The Softball Tryout Evaluation Form, Built for Fastpitch

Keep one form and weight it when ranking by position. Pitcher candidates: the pitching row plus composure effectively doubles, and a great bullpen with average infield scores still makes your roster. Catchers: blocking and throwdown times outrank almost everything else, and a recorded glove-to-glove time is worth more than three opinion scores. Slappers and speed players: athleticism plus the short game is a roster skill in fastpitch, so read the hitting note, not just the number, before you cut a 9-speed kid with a 5 bat.

At 14U and up, add measured rows where you have tools: pitch velocity, exit velocity off front toss, and catcher pop times. By high school and heavy travel tryouts those numbers, not the 1-to-10 rows, do the sorting at the top of the list.

Run the form in one of two formats, or both. The per-player sheet is the format above: one page per player, categories as rows, an evidence note beside every score. Use it at stations and for any player whose roster spot is a real discussion. The compact roster sheet flips the layout: one row per player, the nine categories abbreviated across the top, a whole age group on a page or two. Use it when one coach is scanning a big field and wants slappers, arms, and gloves comparable at a glance.

What the roster sheet cannot hold is the note that says "drag bunt is a weapon," so keep a per-player sheet for the players you are deciding between. The downloadable pack below includes both formats, plus a team sheet that totals each row automatically and a draft board that ranks the group from the scores.

At a small tryout, paper forms and an evening with a spreadsheet work. At an org tryout with 100-plus registrants across multiple fields, transcription is where the process breaks: sheets go missing, totals get keyed wrong, and offers go out late. Scoring in Rizzler, each evaluator enters numbers on a phone at their station, the ranked list builds during the tryout, and the Team Tryouts workflow carries the same players from registration and check-in through offers and acceptances, up to 300 players on the Club plan. The softball template comes pre-loaded and is editable on Pro and Club if your org scores different categories. See the softball tryouts page for the full workflow, and the baseball version of this form if you run both programs.

Nine categories: athleticism, softball IQ, throwing, catching, infield, outfield, hitting, plus pitching and catcher rows for players who attempt them. Inside the rows, account for fastpitch specifics: windmill mechanics, the slap and bunt game, and speed timed on 60-foot base paths.

The category skeleton is the same nine rows, but the contents differ: windmill pitching instead of overhand mechanics, slap hitting as a scored skill for lefties, shorter-diamond throwing standards that favor release and accuracy, and outfield reads at shallower depths. A generic baseball form under-scores exactly the players fastpitch values most.

Leave those rows blank and total only the scored rows. Rank players on comparable rows, then treat pitching and catching as separate ranked lists. Filling blanks with middle scores inflates generalists and hides your specialists.

1 to 5 on paper, 1 to 10 in an app. Define the middle number per category before the tryout, attach a short evidence note to every score, and calibrate evaluator pairs on the first few players. The scale matters less than everyone using it identically.