There has been talk for the last few years about how travel softball tryouts keep getting earlier and earlier, much to the chagrin and frustration of some coaches, players and parents alike.
What used to be a late summer staple of August, after the actual travel ball season had ended, tryouts are now creeping forward into early July.
Players are stealthily going to other tryouts just to see what’s out there, or because the grass might just be greener on the other side of the fence that your daughter can’t hit the ball over.
You get my drift, I’m sure.
But parents and players need to be careful when it comes to any type of travel tryout.
Know the rules, or you could cost yourself, your child or your high school team a win, or even a season.
The local high school soccer world down here in Fairfield County was rocked this week by one travel soccer program’s selfish move to try to get ahead of the game.
According to a post on the X platform by Dave Ruden of The Ruden Report, “A soccer club called JA Elite held a tryout this week that was attended by players from several FCIAC schools … all are now ineligible to play in the state tournament … a lot of unhappy coaches and ADs.”
Stamford, one of the best teams in the state, and the No. 8 seed in CIAC Class LL tournament, reportedly lost eight players while Brien McMahon out of Norwalk lost seven.
Two schools who self-reported the violation lost 15 kids.
For those of you who have been to a travel soccer tryout, imagine how many more schools are either “ahem” oblivious to this or are looking the other way and not self-reporting.
The guy who runs the travel soccer program, a former Westhill High player who played professionally, is reportedly staying mum on the fiasco he has caused by trying to get the jump on the other programs.
Look, I’m not a big fan of travel soccer programs for one reason. They think they are the king-expletive deleteds of the travel world.
When I was coaching, we had a very talented 8th grader at our school, who hit the first-ever, over-the-fence home run at our new field.
She had a future in the sport, one that could have taken her to college as a softball player.
It was the only year she played for us, however.
Her ninth-grade year, her travel soccer coaches refused to let her play softball anymore. She listened to them. For the record, she’s not going to college for soccer, either.
My own take as a coach on travel sports outside of softball was this: During the fall travel softball season, if you were a volleyball player, a field hockey player, or a soccer player, or even a cross-country runner, those sports came first. Period.
They are fall sports. It is their season. They should come first.
However, come spring (for non-high schoolers) and summer—in other words SOFTBALL SEASON—I expected my players to put our sport first. If they wanted to try to juggle multiple travel sports, that was fine, too. Their personal decisions would decide where they played on the field, or which part of the bench they would sit on.
I understood and wanted to work with other travel sports because I believe wholeheartedly in multi-sport athletes.
I respected the boundaries. It has been my experience that many travel soccer programs do not.
As I write this, however, I know I don’t want this latest edition of “From the Dugout” drifting into a piece that is slamming other travel sports programs.
There are some really good ones out there in all the disciplines of sports.
Rather, I just want to remind everybody when you’re dealing with travel programs, keep one eye on your calendar and know the rules.
Simply put: If you are in high school and your sport is in-season DO NOT have anything to do with a travel program. Period.
Some travel softball teams are desperate for players these days.
You’ve all seen the requests on social media: “The CT Pickyournames are still looking to add two players to our roster, including a pitcher” … or the good ol’ “Had a bad experience with your fall travel team? Come try our program for the summer season.”
From the start of the high school softball season until the last out of your season, you CANNOT have any type of tryout—public or private—with a travel team.
If you’re a 14-year-old freshman and you play for a 14U travel team that is full of 8th graders for one game, one weekend, just to fill in, you become ineligible if anybody finds out.
If you’re a pitcher who wants to get better and you’ve decided to give travel ball a try and a coach offers you a “private look-see” and you go, you are technically no longer eligible to play for your high school team.
Your season would be over and if your team won any games after you went to that tryout, those games now becomes forfeit, too.
Here’s the same-sport rule as stated by the CIAC’s Eligibility Information Packet: “A student who is a member of a school team shall not practice or compete with an outside team, or participate as an individual in non-CIAC tournaments, meets, tryouts, skills assessment or games in the same branch of athletics.”
I spoke with one of the athletic directors who lost players this morning and he told me one of the hardest conversations he’s ever had to do in this job was to tell one of his seniors his high school career was over because he went to that tryout.
So, yes, while the formal tryouts get earlier than ever, and granted they are not yet infringing upon the dates of the Connecticut high school softball season, don’t forget it doesn’t have to be a formal tryout to lose your eligibility.
A coach looking to add that one player for the summer season could say, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just us; a private tryout, nobody will know” but the CIAC has it listed plain as day—” skills assessment” is a violation.
There are dozens of high school soccer players who won’t be on the field when their team needs them over these next two weeks because a self-serving travel “adult” decided his program was more important than anything.
Parents take note. Don’t let your player get caught up in such a scenario.
If you’re not clear on the rules, call your high school coach. Call your athletic director. Call the CIAC.
Do your due diligence to keep your player eligible.
(Cover graphic above created by Tessa Quinn)
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