USSSA Baseball
- Thread starter Randy Marsh
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I saw that Windsor team play...I'm from Boone and they beat Boone in the state championship game. I have a lot of friends that were on that team. The game was in Urbandale. Bill Ebert was their #1 pitcher. I think he pitched for Roosevelt in HS.
Texas travel ball where I'm at is beyond over the top. Just today a facebook chat was going on city recreation football(K-4) in southlake and they were shocked that it cost $500 per kid...
Back to baseball...Carroll is a baseball jugernaut pretty much...this year was very disappointing,still a kid is going to Dallas Baptist, a kid to Arizona State, a kid is going to Houston after next season. Last year we had a pitcher to LSU(he pitched in the CWS), pitcher to Duke, he pitched in the playoffs, so many kids to various D1 schools all over the country....Texas, Oklahoma State, TCU, A&M, Texas Tech, Miami....anyway one of the things I do know is that many of these kid play soooooo much baseball and it takes a toll on their bodies. Even as 17-18 year old kids, their bodies are still developing. I taught with the mom whose kid is going to Arizona State next fall and he was your typical Carroll baseball kid. Kids in Texas play baseball in the spring. State Tournament is in early June. Carroll wins state, kid starts travel ball, he plays all over the country. He play so much that he had to miss early spring ball (February)...he's an infielder. He never played in the field this summer. They had him DH late in the season )May. That was his senior year. Injuries take a toll.
Kids need breaks !!
Boone had a really good team that year. Their #1 pitcher was probably better than Ebert, but they used him in the semis. He brought the heat.
Different era so it's irrelevant now, but Little League is not USSSA. There are a handful of talented kids on the teams that make the LLWS, but most of them are borderline AA/AAA talent - and those kids won't play high school baseball for 4A schools.
When Liberty opened, they didn't have a club team right away so a lot of kids that started their USSSA "careers" with Trojans just stayed on those teams with their friends (if they weren't playing for Tigers). So for a lot of ages, the Trojans club team would be comprised of about 50% Liberty kids through 14u. The Trojans club did not make a requirement that a kid must attend West, because their club teams would have been awful if they had. This is pretty much the last year where that is an issue as kids cycle out of the system.
Where you played club ball has nothing to do with making the high school team at any of the other local schools - and I don't think it is at West either.
My son’s team is 10U and in AAA.
This weekend he hit his first over the fence homerun on Saturday, then followed it up on Sunday with #2. He has struggled to hit this year, so we've been going to the batting cage basically every day for about 3-4 weeks to try to help the team. It finally paid off. Also, a good life lesson!
A couple of kids from his team last year moved to Top Tier and one of the parents mentioned it costs $4k to be on the team. I didn't ask the details of what that includes...maybe everything?
It is a big time commitment even at the AAA level, but he enjoys it and it keeps us more social.
This weekend he hit his first over the fence homerun on Saturday, then followed it up on Sunday with #2. He has struggled to hit this year, so we've been going to the batting cage basically every day for about 3-4 weeks to try to help the team. It finally paid off. Also, a good life lesson!
A couple of kids from his team last year moved to Top Tier and one of the parents mentioned it costs $4k to be on the team. I didn't ask the details of what that includes...maybe everything?
It is a big time commitment even at the AAA level, but he enjoys it and it keeps us more social.
That’s because they didn’t have travel ball in our era. All the best kids played at their little league, so the talent level isn’t any better now than it was then. We all just get to pay more. That’s because every kid back then was a multi sport kid. Now you can make the point that they play more games and such but those were all star teams from the best kids back then. All but one or 2 of our guys went on to start at high school teams in Des Moines. And yes, Bill Ebert was the pitcher for Windsor. Also played QB at Roosevelt.
Your son's reaction must have been so satisfying.
Congrats.
The 4K for Top Tier sounds kinda high unless the parent was factoring in all expenses like hotel/food/travel.
His reaction was awesome as well as the whole team. One boy totally forgot about touching home plate due to being so excited. Luckily, it was not caught by the other team. We lost anyway, do the outcome was no different.
I agree 4k seems heavy, it could include most/all of the season.
The field was not large, so that helped. I'd estimate 150-160 feet, but the effect was the same. We did capture it all on video, that part is great.
Boone's number 1 is a friend of mine. He's a big Hawk fan. He is a successful real estate man in DSM. He also owns a restaurant in downtown DSM
Youth sports suck.
Plain and simple.
My SIL (no pic), who barely makes enough to make ends meet, has forked out what has to have amounted to college tuition-level $ for her 3rd-grader to play in some elite baseball league the past few years. I'm sure they've convinced her that her kid is the next Ken Griffey, Jr. What a farce.
If it took the $ and commitment to play youth baseball when I was growing up that it does now, I wouldn't have ever played a single game outside of my back yard. Instead I ended up being a decent H.S. baseball player and had a great time playing with my friends (which will end up being the baseball pinnacle for a vast majority of these kids).
Plain and simple.
My SIL (no pic), who barely makes enough to make ends meet, has forked out what has to have amounted to college tuition-level $ for her 3rd-grader to play in some elite baseball league the past few years. I'm sure they've convinced her that her kid is the next Ken Griffey, Jr. What a farce.
If it took the $ and commitment to play youth baseball when I was growing up that it does now, I wouldn't have ever played a single game outside of my back yard. Instead I ended up being a decent H.S. baseball player and had a great time playing with my friends (which will end up being the baseball pinnacle for a vast majority of these kids).
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I wouldn't agree that youth sports suck.
Many of these kids will/can develop friendships that continue long after they're no longer on the same team.
But I do agree the expenses of playing are ridiculous.
The way youth sports are set up today sucks.
Kids could make just as many friends playing 25 games a summer in a park district league that costs essentially nothing. And the parents would be much more tolerable.
