 12u even if the rules allowed it. My daughter's team mostly played 14u tournaments our final spring of 12u and we had two 11s. They are a 14u team now with two girls who are still 12u eligible.

They don't suck but why would half the team want to move up to play against much older girls when they could be so much more competitive against 12U? Also that's the age when the pitching distance changes again...why not maximize your time at the "easier" level?

My kid pitched both 12U and 14U this season. Difference in results was almost entirely about the difference in competition. It's so much less of a chance than 35 + 11" ball to 40 + 12" ball.

But also - in the USA Softball sanctioned tourneys your team is already experiencing this and you just didn't know it. They moved 2 years ago (IIRC).

Agree, the change to 43 feet with the same ball is not noticeable at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently I believe among the softball governing bodies the cut-offs are:

USA Softball - Aug. 31
Alliance - Aug. 31
Triple Crown - Aug. 31 (for 2025, so I guess effective January?)

versus

USSSA - Dec 31st
PGF - Dec 31st

I heard USSSA is meeting to consider moving to August 31 and I've seen a handful of rumors that the change will go through. Anyone have any intel?

An email went around that PGF is moving to 9/1 but not sure when.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently I believe among the softball governing bodies the cut-offs are:

USA Softball - Aug. 31
Alliance - Aug. 31
Triple Crown - Aug. 31 (for 2025, so I guess effective January?)

versus

USSSA - Dec 31st
PGF - Dec 31st

I heard USSSA is meeting to consider moving to August 31 and I've seen a handful of rumors that the change will go through. Anyone have any intel?

An email went around that PGF is moving to 9/1 but not sure when.

I feel like if PGF is moving than USSSA will have to move, because so many teams (depending on location) cross over between either PGF and USSSA or USA and USSSA.

[Anonymous]

This thread also makes it seem like the USSSA change is only a matter of time:

https://www.thesoftballzone.com/fastpitchforum/index.php?threads/age-divisions-in-various-sanctioning-bodies.710786/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread also makes it seem like the USSSA change is only a matter of time:

https://www.thesoftballzone.com/fastpitchforum/index.php?threads/age-divisions-in-various-sanctioning-bodies.710786/

The snark at the end of that thread is DCUM worthy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread also makes it seem like the USSSA change is only a matter of time:

https://www.thesoftballzone.com/fastpitchforum/index.php?threads/age-divisions-in-various-sanctioning-bodies.710786/

The snark at the end of that thread is DCUM worthy!

Haha yes but without the anonymity. Maybe since USSSA also has soccer they’re coordinating the announcement. The change to school year seems like close to a done deal for soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread also makes it seem like the USSSA change is only a matter of time:

https://www.thesoftballzone.com/fastpitchforum/index.php?threads/age-divisions-in-various-sanctioning-bodies.710786/

The snark at the end of that thread is DCUM worthy!

Haha yes but without the anonymity. Maybe since USSSA also has soccer they’re coordinating the announcement. The change to school year seems like close to a done deal for soccer.

I did wonder about that, given the like 260-something page long thread about the move to school year over on the soccer forum: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1207623.page

I found a reference to USSSA moving the cut-off somewhere in there, but I don't feel like reading back to where that was to find out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread also makes it seem like the USSSA change is only a matter of time:

https://www.thesoftballzone.com/fastpitchforum/index.php?threads/age-divisions-in-various-sanctioning-bodies.710786/

The snark at the end of that thread is DCUM worthy!

Haha yes but without the anonymity. Maybe since USSSA also has soccer they’re coordinating the announcement. The change to school year seems like close to a done deal for soccer.

I did wonder about that, given the like 260-something page long thread about the move to school year over on the soccer forum: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1207623.page

I found a reference to USSSA moving the cut-off somewhere in there, but I don't feel like reading back to where that was to find out.

I think USSSA is affiliated with U.S. Soccer so it would make sense to coordinate a system change all at once. I hope everyone gets on the same page soon because the different age cutoff is making USSSA an outlier for softball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought they made a formal announcement back in 2022 that they were sticking with 12/31.

Granted, that was 2 years ago, but i thought they were pretty emphatic about it

They definitely did, but more recently there is increased chatter like this: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1033270278585715&id=100057082584774&_rdr

And this:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1024884392765377&id=100057314775641

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought they made a formal announcement back in 2022 that they were sticking with 12/31.

Granted, that was 2 years ago, but i thought they were pretty emphatic about it

They definitely did, but more recently there is increased chatter like this: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1033270278585715&id=100057082584774&_rdr

And this:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1024884392765377&id=100057314775641

Someone told me a tournament director in our area said they were voting on the change this week. So many conflicting rumors, so little actual info.

[Anonymous]

Someone posted an official sounding email on Reddit announcing the change to school year. I’d paste it here but I don’t know how. Hopefully they will announce something to everyone soon since it’s not great that information is leaking out to some and not others.

[Anonymous]

Is it true that soccer is not moving after all? Wonder if that will impact USSSA Fastpitch. Though I will point out they only post an age calculator for boys baseball, basketball, and girls fastpitch. For everything else they sponsor I assume they use other cut-offs? And their baseball cut-off is not the same as their fastpitch cut-off.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/5700/1207623.page#28903424

[Anonymous]

Baseball is totally different than fast pitch possibly driven by long standing little league age rules which mirror school grades