Sylmar-Softball wrote:Not very well organized at all. We all got the apology email, but seriously. They are overbooking more than the airlines do their flights, securing some very sketchy facilities with hazardous playing fields (who wants their DD to break their ankle in a gopher hole in front of a recruiter?), and as a result, having to reach out to some of the worst umpires around in order to cover every field. Not at all what it once was.
Every year or 2 there are some folks that come here making these same complaints.
Honestly, there is not much anyone here can do. I do not think it has ever been what you think it once was. It has always been just about like it is.
The reality is that college teams are going go to where the established programs are playing. Because of this those established programs end up holding most of the power. They group together because that is hugely to their own benefit. Yes the system ends up tilted away from small market or newer teams.
In all, actually it could be way worse than it is. College coaches would be perfectly happy to show up and watch the number 1 FC team play BB, Corona Angels, So Cal A's and a few other top tier teams. The fact that these teams do not trust each other, so they like having other teams in the mix.
This aspect of the sport is not going to change anytime soon. Being mad about it is going to do absolutely zero for your players. If you are not going to take the time to figure out how to make the best of this situation, then your girls will, and should leave your team to go to a team/manager that is doing their best to work the system the best way they can.
It is a tiered system. Top, Middle, Bottom. It is not very often that a Bottom team will out of the blue get to play nothing but top teams. But they often seem to think they somehow 'deserve' that, and that keeps them from being successful to the best of their ability.
The really well ran middle teams get a lot more chances to play top teams than poorly run middle teams. They do this by going down the fields. Getting to know the folks that run the tournaments and make the selections. Getting to understand what those people are looking for when they decide what teams get what fields.
The folks that are running the tournaments could give 2 craps about your whine fest. If they did they would be a huge disservice to all the other teams.
What I have found they do care about it what your team has accomplished. Higher place finishes in more well run tournaments. A PGF finish, a high Independence Day tournament finish, a high fireworks tournament finish. Bigger local tournaments. They also care about kids on your team that have gotten recruited. The bigger the college the better. Those are real proof points that provide evidence that your team deserves a chance to play at the better fields.
As the picture posted above shows. There are going to be teams at the off parks that are able to draw coaches. They do this by working super hard. They get everyone on their team to do their work of sending out letters to prospective colleges.
The guys that run tournaments know a lot of the teams that attend these tournaments. They definitely ask around and want the better teams to get opportunities to play up in class.