coachEd wrote:Well, nobody has a "great" catcher. Some of these girls are pretty decent receivers. Some of them have strong arms (but poor footwork) and throw out a relatively high percentage of runners. Some of them do a decent job blocking balls in the dirt (or at least attempt to). But, none of them is the complete package, nor could you possibly expect that they would be at 10u. None of them has the leadership skills that makes a "great" catcher, nor could you possibly expect that they would. You are loathe to even find a "great" catcher in 14u, much less in 10u. Being able to throw out runners is meaningless if you cant block a pitch in the dirt and let runners move up for "free". Blocking balls and being a good receiver is meaningless if you cant throw out anybody stealing because you have lousy footwork. So, there are some girls that do a pretty decent job overall, but you wont find any "great" catchers in 10u.
I will say this about the overall level of play of the 2009 class of 10u. This is my second go around with my oldest DD now in college. Comparing the 2001 10u class with this year's 2009 class, there is just no comparison since the level of play of the players has picked up dramatically in the past 8 years. There are alot more girls now taking private lessons (pitching, fielding, hitting, catching) at 7 or 8 yrs. old than there were back then. So, the level of play for this year's class is well above 2001. The good thing is, from my 2001 10u team, 50% of those girls are now playing softball in college (all of them are in college, thankfully). I can only hope to see an even higher number for the 2009 class 8 years from now. And isnt that a big part of why they are playing travel ball to begin with; to hopefully go to college? These girls are only going to get better by playing at the highest level possible to keep ahead of the rest of the pack. So, for the naysayers that think playing travel ball at 10u is ridiculous, think again. Times have changed alot in the past 8 years, and they will continue to change over the next 8 years.
I don't agree with much in your first paragraph (first few sentences at least) because it negates why we play in age groups to begin with. Yes there are "great" 10U catchers, certainly. They may not be great or even good 12U or 14U catchers but if there are great pitchers, SS, 1st baseman (you get my point) there are certainly "great" catchers relative to their age when comparing to other 10U catchers which is what you can truly reference against.
I found your observations of 2001 vs. 2009 10U travel very interesting, thank you for sharing.
I am interested to know how many teams (roughly) were there in 2001 vs. 2009 ? Many I speak with say there are not as many 10U's currently as there were in past years.
