Perfect Game Youth Bats Banned

As of April 24, 2017, the following bats will no longer be allowed at PG, PGBA, or Super25 events.  These bats failed their audits for the Bat Performance Factor (BPF) 1.15 rating.  BPF is simply the increase in the liveliness of a ball hitting a bat compared to throwing a ball against a solid wall. The bat restrictions have been updated.  This should only affect age 12 and below.

BANNED BATS

WTDXCBR 2129-17	2017 CF Zen Balanced 2 5/8" (-8) - 29"/21 oz
WTDXCBR 2230-17	2017 CF Zen Balanced 2 5/8" (-8)  - 30"/22 oz
WTDXCBR 2331-17	2017 CF Zen Balanced 2 5/8" (-8)  - 31"/23 oz
WTDXCBR 2432-17	2017 CF Zen Balanced 2 5/8" (-8)  - 32"/24 oz
WTDXCBZ 1828-17	2017 CF Zen SL 2 3/4" (-10) - 28" /18 oz
WTDXCBZ 1929-17	2017 CF Zen SL 2 3/4" (-10) - 29" /19 oz
WTDXCBZ 2030-17	2017 CF Zen SL 2 3/4" (-10) - 30" /20 oz
WTDXCBZ 2131-17	2017 CF Zen SL 2 3/4" (-10) - 31" /21 oz
WTDXCBZ 2232-17	2017 CF Zen SL 2 3/4" (-10) - 32" /22 oz
WTDXCBZ 1929-17F1	2017 CF Zen Zero Dark  2 3/4" (-10) - 29" /19 oz
WTDXCBZ 2030-17F1	2017 CF Zen Zero Dark 2 3/4" (-10) - 30" /20 oz
WTDCCBZ17V	Custom 2017 CF Zen 2 3/4" (-10)
WTDCCBR17V	Custom 2017 CF Zen Balanced (-8)

The Mission

The Mission Each Year 

How do we provide opportunities for each player to reach their goals and potential?  What tools can we give players to use to overcome the obstacles that are in their way?

Do you want to play softball or baseball in high school or beyond?

We are asking players, parents and coaches - What opportunities do players need to take their game to the next level?  Consider as an individual player your exposure to colleges, good competition, good coaching, and opportunity to challenge your abilities.

1. Do you want to challenge yourself?
2. Are you satisfied with the tournaments and showcases options you have?
3. Do you want a shot at going to a big school, a school out of state or both?
4. Do you want to travel as an individual to see new parks and see the competition elsewhere? If your answer is yes, would you like to do this in the Fall or Summer?

Send us an email onturfsports@gmail.com.
Tell us anything you think you need or want! Make it a wish list.  We will continue to ask players, parents and coaches the questions and get everyone's thoughts on making a better future!
Best of Luck !


 

Parents Take An Active Role - College Opportunity

Parents: Take an active role in your son or daughter's sports interest.  If your child is not interested in pursuing the opportunity to play at the college level, this article is not for you.  We see opportunities for players to take that important first step with the college coach missed by the inability to complete the most basic information sharing.

At a recent 17u Perfect Game event, several reminders were sent to coaches, well in advance of the tournament right up to a week before the event, to complete their online roster. Perfect Game provides an enormous benefit to players through their the online roster and player profile system for players of all ages.  The system is used by colleges coaches and professional scouts at all levels. Completing the roster and profile can be a time consuming task that draws the disgust of some that it is even suggested that they do this step.  We get it.

1. The coach has his own spreadsheet list with all the information.
2. The team is only playing in this one event and since each tournament asks for this information why even do it.
3. The coach is busy.  Between work and coaching, there is not much time left for doing paperwork.
4. Maybe the players do not want to play sports in college.

We want you to have a sense of the other perspective on the Perfect Game team roster and player profile.

