Travel Ball vs. All-Stars

[fhs33]

I have the unique perspective of seeing BOTH sides of this argument.
I've coached a team that had ZERO travel ball players and I can promise you the first time they looked in the other teams dugout and saw a (insert any local travel team name) helmet, the game was over before it even began. Travel ball takes away from Little League what Little League allows it to take away from Little League. I understand there are skill level differences between those who play and those who don't. But the real issue becomes when the local LL allows Travel Ball schedules to influence LL schedules. I've seen Teams that were coached by coaches who did both and any time a scheduling conflict came up the LL game would be the one cancelled and rarely made up. That's probably a justifiable reason too, you do "Pay to play" in travel and a tournament will go on WITH or WITHOUT you. At the same time its not 100% fair to the regular LL player who doesn't have that opportunity. As long as coaches are smart and considerate this issue can easily be resolved. Most LL games are flexible on scheduling.
As for the competition side of it. My daughter played on a State Team with 9-11 players being Travel Ball Players. She was not one of them at the time. But during the Title Game I spent a lot of time chatting with nervous dads for the other team. Guess what... THAT team was loaded with Travel players too. I coached a team with ZERO Travel Ball players at the time. We won some, we lost more, We were competitive in most. There is a night and day difference in skill level but that's a Dedication issue.

THAT brings home where im going to actually take up for Travel Ball.
When we joined a new LL this year, I felt I could take a group of girls, apply what I had learned watching great coaches and have a competitive program. The problem was after July my players were no longer on the same page. They had moved on to Volley Ball, Cheer and Soccer. Travel Ball isn't about "Who has the money to play" anymore. Yeah, it costs but fundraising and tournament selection can help a lot with that. Its more about finding a group of girls dedicated to playing a sport they love. My daughter didn't make the State Team for any other reason than she was dedicated to want to practice more even when her friends were off doing other things.
This rule change isn't going to save LL. It would ultimately be its demise. Its going to punish girls who love playing year round and also showing their School/LL pride and playing with friends.
Also the point not many people have mentioned is. Try running a LL program if you force all parents who normally involved but also involved in Travel Ball out. Goodbye concessions, goodbye board members, umpires, field crews, fundraisers. We all know there are people who are going to try to cheat or bend rules. Instead of putting in a rule that could effect 100's of GOOD local kids. How about just call someone out when they are trying that junk.

My daughter has recently joined a local travel team. She has great coaches, great teammates and is having the most fun she's EVER had playing softball. She also likes playing with her classmates in LL and showing what she's learned. Don't make players like her have to choose because of clowns with egos.

[RiverRatRay]

No, I don't believe that did happen? When and what age group River Rat?

60% rule will stay. I can't see anything changing, too many girls playing travel. To keep up, you have to.

Junior League. Wheelersburg forfeited a game to Oak Hill in the District. They had girls playing travel ball and couldn't get enough girls to play. Check it out. District should have known then it could have happened at State and it did. Forfeited State to Boardman. Had to call Boardman en-route and turn them around.

[fhs33]

No, I don't believe that did happen? When and what age group River Rat?

60% rule will stay. I can't see anything changing, too many girls playing travel. To keep up, you have to.

Junior League. Wheelersburg forfeited a game to Oak Hill in the District. They had girls playing travel ball and couldn't get enough girls to play. Check it out. District should have known then it could have happened at State and it did. Forfeited State to Boardman. Had to call Boardman en-route and turn them around.

This isn't a Travel Ball Vs LL issue. This is a Coaching issue. ALL coaches keep book and know what players have played enough games. WHY even attempt this. Call the Coach out for trying it before you punish a group of girls.

[Murphy51]

No, I don't believe that did happen? When and what age group River Rat?

60% rule will stay. I can't see anything changing, too many girls playing travel. To keep up, you have to.

Junior League. Wheelersburg forfeited a game to Oak Hill in the District. They had girls playing travel ball and couldn't get enough girls to play. Check it out. District should have known then it could have happened at State and it did. Forfeited State to Boardman. Had to call Boardman en-route and turn them around.

