Team Classifications

A -- No residency restrictions; very competitive
B -- No residency restrictions; moderately competitive
C -- 100% of the players must be from the same spring recreational league and at least 51% must be from the same town

Tournament Classifications

Open -- All teams (A, B and C) are eligible to participate
B -- Only B or C teams are eligible to participate
C -- Only C teams are eligible to participate

While there are always exceptions, "A" teams and "Open" tournaments tend to be the most challenging, while "C" teams and tournaments tend to be the least challenging.

We register our teams as either "B" or "C" based on a couple of factors.  In the rare case in which a Panther team has a player who does not play in the Newton Girls Softball recreational league, we would be required to register as a "B" team.  While this would preclude that team from entering any "C" tournaments, we would likely only add the non-Newton player in order to make the team viable in the first place and would therefore need to embrace playing at the "B" level.  

If our team has non-Newton residents that play in the Newton Girls Softball recreational league by virtue of attending Newton Public Schools, USA Softball of Massachusetts must get approval from that town's recreational league that allowing this player to play for the Panthers will not preclude them from forming their own "C" team.  If the resident city refuses to approve this, the player could still play for the Panther team but we would have to register it as a"B" team. 
 

Age Determination

A player's age for the calendar year is based on her age at the start of that year. For example, a player born on January 1, 2008 would be 12U for all of 2021 while a player born on December 31, 2007 would be 14U for all of 2021.