1. College coaches search to find the best players to fit into their program.  They travel to multiple tournaments in a variety of states to find their players.  They may be tracking up to 100 players through the spring and summer for a year or two.  All these players have a very similar set of skills and a desire to play in college.  When the college coach wants information on a player, the online roster and player profile from Perfect Game serves as a fast and informative resource.  When that information is not online, they can choose to go looking for that information or move on to the next player.  If your son wants to play baseball in college, do not let the lack of information be the reason.  Do not make the college coach go looking for that roster sheet in the coaches backpack for contact information, grades or the high school where they play.
2. How many colleges need to be interested in your son or daughter for them to play at the next level?  One.  They need one college to commit to bringing them into their college program.  So if it is just one tournament, couldn't that be the only opportunity they need to impress a coach.  You do not know when the right person will see your son or daughter at the right time and that is all it takes!  Get one college to commit to your son or daughter and then they can decide if they want to commit to the college.
3. We sat and talked with a college coach who did not understand why teams do not take the time to showcase their players with the online roster and profile.  College coaches can not be at every tournament.  They can not see every game played at one tournament or even every inning in one game.  They talk to people who suggest they look into a player.  That coach needs a reliable resource to start their research.  Make it easy on the college coach.
4. As we mentioned earlier if your son or daughter does not want to play sports in college,  then there is no need to have a team roster except to fill the tournament requirements.  Are you sure the player does not want to play in college?

How can you as a parent be active and play a role to help?

1. Look at the rosters for the other teams online in the tournament.
2. Make sure your team has an online roster completed.
3. See if the players have profiles.
4. Make sure your son or daughter has accurate information shown about them on any roster or profile that is created.
5. Keep the information and picture, in the case of Perfect Game, updated.
6. Repeat as needed!

Best of luck to all that are pursuing that college sports commitment! Work hard, play smart, make sure there is an online roster and fill out your profile! 

No Limits - Prepare for the Opportunity

From time to time, coaches and parents share their opinions or thoughts with us on issues outside of one game or tournament.  People will react or respond to a question or in this case a service that is a big picture view of an athlete's amateur career.  One interaction made us wonder if the story they were telling us was an isolated case or one that more people had experienced.

Whether your son or daughter is a great athlete right now or not, there will always be opportunities that will present themselves that your son or daughter may want to take advantage of.  A roman philosopher wrote "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity".  You can't cheat or take short cuts in the preparation.  If you do, it will catch up sometime.  Do everything you can to stay ahead of it.

Perfect Game (PG) is an organization that does many things well.  One of the more outstanding tools and services that they offer players is the ability to track statistics, game performances, physical growth and school grades among numerous other items in a player's profile over the years.  The profile is initially built by the player before they play in a PG tournament.  During the tournament, the stats are recorded and added to a player's profile.  The profile becomes a single location for important data for recruiters and scouts to view the information to see if it supports what they see on the diamond.  You may think that "Billy" does not have a chance at the next level but the reality is no one really knows when a player is young.  In our conversation about entering a Perfect Game tournament, the team manager stated that there was no reason to complete the profile because these 11u ballplayers will never go to college to play baseball. 

That conversation still makes us cringe.  No matter the age, we encourage coaches and parents to have an open mind.  Prepare your players or find someone that can.  Feed them as much information as possible.  If they decide as a well prepared player not to take that next step, then the decision is all theirs.  Don't place them in a position of what if.  They will have an empty feeling when they realize that the time has passed and they can't make up for the lost time.  Take advantage of the free services such as the PG profile and other tools that build a picture of the complete player.  From our experience, we can now say that our sons have accomplished playing at a level that we could never have imagined for them at an early age.  They are prepared and now there are more opportunities to come! There are no limits!

OnTurf Sports Spotlight - Video interviews, news and more

Lights, Camera, Action!   

Good news, or better yet, Great news needs to travel faster! 

Players and coaches are doing fantastic things on and off the fields, courts, gridirons, rinks and tracks.  These topics and more will be highlighted at select 2016 OnTurf Sports tournaments through our new video series OnTurf Spotlight.

OnTurf Sports will select softball and baseball coaches and players, past and present, to discuss topics ranging from their current games to their positive experiences throughout the year. Interested teams should register for OnTurf Sports tournaments and watch for additional information shared through email and social media.

All the videos will be available through the OnTurf Spotlight YouTube Channel as well as from our website at www.onturfsports.com/events/Spotlight.php.  New videos will be added in the days following each tournament when the Spotlight interviews take place.

Please "Like" and "Subscribe" to give us feedback on what you want more of and to get the latest videos. The introductory video and more are now available!