After years in the arena of this close knit community watching,listening and reading numerous posts on web sites. The thing that puzzles me the most is what the labels mean for these teams.
What makes these young lady athletes Elite or Select or Gold? Is it because they enter tournaments beyond their age groups or abilities? Is it because they have kept a core group together for years since 10u maybe 8u in some states?
I would love to get a discussion going about what you all think. Is your daughter playing (under 18u) on such a team? If so why do you think they deserve the Elite,Select or Gold label. If you are a coach of one of these types of teams what is the motivation/explanation of this?
Looking forward to hearing your comments!
don't be shy!! who will be the first with an opinion? I know the softball community has opinions!!
ReplyDeletecoaching, dedication, and attitude is what can make a player a elite,select, gold member. You can have player that is not the superstar but just does her job every game, every practice, etc. She may not hit for power but she sacrifaices herself everyday for the betterment of the team.
ReplyDeleteMaybe for the player but way to many youth teams are using the words gold,elite,etc under 18 teams using those words esp with a first year team in my opinion are doing it strictly for ego's. At the younger age groups i feel like no team has earned an "elite" or "gold' label unless that is a color in their uniform.
ReplyDelete