Anonymous
Post 04/16/2025 22:53     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We’ve heard a lot of second year 12u teams with fall birthdays (who could play another 12u year) are all moving up together. But we’ve heard a lot of the 10u teams are splitting up. The jump from 10 to 12u is hard for a lot of girls and staying down makes sense.

I think if I had a player who didn’t get a ton of playing time or didn’t play their preferred position, I’d explore teams where they could stay down.

I think a lot of teams think their better fall birthday girls will elect to move up but I’ve heard of a number of girls who intend to stay down but look to play on a more competitive team.

I hope I’m wrong but I think it will be an even messier tryout season than normal.


I would always rather have my kid on the best possible team at the right age than plan up on a team that is not as strong. My kid has a January birthday so none of this affects her. We only have two kids on our team who could stay down another year. In my opinion, both absolutely should, but I know they will choose not to do so and move up with the rest of us in the fall. One wants to pitch and very rarely does on our team. The other wants to play SS and rarely does.



I agree it would be smart for those girls to stay down. They may actually get a chance to play those positions. But, sometimes it’s a tough sell to the girls and parents.
Anonymous
Post 04/16/2025 22:52     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
I’m not sure what my daughter’s 10u team is going to do. They’re a pretty even mix of 2014 and 2015 to begin with. I think 5 have to move up, 2 2014 can stay down and of the 7 2015s, 2 have late birthdays and could now stay at 10u for 2 more years.

The coaches’ kids are part of the group that has to move up. I think they’re going to need to recruit a bunch of girls because all the girls who can stay down should stay down.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 12:30     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Anonymous wrote:We’ve heard a lot of second year 12u teams with fall birthdays (who could play another 12u year) are all moving up together. But we’ve heard a lot of the 10u teams are splitting up. The jump from 10 to 12u is hard for a lot of girls and staying down makes sense.

I think if I had a player who didn’t get a ton of playing time or didn’t play their preferred position, I’d explore teams where they could stay down.

I think a lot of teams think their better fall birthday girls will elect to move up but I’ve heard of a number of girls who intend to stay down but look to play on a more competitive team.

I hope I’m wrong but I think it will be an even messier tryout season than normal.


I would always rather have my kid on the best possible team at the right age than plan up on a team that is not as strong. My kid has a January birthday so none of this affects her. We only have two kids on our team who could stay down another year. In my opinion, both absolutely should, but I know they will choose not to do so and move up with the rest of us in the fall. One wants to pitch and very rarely does on our team. The other wants to play SS and rarely does.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2025 13:55     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
We’ve heard a lot of second year 12u teams with fall birthdays (who could play another 12u year) are all moving up together. But we’ve heard a lot of the 10u teams are splitting up. The jump from 10 to 12u is hard for a lot of girls and staying down makes sense.

I think if I had a player who didn’t get a ton of playing time or didn’t play their preferred position, I’d explore teams where they could stay down.

I think a lot of teams think their better fall birthday girls will elect to move up but I’ve heard of a number of girls who intend to stay down but look to play on a more competitive team.

I hope I’m wrong but I think it will be an even messier tryout season than normal.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2025 09:36     Subject: Re:What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
We are a second year team in our age group with half eligible to play a third year in the age group. Every one of them is more than ready to move up though. We will play a couple tournaments in the next age group later this season.
Anonymous
Post 04/08/2025 15:01     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Our team is 13u, so we are all sticking together next year. The younger girls would still need to play in 14u regardless, since they would be 13. I think it makes more of a difference for the younger age groups. As the girls get toward 14u, they need to play against older competition regardless to get ready for high school, so there isn't really a benefit of playing down.
Anonymous
Post 04/08/2025 12:45     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Anonymous wrote:Only the fall birthdays who now can go down an age class will be playing up, right?


Yes but for our team that's half the girls.
Anonymous
Post 04/08/2025 10:04     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Only the fall birthdays who now can go down an age class will be playing up, right?
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2025 15:18     Subject: What is your softball team doing about the upcoming age change?
Is your team going to stay intact and play up if they have older players? Split the girls within your organization? Ours doesn't seem to have any idea what's happening yet.