Wheelersburg should never have been allowed to play in the State tournament in the Jr League girls division to begin with. After the forfeit to Oak Hill the first time, Coal Grove beat Oak Hill. Wheelersburg was given until 4p to have enough to play the 4pm game against Oak Hill or they were done and Coal Grove and Oak Hill would be in the championship game. At game time, a girl showed up to play with Wheelersburg, was given a completely different jersey in the parking lot to wear for the game. Oak Hill put the game under protest for an illegal player but supposively never followed thru. Oak Hill was beat by Wheelersburg and the championship games were played on sunday. Wheelersburg beat Coal Grove twice to win the district tournament. I think that the whole situation could have been avoided if the District Board had verfied she was a legal player, listed on the affivadivt, she should have had a matching uniform, paperwork etc. It would have been easy to check the Oak Hill books, Coal Grove books, as well as Wheelersburg books to see if she had played 60% of her games and was actually a true member of the Wheelersburg Jr League team and not a pick up player to fill in until Wheelersburg had enough to play on Sunday. The player in question was not there Sunday to play in the championship game. How do you explain that? The state tournament was held in District 11 at Northwest and what a way to represent our District to Little League by having our representative drop out. I have no problem with kids playing both little league and travel ball. I have 2 daughters who play travel ball and little league. They enjoy both and I believe that travel ball gives them more opportunity to improve their game. If a child wants to play both, they should have the opportunity and not be made to choose. Little league will lose in that battle because in travel ball, you play more games in 2 days than you do in 2 weeks of little league. There has to be more flexibility and less rigidity for both to coexist together.

[ManitouDan2]

Did Wheelersburg have players from outside Wheelersburg . Is that legal in Jr league

[Murphy51]

[quote="dotherightthing"]Did Wheelersburg have players from outside Wheelersburg . Is that legal in Jr league[/quote
If you combine leagues to form a team, then yes. I dont know who that girl played for, but if it had been with Whbg all regular season, then she would have had a matching jersey. Coal Grove and Ironton were a combined team in regular and all stars.

[fhs33]

Did Wheelersburg have players from outside Wheelersburg . Is that legal in Jr league

They have players from all over. The District President allowed it because there Local LL didn't have enough players to make a Junior Lg team. So instead of having to go to the next closest LL with a Junior Lg they were allowed to go where ever. Hence why you saw ND pitchers playing for Burg this year.

[fbnut]

The little girl in question played on that jr league team the entire year, she lives in the burg, goes to school at the burg and played in 60% of the games. She wasnt planning on playing that weekend but agreed to help out at the last minute because they needed her to but wasn't at home where her uniform was, hence having to pick up a uniform in the parking lot. I agree they should have just checked the burgs books.

[RiverRatRay]

I was at the Wheelersburg Little League during the year and thought it unusual that there were so many different leagues represented on their Junior League team. I asked the lady sitting next to me if her daughter was playing and she said she played for The Burg. She wasn't from The Burg by the way. The girl batting had a Notre Dame helmet on and so did the next batter. I asked the lady if any players were actually from Wheelersburg and she held up 3 fingers. Now maybe the lady knew and maybe she didn't. I do know that if a league doesn't have a Junior league team girls can go where there is one, so that isn't anything uncommon. I talked to someone from Oak Hill and they said the girl they protested was 11 years old. If that is right, why would she be playing Junior League and not Little League? Something doesn't sound right there.

[fhs33]

I coached a JR LG team this year. Burg wasn't the only one who had girls from other programs playing for them. So its not like they were pulling anything offhanded. They just had a REALLY good player playing for them from another program lol. I honestly didn't have a problem with the kids switching programs, I even had one from Clay because Clay couldn't field a team and she had friends on my team. It was just good to see girls in that age group out playing. So many of the other area programs couldn't even get a JR LG because their girls had moved on to something else. That Burg team was good but I felt South Point had the best Jr Lg team around this year from what I saw when we played them.

[RiverRatRay]

Not sure the team names I saw play but if my guesses are right Wheelersburg and Coal Grove were the two best with maybe South Point a distant third. I'm thinking Newville Oak Hill,and Northwest had teams I saw but didn't compete well with the Burg and The Grove. I watched Coal Grove beat South Point in a doubleheader. I saw Coal Grove and Wheelersburg split two games at the Burg. The Burg had the best pitcher in the league by far.