What is the SEP Rams Softball Club?
The SEP Softball Club is a tournament softball program based in Altoona, IA and offered by the Greater Altoona Girls Softball Association (GAGSA). The softball club has close ties with the Southeast Polk High School softball staff and players. Many of our alumni from the program go on to play for the SEP high school program.
All our teams are USSSA registered and play in varying numbers of tournaments throughout the season depending on team budget allotments. Most of the tournaments are held in the Des Moines area, but coaches and their teams may also choose to travel out of the area for tournaments.
When does the softball season start?
Our tryouts are conducted in late July to early August. Teams will be selected and placed by mid-August, and the tournament season runs from September through July the following year.
We start outdoor practices in September, indoor practices run from January through March before resuming outdoor practices through the end of the season in late July.
Teams are welcome to participate in optional Fall and Winter indoor tournaments, the primary tournament season will be late March through July.
Who coaches the SEP Rams Softball Club teams?
Our program is ran by 100% volunteers from the board members to the coaches. Many of the coaches are parents, relatives or family friends of our players that have a passion for the game and developing young players. The SEP high school softball coaches also run coaches’ clinics with our coaches throughout the season.
Every coach in our program is required to complete a background check at the beginning of each season.
If you would like to coach one of our Rams Softball Club teams, please reach out to our Tournament Director (gagsatournamentsoftball@gmail.com).
Who is eligible to tryout for the SEP Rams Softball Club?
Our program primarily consists of players from the cities within the Southeast Polk Community School District boundary (Altoona, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, and parts of Des Moines). Players from outside of the district are also welcome to participate in our program on a space-available basis.
The SEP Rams Softball Club is available for all players in grades 1 – 8. The age division that a player falls into is governed by USSSA and follows the calendar year for Fastpitch softball. Please see the USSSA Age Calculator for the assigned age division for your player.
USSSA Age Calculator
We will allow players that wish to “play up” to tryout with an older age division if they choose. Players eligible for a younger age division who want to “play up” will not force out an eligible player within the age group.
For more details view our SEP Rams Softball Club Tryout Information page.
When and how are tryout dates announced? When is registration available for tryouts?
We strive to release our tryout dates as early in the year as possible to allow families time to plan for vacations at the end of their prior tournament season. The week of tryouts is typically announced in January with specific dates per age division announced by March. We will send email communications to all registrants of our programs and we will post on our social media pages when dates have been announced and registration is open.
Once tryout dates have been set, we will update our SEP Rams Softball Club Tryout Information page with details about the specific tryout dates and times for each age division for the upcoming season.
We open our registration for tryouts during the first week of June, all players must be registered by 11:59PM on the evening before their first scheduled tryout.
Please see our Registration page to register.
What is the tryout process? How are players placed on a team?
The SEP Rams Softball Club hosts closed tryouts conducted by the SEP High School varsity and JV softball coaches, alumni, and select players.
All players must register for an “All Player” portion of tryouts. If your player is trying out for the 10U+ age division and wishes to pitch or catch, we have a separate Pitcher/Catcher tryout. Those players will be required to participate in both the “All Player” and “Pitcher/Catcher” tryout.
In general, we use three pieces of information to place players on the appropriate teams:
- Tryout Evaluation Scores (All-Player and Pitcher/Catcher, if applicable).
- Prior year SEP Rams Softball Club Coaches Evaluation
- Prior year SEP Rams Softball Club Player Statistics (Hitting & Pitching)
If a player is new to our program or left the program and is returning, they will be evaluated and placed based upon their Tryout Evaluation Scores only.
To register for tryouts, please visit our Registration page
What are the expectations of players that get placed on a team?
Our program is “primarily” a Spring program, so players that also participate in other sports in the Fall and Winter seasons are encouraged to continue being multi-sport athletes and participate in practices and optional tournaments when possible.
Once the Spring season kicks off, the expectation is that players would be fully participating in practices and tournaments.
The practice schedules are set by each coach independently and may be subject to field availability, but generally teams will practice bi-weekly for at least two hours per practice when outdoors. Winter indoor practices are bi-weekly one-hour practices.
There is also a Code of Conduct that all players, parents and spectators must follow that will be included in the tryout registration and is also available here.
How many tournaments do teams participate in?
The budget allotment for our teams are governed the age division of the team. The 8U age division receives a budget for 5 tournaments while all 9U+ age divisions receive a budget for about 8 tournaments.
Coaches and teams are welcome to participate in as many additional tournaments as the team would like with additional funds provided by fundraising or families paying out-of-pocket.
GAGSA is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; many of our coaches and teams take advantage of corporate programs provided by their employers for volunteer hours or employee donation matches as a means to raise funds for their team.
What does playing in tournaments mean?
Tournaments are generally broken up into two parts; Pool Play and Bracket Play. Teams will compete in several games of Pool Play to determine their “seed” for Bracket Play.
Typically, teams will play 2-4 games of Pool Play (depending on the tournament) between Friday evening and Saturday evening.
Bracket Play is typically a single or double elimination style bracket where teams may play an additional 3-4 games (if not more) on Sunday.
The number of games that will be played in Pool Play and Bracket play are typically derived from the number of “Guaranteed Games (GG)” advertised by the hosting tournament director.
It is not uncommon to spend 6+ hours/day at the softball fields during tournament weekends depending on the schedule released by the hosting tournament directors.
What is the cost to tryout and participate in the program, if placed?
All players must pay a nonrefundable $75 tryout fee upon registering for tryouts. (Pitchers and Catchers will only pay one fee). If you accept your players’ placement on one of our teams, that $75 tryout fee will be applied to your balance for the season.
**If for any reason you choose not to accept your player’s placement on one of our teams or your player is not placed, that fee is nonrefundable.
For the 2025 season, the program fee for the 8U division the program fee total is $540, for all other age divisions the program fee total is $675.
A breakdown of the fees and the payment schedule can be found on our SEP Rams Softball Club Information page.
Where are practices and tournaments located?
The SEP Rams Softball Club is fortunate to be a part of GAGSA and partnered with the City of Altoona. All outdoor practices will be scheduled at the Sam Wise Youth Complex on the "softball side" (North side of the complex) where we have six game fields, two practice fields, as well as four batting cages and twelve pitching lanes.
Our Winter indoor practices are split between a leased facility and one of the school gyms. For the 2024/2025 season we will be leasing Brickhouse Fitness and utilizing the Spring Creek 6th Grade center gym. These may be subject to change from season to season.
Tournaments can be located anywhere within the Des Moines Metropolitan area if playing in local tournaments. There are softball fields in Altoona, Ankeny, Des Moines, Grimes, Johnston, Norwalk, Urbandale, Waukee, and West Des Moines that could be utilized for local tournaments. It is not uncommon for teams to travel to Winterset, Iowa City, or the Quad Cities for tournaments outside of the Des Moines metropolitan area or even out of state if the teams choose to. Common out of state destinations are Kansas City, Moline, Omaha, and on rare occasions, some teams even choose to travel as far as Oklahoma City.
What do I do if I have more questions about the program?
If you cannot find the answers you are looking for within our SEP Rams Softball Club FAQ page, SEP Rams Softball Club Information page, or our SEP Rams Softball Club Tryout Information page please send an e-mail to our Tournament Director (gagsatournamentsoftball@gmail.com) and they will try to get all your questions answered.