Top true 97's in Texas

[smmartin]

is that the team that came in 3rd at usfa nat. another 97 team that is not getting credit is the lady strohs out of southbelt. they did very well at nat.

[Joe]

Very well put and very agreeable. HV97 has a wonderful group of girls with a lot of talent.

Signed, the HV97 team mom!

[stuntballplayer]

No Joe, not the team mom, just a mom on a team. Nothing saying I am on HV either. And yes to the other post the Lady Stros do not get credit where credit is deserved. They too have a great bunch of girls!

[bigmamakaty]

Now that the fall is almost over, who do you think the true 97 teams are to beat?? I think most of the teams have played atleast 5 tourney's and some have faired better than others.

[superwinx2]

Houton Area....Redhots

[ZIG]

Houton Area....Redhots

no doubt about it, 97 Redhots stand alone at the top when talking about 97 teams!

[stuntballplayer]

The red hots have a wonderful group of girls and parents, too bad they(and all the other 97's) got beat out at the Katy Classic. When you put the red hot girls(and others) up against the girls that were on the fields, no offense but they look like a bunch of midgets! I watched a couple of their games and they played hard and good!

[soreshins]

One issue with being a first year 12U is a wide range of physical development of the players. Some of first year girls are pre-pubescent nymphs while others are more physically mature. Second year 12U teams have this issue to a much lesser extent. As a result, a first year 12U teams will be playing teams with girls who are much bigger and stronger. This is particularly true if you play up to 14U.

Oddly enough, my observation was that the physical advantage to the second year teams actually increases as you move into late spring and summer. The second year girls just seemed to be marginally stronger at the end of the year. Once you get to 14U it is not as big a physical difference between 1st year and 2nd players because most of the girls have gotten their growth.

[stuntballplayer]

Trust me I know the difference between first year and second year 12u. That is not what I was getting at when I posted. I was getting at the fact that there were several of the second year 12u that picked up several girls that can still play down at the 12u level that should be playing at the 14u level with their own team. Pretty sad to see 13yr olds playing against 11yr olds!

[fastpitchforever]

I'm not sure how fair it is to criticize teams with a few 95's, I saw a pretty good mix of 97's to 95's on most 12U teams at Katy. Red Hots were good too, but don't they have some 97's as well as 96's? The High Voltage was a great example but in the other direction, I bet there were plenty of 98's playing for them but boy did they have lots of heart! I didn't see any team trying to trophy hunt, just teams trying to build for the spring.

In the fall, most teams seem to struggle just to put 9 players on the field, lets let them enjoy their success and we can all look forward to next year!