It seems like there's such a variety of associations where a team could compete for a national championship so I was wondering what you folks thought was the "best" ....most competitive or difficult ......most prestigious. I'm helping coach a 11yr old travel team and thought it would be interesting to get some feedback.

There was only room for 5 spots on the poll so no slight to anyone overlooked.

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"Hey dad.......how 'bout a catch?"

Question:
It seems like there's such a variety of associations where a team could compete for a national championship so I was wondering what you folks thought was the "best" ....most competitive or difficult ......most prestigious. I'm helping coach a 11yr old travel team and thought it would be interesting to get some feedback.

There was only room for 5 spots on the poll so no slight to anyone overlooked.

*****************************
"Hey dad.......how 'bout a catch?"

Choices:
AAU
USSSA
AABC
CABA
USTOC

 

Depends on age group.

In our neck of the woods, AAU reigns supreme.

In our area it's LL up until 13 years old. Then AAU is the association of choice. Although USSSA is beginning to take shape in our neck of the woods. AAU teams pretty much cross over between the two.

Jason

USSSA seems to be very strong in OK, TN, LA, MS, GA, AL, FL. I've been to 3 usssa world series in OK and they seem to have teams from just about every state with over 88 teams in one of them.

Knowledge is Power! Thank you Mavens and HSBBWEB!

quote:

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Originally posted by justbaseball:
Depends on age group.

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Younger ages.........11-14 yr olds.

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"Hey dad.......how 'bout a catch?"

Different associations are stronger/weaker in different areas of the country. And, I think the promotor/sponsorship has a part to play in the "best" scenario you describe, not neccessarily the sanctioning body.


My sons' played in USSSA, Super Series, Triple Crown and AAU "WS" or Nat'l Championship over the years, sometimes all of them in 1 year.

One that stands out was AAU 14U 60/90 Nat'l Champ. in Okla City, sponsored/hosted by Optimist Club. Field of 54 teams, some Nat'l ranked. Finals were played @ Okla. University. The field, the stadium, the music, the scoreboard, Their Names being announced when the went to bat, or a position change.. ("Now pitching for the Blackhawks,P___C____"), the OU & USA flags waving, the dugouts, the concessions, the crowds... You'd have thought it was the College WS!! They got to final 4, then knocked out by Chet Lemmon Juice 14U team, who took 3rd that year. Hitmen of Fla won it.

Question


Does winning tournaments and trophies make the organization the best ???

Any thoughts?

TRhit

In our area, it depends on age. Up to age 9-10, it's about 70 LL/30 AAU. After that it's about 60 LL/40 AAU. The AAU numbers are growing each year and a good percentage of those teams also play USSSA.

http://www.highviewheat.com/index.asp

http://www.kristensfastpitchworld.com/index.asp

TR...
No, I don't think trophies make an organization "the best". Hope my story wasn't construed that way.
I really don't believe there is a "best", because "on any given day, any team can win".

My son has been priviledged to have coaches who were willing to put the teams up against some of the top teams out there. When they won a game or an event, the prevailing thought of our kids was "Wow, we can compete here!",or "Wow, we lucked out!". I have to thank the coaches for the way they taught these kids to trust and believe in themselves, and to dig deep for that extra measure of effort. And to aspire!

TR,

quote:

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Does winning tournaments and trophies make the organization the best ???

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I always thought about it in terms of which ones were the most competitive. That's where you want to be for improvement. I always felt that USSSA was the most competitive because it had size and different divisions.

For example, AAA was the largest in size with comparable talent on teams and you felt like you had a chance against any team for the most part. In the major division you had to be good thru all nine players or you had no chance.

Knowledge is Power! Thank you Mavens and HSBBWEB!

Beezer - My perception from having gone through it was that USSSA was stronger at younger ages (10-13), then AAU (14-16), then Connie Mack (I think thats AABC).

This is entirely a function of where you live. Being in Ohio, you might find that CABA meets your needs. In the Ok/Mo/Ks etc area, USSSA is probably the best. In NC, it's probably AAU until the age of 14-15.

