Pls explain travel softball tournaments/games to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton of teams in NOVA (as someone posted upthread there are weekly double-headers in Loudoun). Why isn't that league play?

Because there is no league.

Most travel softball teams are tournament teams. They only play a couple of doubleheaders in a season.

There are a handful that might play more DHs than tournaments but they tend to be newly organized or young (I.e. a 9U team forced to play in a 10U division at tournaments) and they don’t want to spend $600 every week to get beat by older teams. And when I say handful I mean maybe less than six doing this in any age group. It wouldn’t be much of a league.

Is this true in our area? There seem to be a lot of B teams doing double-headers ... these are just some of 12U teams that DD has played against on Sundays: Smash, Great Falls Flames, McLean Magic, Firebirds, Sage, Sharks, Inferno.

Yes, but they aren’t playing DHs every weekend.

They also fit the criteria I described above. And as I said, it’s about half a dozen. You listed five. Plus your DD’s team … that is half a dozen.

[Anonymous]

This also underscores why “travel” is a misnomer. By definition, “travel” teams wouldn’t play in a local league in either sport.

Maybe you mean “select” or “club” but not “travel.”

Travel teams go to play teams in other states. Our travel softball team played tournaments in NC, West Va, Ohio, SC, Delaware and MD. Being a soccer or softball team and playing in a league with a dozen other DMV teams? That isn’t “travel.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This also underscores why “travel” is a misnomer. By definition, “travel” teams wouldn’t play in a local league in either sport.

Maybe you mean “select” or “club” but not “travel.”

Travel teams go to play teams in other states. Our travel softball team played tournaments in NC, West Va, Ohio, SC, Delaware and MD. Being a soccer or softball team and playing in a league with a dozen other DMV teams? That isn’t “travel.”

+100

And for about 99.9% of kids, there's no read to travel to those other states until you reach the second year of 14U or first year of 16U.

There's enough good talent locally in PA, MD, DE and VA for B level softball players.

That said, that's a pretty big region, which means you couldn't really do league play. Imagine having to drive to the eastern shore on a Tuesday night for a league play softball game. So local/regional tournaments on the weekends (where you may drive but not really be required to get a hotel) is ideal for softball.

I supposed there could be a local VA softball league and a local MD softball league (which there is the CML, but the best teams don't participate in that), but it would be the same 8-10 teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This also underscores why “travel” is a misnomer. By definition, “travel” teams wouldn’t play in a local league in either sport.

Maybe you mean “select” or “club” but not “travel.”

Travel teams go to play teams in other states. Our travel softball team played tournaments in NC, West Va, Ohio, SC, Delaware and MD. Being a soccer or softball team and playing in a league with a dozen other DMV teams? That isn’t “travel.”

+100

And for about 99.9% of kids, there's no read to travel to those other states until you reach the second year of 14U or first year of 16U.

There's enough good talent locally in PA, MD, DE and VA for B level softball players.

That said, that's a pretty big region, which means you couldn't really do league play. Imagine having to drive to the eastern shore on a Tuesday night for a league play softball game. So local/regional tournaments on the weekends (where you may drive but not really be required to get a hotel) is ideal for softball.

I supposed there could be a local VA softball league and a local MD softball league (which there is the CML, but the best teams don't participate in that), but it would be the same 8-10 teams.

*no need*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot more soccer teams than softball teams.

This is the real answer. Lots of sports outside of soccer are set up around tournaments

Are there really? I ask because it seems there are too many travel softball teams. And its less about number of team, and more about interest in league play. As a softball Dad, I would prefer a tournament every other weekend (with a 4 game min) vs 2 league play games a week

Interesting. Why is that? Interested because I'm also a softball dad and much prefer the 2 league play games a week.

Do you coach? Is it easier on coaches to do tournaments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot more soccer teams than softball teams.

This is the real answer. Lots of sports outside of soccer are set up around tournaments

Are there really? I ask because it seems there are too many travel softball teams. And its less about number of team, and more about interest in league play. As a softball Dad, I would prefer a tournament every other weekend (with a 4 game min) vs 2 league play games a week

Interesting. Why is that? Interested because I'm also a softball dad and much prefer the 2 league play games a week.

Do you coach? Is it easier on coaches to do tournaments.

We live in MD. In FredCo.

2 years ago, my son played MABA baseball. League play meant to having to be in Baltimore on a random Tuesday at 5:00 for warm ups, and then in Bowie next Wednesday, at 4:45 for a 5:30 game.

Tournament play means that weeknights, we are only going to the practice field. And then weekends are for the games.

In MD, at least, if we had a B level softball league, it would mean going to Hagerstown, then Severn, then Columbia, etc all on weeknights. That's just too much.

The alternative is that would do a FredCo/MoCo/HoCo league, which could work. But half the teams would be REALLY good, and the other half would only be so-so. And a weeknight game where you mercy in the 3rd also sucks, just in a different way.