To be LOYAL...Or not to be loyal?

Loyal. Merriam Webster defines this as:

  having or showing complete and constant support for someone or something

 I’d like to propose an addition to this:

  having or showing complete and constant support for someone or something especially when times get tough

Continuing from a previous post about why girls leave teams... Some people understand it, and some people don’t. It’s a shame that when things go bad, or at least they go bad in their eyes, their first instinct is to abandon ship and find the next “best” thing.

Like a relationship, it’s healthy to go through ups and downs, otherwise, things would be mundane and boring. Life is all about peaks and valleys, so why shouldn’t a relationship with a team be the same way? Things aren’t always going to go as planned. You’re not always going to win that tournament, or have the best game of your life. You’re not always going to play that position or bat in that order. Things change and they change for the betterment of each player and the overall betterment of the team. A team that doesn’t change things up a bit is not doing it right, especially at this age (12u).

Girls are still learning, still finding their groove. Sure, there are some girls who know that they want to play this position and that’s all they want to do. That’s fine and dandy and all, but is that the best option for that girl? Is that the best option for that team?

A great team will hold their heads up high after a loss. They will take that loss and dissect it to figure out what went wrong, and how to fix it. They will work with each girl to help them understand what happened and how they can improve for the next game.

It’s up to each athlete to be LOYAL. To understand that the struggle is real, and there will be bad times. But to have faith in your teammates. Have faith in your coaches. Have faith in yourself. With hard work and perseverance, it will get better and you will win that tournament. Heck, you might even win the whole National Championship! But if we can’t teach our kids to be loyal, then we are setting them up for a greater disaster in their life. They might leave a great job because of a hurdle that they don’t want to address. They might divorce when the rainbows and sunshine fade away. They might call it quits because it’s too hard and they’d rather do something easier.

How much should you travel... in Travel Ball?

Oh the question I've heard that's been debated with much fervor. How much should you really travel in travel ball? And what do you consider traveling?

Being in Southern California, travel means to be having to commute to a city that is more than an hour and a half away by car. Lucky for us, there is so much travel softball talent right here in our own backyard, we don't have to travel far. 

So how much traveling should a travel ball team be doing? That's entirely dependent on what that team wants to achieve. Do you want to play the best teams out there and don't live in Southern California? Then travel as much as your pockets are deep. Do you want to get your team name out there and recognizable nationally? Go ahead and travel to different state tournaments where a lot of eyes will be on this Southern California team playing in our local tournament. Do you have girls that are of the recruitable age and want to get collegiate visibility? PLEASE DO travel and get some eyes looking at your talented girls.

As far as I’m concerned, those are the main reasons to travel. Again, being based here in Southern California, we are fortunate that we don’t have to travel far to play the best teams out there. I would gladly drive to Vegas, San Francisco, and Arizona if I felt my girls became stagnant because we were playing the same ‘ol So Cal teams again and again. I would go out of our area to face some new teams.

But for all the parents out there that think they need to be flying to play games beyond National Championship events, ya’ll are just kidding yourselves and are digging financial holes that are really unnecessary. If your kid really is top notch, the coaches will fly to wherever she is playing. Make them come to you instead of chasing them down.