And there would be no fewer future mega-baseball stars to come out of the area. You either have it or you don't - playing 100 games a year in 10 different states for $5000 makes little difference, except to those collecting the $.
Everyone does it now so there’s no going back. My kids didn’t love baseball but were more involved in basketball and soccer, which are also the same way as baseball. Soccer is the worst because they try to convince you to basically play 12 months out of the year.
The bolded simply isn’t true. There’s no convincing needed with club programs in Iowa. Your nephew had to try out for that team against a number of other kids and made it. There’s plenty of club teams that you have to pay a fee just to even tryout.
A byproduct of such a large cost for some of these teams is commitment. If a family is paying a large price tag just to have their kid play on some baseball team, that family is likely going to be very committed to that team for that time period. Also tournaments aren’t cheap they cost hundreds of dollars just for one tournament. A lot of that money goes to those fees along with uniforms and equipment.
Youth sports doesn’t suck. Like I said earlier in this thread, you don’t have to join a club team. There are plenty of feeder programs kids can play for and it’s a lot cheaper. So the aspect of playing ball with your buddies is still there. A lot of feeder programs have multiple teams for each age group and we all know who each other are as well as the players.
Do Major and AAA teams have some of the best players? Volume wise, yes. But make no mistake, there are really good players in AA and A. It’s just that their family doesn’t want a tournament every weekend with league games during the week and practice. It’s a huge commitment and a lot of those families have multiple kids playing in feeder programs. It’s just not possible for those families.
My family is one of those families so summers are very busy with 3 kids playing youth sports. Sometimes my wife and I have to divide and conquer. I also coach in a feeder program. But I can only coach one team. I’m just able to help out with the other teams when I’m available and only during practice. It’s not easy by any stretch but I also wouldn’t trade it for the world.
My advice to other families is to ask themselves this… What do you want your kids to get out of sports? If it’s teamwork and playing with friends, by all means find a feeder program and decide your commitment level. Do you want all of your kids in sports? If so, then factor that in when deciding your commitment level.
If your kid can play, they will when they get to high school too. It doesn’t matter what team they played for at what level. The high school coach shouldn’t care. Their job is to put the best team out on the field and it doesn’t matter what team your player played on when they were 9, 10, 13 or 14 years old.
As a parent, just sit back and watch your child have fun and be passionate about something. Your child will get what they need from youth sports and what they get will stick with them the rest of their lives.
csb
Sorry your kids couldn’t make Major or AAA teams.
And thanks for setting me straight on the situation with my nephew. You obviously know a lot more about it than I do, especially since I never said they were in Iowa.
It’s mainly the highest level of youth sports that suck. The organizations suck. The coaches suck. The parents suck. In many cases the prima donna kids themselves suck (yeah, my nephew has become quite the little prick for a 9 yo). The $ and time commitments suck.
My kids were all good athletes in their youth, and they had plenty of good experiences playing sports, but I am very glad that they thrived in many other areas of life and didn’t get sucked into this “all or nothing” youth sports commitment that has basically estranged my SIL and nephew from the rest of the family and has prevented him from experiencing so many other important opportunities for his development.
Wrong again.
Glad I could set you straight… Again.
Sorry you couldn’t be more involved in your nephew’s life. You sound like a great uncle to have around running your man pleaser about a little kid’s baseball team instead of being happy for your nephew.
I bet you’re the family member who is always complaining about coaching decisions in the middle of the game and think you know everything about sports.
A real peach you are.
1-0-1 today. A lot of ties in our division. Real baseball starts tomorrow. How’s it going with your team Mitch?
12 U stunk up the place. Coaches shit the bed this year when they lost one of their top 2 kids at the end of last year and brought up some kid from the B team that isn't "majors" material.
Didn't make top 8 so they're in "silver" bracket.
Grandson was pretty bummed.
9U went 2-0 in Norwalk.
This 3 day tourney setup sux dix.
Boone is still a baseball town. The 12U travel ball team also plays little league which is a rarity anymore. Lots of good players. They are moving on to district finals with the likes of Johnston, SE Polk and Urbandale. It’s a little bit apples and oranges but they compete.Boone's number 1 is a friend of mine. He's a big Hawk fan. He is a successful real estate man in DSM. He also owns a restaurant in downtown DSM
Good luck. We are the 4th seed in the gold bracket. It all comes down to pitching from here.
Johnston and Southeast Polk field USSSA majors teams that play on their little league teams.
Can they hold their own against the bigger schools you mentioned or just not enough depth?
They have won games against all three. But if you were going to play a 7 game series, they don’t have the pitching depth.
How do they run these at the district level you're talking about....single or double elimination?
They have moved on out of pool play to double elimination which starts this week.
Side observation: I find it interesting when adults refer to kids' teams as 'we' and not 'they' - perhaps a nuanced giveaway of where some folks are overinvested
I get it. But “they” would sound as the other team, that’s why I would say, or type “we”. Plus, “we” have been a team for a long time.
Absolutely no offense intended, but paying $1,800 for a 9 year old to play baseball is way over the top and way too much at such an early age. Just my opinion. I will also say that practicing year round is one of the biggest reasons there is such a dramatic increase in Tommy John surgeries and arm issues. Kids are throwing too much and too often and don’t allow for their arms to heal.
There is no way I could justify paying that. So much of getting better at baseball is simply taking your kid to the cage and throwing him BP along with taking the time to play catch and hit him fungos. I have spent countless hours with my son over the years. Yes, he has played travel and he has excelled at the sport, but his travel expenses never came close to that.
I will agree that there have to be precautions taken on the pitching aspect.
And with some kids, even at the 9-11 age, you can see some kids really aren't enjoying the experience.
But if the kid loves baseball, and countless do, go for it.
