My daughter went to three tryouts this fall. She has never played or tried out for a travel team before and she is the oldest so it was kind of new for us. She attended a Top Gun tryout in August or September (Can't remeber exact time as it was much earlier than the others). She went to Ripcurl in Late Sept. and Yellow Jackets a couple of weeks ago. Top Gun was a new experience. As a new girl with some talent she did ok. It seemed to me that their teams were mostly set with a number of girls fighting for a some spots. They did some drills and made them run. They quickly separated them into scrimmage teams by talent. One group was closely watched by a bunch of evaluators while the other was not. I could hear alot of parents grumbling that it wasn't fair, but I tend to disagree. These programs have seen a large body of work from some players and obviously had them down as definites on their black team. They were looked for a couple of talented kids to replace some kids that either weren't developing or were leaving. Sounds like pretty much every evaluation for any sport that I have heard of. The only difference is they didn't sport different colored pinnies. My daughter did not make the black team. She made the purple. I felt that to make the team she had to be much better than a girl she was replacing. Why would a coach pick a new girl with similar talent over a girl she knows. The Yellow Jacket tryout was closed to parents. (So Libertydad I'm not so sure what YJ tryout you went to. Were you looking through the skylight?) My daughter told me they did alot of drills, alot of running, and small 2x2 drills. No scrimmage. She did well and made the 'B' team with three of her friends. She didn't have a blue or gold pinnie, but she did well enough to make one of those teams. Those teams also kept most of the girls from the year before, but they did demote some. My point is...that's the way the programs I have seen are run. If they have good teams, they plan on keeping most of their girls and are looking for a couple of others. I'm sure Liberty is the same. And if a parent is realistic, they know that their girl has to be better to make the team. That's the way the world works. It's a business.