It changes by age too.

Only way to find out is talk to experienced coaches IN YOUR AREA. Anyone else is just guessing.

It's truly a matter of geography. AAU has never taken hold here...we played some AAU tourneys a couple of years ago but no one runs them now.
Former MLBer Eric Bell runs most of the USSSA tournaments here now. These are top notch in terms of competitiveness, but I have a problem with how USSSA polices teams. We have too many mercenaries bouncing around from team to team between tournaments.
Personally, I think Super Series is the best run organization. Tournaments are well organized and their roster mandates prevent too much player movement.
We also have a USTOC group and Triple Crown and CABA.

U-Trip Majors was by far the toughest competition my son ever faced, followed with a close second by CABA Majors (Gotta love that Brazillian team made up of 25 kids of oriental background, most of them over 5' 10" at 13 years old.)

Best vacation spot still has to be Triple Crown, gotta love Springboat in the summer.

Super Series always put on a good show, but never seemed to have very many teams in the major division....more reigional than national I guess.

I think TR was asking a good question...in order to answer the question by Breezer, you need to ask another question. What do you want to accomplish with your son. How many games do you want to play, at what level do you what to play each game. LL is a two to three times a week program with tournaments at the end. So is AABC and many others not mentioned. If you are a traveling team only, then you look forward to mainly the weekends. We did both, traveled and league play. If your going all the way...it is not out of the question to end up at several "WS" or national championship and play 50 to 100 games. LL is probably less competitive than the traveling teams, however, you have an opportunity to really go to a World Series and play international at the end. From 9-12, that is a big goal for few US players. I think all national tournaments have very good to great competition, but I think weekend traveling tournaments vary from site to site no matter what the organization.

USSSA is the most organized as far as tracking teams, players history, games and rankings on state and national level.

And don't forget AAYBA. Have played at USSSA and AAYBA World Series and they are both good in different ways.

USSSA had 107 teams from around the country which was exciting. Problem is some teams sandbag to play AAA.

AAYBA had 50 or so teams, and had a tier system where you eventually play a team on your level once the seeding is done.

Thanks for all the comments so far everbody and please keep them up. To give you some background on why I asked the question; My son is starting out in the world of travel baseball this year and I'm helping with the team. Sitting down with the other coaches, we were discussing the goals for the year. We'll be playing in a league (that is sanctioned by USSSA) and we plan on playing in several tournaments as well. The question we had was which tournaments should we play in because if we were to qualify for a WS birth, which one would be best for the kids.

Obviously, at the WS level, I would imagine the competition is very good regardless of the association. But it kind of put the thought in my mind of "which one is the best". If they win a AAU national championship, is that as good/hard as winning a USSSA national championship? How would a CABA or AABC national championship team do against a SS or USTOC national championship team?

Maybe the question is does it really matter? Since there seems to be a regionality and differentiation among age groups, I guess it's hard to really say. I do know that if they're fortunate enough to qualify, not to mention win it all, my son would be grinning from ear to ear while walking on air with a puffed out chest!

I guess another point that contributed to my question was that my daughter's cheerleading squad won a national championship last year and since there are so many national cheerleading organizations (like baseball) I was wondering what it really meant.

*****************************
"Hey dad.......how 'bout a catch?"

Beezer,

quote:

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If they win a AAU national championship, is that as good/hard as winning a USSSA national championship?

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Noone can answer that question. It is too competitve everywhere really. For example, a team that doesn't make it to the final in any of these competitions, could in effect beat the team that ends of winning the whole shooting match. It's kinda like pro ball in a way.

I suggest the largest charter in your area whom has a world series in a location that would be attractive to your team.

Knowledge is Power! Thank you Mavens and HSBBWEB!

quote:

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Originally posted by ChicksDigTheLongBall:Noone can answer that question. It is too competitve everywhere really.

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Sorry but I wasn't looking for an answer in that reagard, more of a rhetorical question there.

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"Hey dad.......how 'bout a catch?"