Not too long ago we reposted the blog I wrote about the way we mangle the English language in the spirit of naming our travel ball teams. While my rant was directed at the tricky use of the letters Z, K and X what I found was that their is another scourge on the travel ball world.
Thanks for Brooks Cherry from Tennessee Mojo who raised another great question.
I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer so I am open to being educated. But I too am curious about the meaning of some of these words in the world of fastpitch softball:
Elite
Platinum
Gold
Select
Premier
National
And even more so, what it means to combine several of these terms into one team name.
Okay, before you call me an idiot, I understand originally, some organizations used these terms to differentiate certain teams within their organization. The “gold’ or “platinum” was meant to be the best teams in an age group within an organization. I also get the idea of using “premier” when your intention is to compete in Premier Girls Fastpitch events, but why do you have to include that in your team name?
So now that you know that I understand why we started using these terms, can anyone explain to me where it all went so wrong?
Calling a bad team “gold” or “select” or “elite” doesn’t really fool anyone for very long. To say that your team is “gold select” or “elite national” or whatever combination of superlatives you want to use doesn’t make your team any better. Do you have to use a catchy name that sounds great to get players to play on your team?
What’s in a name? Unfortunately in the travel ball world, a whole lot of confusion and misinformation!
About the Author: Tory Acheson brings a wealth of knowledge to the Fastpitch Prep staff. He has coached at all levels of the game, including the last 25 years at the college level at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Tennessee Tech and Kennesaw State. He began his coaching career at the high school level spending 9 years Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wis. and is now working as a professional softball instructor.
