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Failed try-out for the baseball team

My daughter (nearly 14) has been playing fastpitch for 7 years, and fastpitch has become a major womens sport at the high school and college levels. So your advice to your daughter, who hadn't played since age 10, is probably sound. Unfortunately, recreational softball for girls is pretty much over by age 14 or 15. At the 16 year old level, there are highly competitive "A" level teams that do tournament play during the summer. They tend to draw high school varsity players and others who have played for years. But as a rule, these are intense teams requiring lots of practices and full weekend commitments during the summer. And, again, unfortunately, there are very few of those teams in this immediate area. There's one in Lafayette, one on Concord, one or two in Hayward, maybe one or two in the Livermore Valley area, maybe one in Oakland.

As to feeling like your daughter hates you, well she probably does -- this minute. But I wouldn't take it personally. Whenever we have one of those hormone-driven teen rages in our house, I try to remember what it was like being a teen (remembering gets more difficult every year). If you can keep your blood pressure under control, I'm told the storm blows over by the time they're 18 or so.