If you had a choice of either playing on local legion team (will be 1st year,not playing much, earning your spot type thing) or playing on a norcal team for the summer which would you choose?
Thanks.
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bonnie - I'm a little confused since your location says PA yet you're asking about NorCal. Do you live in California? Or Pennsylvania?
I had the same question about location!
Short of that, you are comparing two different types of programs; the selection will be based on what you are looking for in a summer program and your player’s skill level.
The local area based legion programs group one or a few high schools teams together and they play other area based legion teams. The quality of teams will very, but as a most part, the teams are not difficult to get onto as they take most of the players who want to play from their high schools and quality of play is limited by that. Development will vary from team to team based on what type of coaching is available.
On the other side of the spectrum, NorCal tends to group the top players from a large geographic, it is not for everyone, competition to get on the team is very high, but what you get is you are able to play with some of the best players from a large area against the best competition in the country. With that, travel around the country is extensive as well as travel cost compared to the local travel for a legion team.
One of the advantages of playing for a NorCal type of team is understanding where you are at in terms of very high level skill sets and pushing yourself to work harder to improve to be the best possible player you can be (the bar is set high), but also learning how to play as a team with top players.
If you are truly from PA not CA, I would not suggest it would be a good fit, player development tends to be in the fall where they can help develop their player's skills and coming in just for tournaments is not going to help your son’s development nor offer him the advantage developing as a team through the fall and summer.
Short of that, you are comparing two different types of programs; the selection will be based on what you are looking for in a summer program and your player’s skill level.
The local area based legion programs group one or a few high schools teams together and they play other area based legion teams. The quality of teams will very, but as a most part, the teams are not difficult to get onto as they take most of the players who want to play from their high schools and quality of play is limited by that. Development will vary from team to team based on what type of coaching is available.
On the other side of the spectrum, NorCal tends to group the top players from a large geographic, it is not for everyone, competition to get on the team is very high, but what you get is you are able to play with some of the best players from a large area against the best competition in the country. With that, travel around the country is extensive as well as travel cost compared to the local travel for a legion team.
One of the advantages of playing for a NorCal type of team is understanding where you are at in terms of very high level skill sets and pushing yourself to work harder to improve to be the best possible player you can be (the bar is set high), but also learning how to play as a team with top players.
If you are truly from PA not CA, I would not suggest it would be a good fit, player development tends to be in the fall where they can help develop their player's skills and coming in just for tournaments is not going to help your son’s development nor offer him the advantage developing as a team through the fall and summer.
Not to get into a long story, but yes we live in the east and NorCal has put together a NorCal East team that my son has been asked to play on. This team will practice twice monthly beginning in October. They will play in only 3 NorCal tournaments(due to the cost of travel) and various other tournaments next summer. But the team is made up of players from all over the east (NY, NJ, OH, PA, etc.)
The local legion team is made up of the players from the high school team that he plays on.
Thanks for your advice.
P.S. He will be a sophomore this year. Not sure if that matters.
The local legion team is made up of the players from the high school team that he plays on.
Thanks for your advice.
P.S. He will be a sophomore this year. Not sure if that matters.
Best of Luck!
I hope you are not joining this team because of the name NorCal vs this team will provide an avenue for your son to experience the thrill of playing what will hopefully be a higher quality brand of baseball and will let him develop into a stronger player by challenging him to put the work in to become the best he can.
I did not know the NorCal program from California, which does well in national tournaments, was putting together a team out of the east, there are several groups in Northern California which have adapted some version of the Norcal name, but the quality of their players, the competition that they play against, and their success is no where near the same.
I would be surprised it is the same program since their website does not have any indication of expanding to the East Coast…
NorCal Baseball
I hope you are not joining this team because of the name NorCal vs this team will provide an avenue for your son to experience the thrill of playing what will hopefully be a higher quality brand of baseball and will let him develop into a stronger player by challenging him to put the work in to become the best he can.
I did not know the NorCal program from California, which does well in national tournaments, was putting together a team out of the east, there are several groups in Northern California which have adapted some version of the Norcal name, but the quality of their players, the competition that they play against, and their success is no where near the same.
I would be surprised it is the same program since their website does not have any indication of expanding to the East Coast…
NorCal Baseball
bonnie,
I think that Homerun04's first post in this thread captures very well the trade-offs between playing high level travel ball and local legion ball. I for one haven't commented further because I think his reply covers the bases, and nobody can tell you what is best for your particular situation.
As for the new team's relationship to NorCal in California, you are probably in a better position than most of us to be able to understand any connection that may exist. In any case, generally when a team brings in players from several states, they mean to compete at a high level.
I think that Homerun04's first post in this thread captures very well the trade-offs between playing high level travel ball and local legion ball. I for one haven't commented further because I think his reply covers the bases, and nobody can tell you what is best for your particular situation.
As for the new team's relationship to NorCal in California, you are probably in a better position than most of us to be able to understand any connection that may exist. In any case, generally when a team brings in players from several states, they mean to compete at a high level.
Bonnie,
I see the Norcal East program had posted for additional players, how is it going? Is it the expected quality of play and players you expected?
I see the Norcal East program had posted for additional players, how is it going? Is it the expected quality of play and players you expected?