We started our team at 7u, now at 12u with local boys. Instead of trying to recruit the region, we decided to have these boys playing with each other all the way through high school. We were terrible through 9u, but, now pretty solid. 7 of them are at the same school and in 6th grade now. The Jr High and High school coach should have a good group to work with.
Our rec league has evaluations next weekend with practice starting two weeks later.
It's all due to the parents. They demanded this, and it's what they got. Those tournament directors wouldn't be hosting these tournaments if they weren't sure that they'd be well attended.
Hello Chatbot and welcome to SPS. Your auto-generated comments that often dont directly apply to the subject will likely seem tame and reasonable compared to the real people here.
Everything associated with baseball is insane now. Drives me crazy to see 8 & 9 year olds practicing baseball 2 times a week for 10 months of the year. For the ones that do soccer and baseball, they literally do not have a month without two practices. They basically take off a week here and there for holidays.
Soccer and baseball are the worst offenders as far as fleecing parents for year round 'training' and tournaments. So yes, makes sense that the ones that do these 2 sports will have the most ridiculous schedule. I wouldn't be surprised to see some serious injuries in the next few years from my son's age group.
Touche'. One of the reasons we left Dallas. All my friends were constantly at kids games/practice/training for baseball, soccer, volleyball, or softball. They would drop $5k per kid per sport every year.
I honestly don't understand what parents want out of sports anymore. If I could snap my fingers and make a tradeoff where my kids would never play on a competitive high school sports team but would have active rec options through high school that they enjoyed, I'd make that tradeoff in a second. If you're not good enough to get paid to play, I just don't see the difference.
And overall......it's fun. Yes it's fun for the parents, but it's also fun for MOST of the kids.
I guess this is what I question because of all the bitching about it.
Well he’s been going to hid pediatric urologist since the day he was born. One of the best in the country and also one of the kindest gentlest persons I have ever been around- he’s had a profound impact on the boy - he’s also performed 6 surgeries on the kid
Did this once and half the parents liked it, some didn’t care and a 1 or 2 literally met me at the gate after the game. Got tired of the dads coming to the end of the dugout coaching their kids. Announced before the game you come to the dugout your kid comes OUT of the game. Then asked if they were so intent on coaching why they didn’t volunteer like me and the other dad to coach by making the commitment for the season to be at every game and practice.
My daughter is on the B Team and unless some competitive gene kicks in will never be a Star player. She is a goalie, and the only one on her team that actually enjoys playing it. I have asked her multiple times if she wanted to go back to Recand she said no because she likes her team, the extra goalie training, and the trips.
What are rec league evaluations? They don't just randomly assign you a team?
This ain't 1992 gramps. And it's not Sebastapol, either.
I tend to hear more about baseball, but when they talk about being in these places, it doesn't sound like they get to enjoy any of it outside of the tournament. A morning and afternoon game pretty much takes care of being able to go to the beach. And I'm not sure how common it is, but I'll hear people coming back from baseball tournaments and they talk about playing 5 games and getting back late Sunday night. I think that's usually assuming they make it to the championship game.
the point is that someone can spend all their time and money squeezing a turnip, or start squeezing when its obvious its not a turnip.
The reason we are talking about NIL and things like that is because the money is so big in sports, which means it's incredibly popular. All the kids with any ability play. You'd be amazed at what some of these kids can do.
Yeah it’s not bad. Typically an early game and an afternoon one on Saturday and since we aren’t exactly the Brazil national team, we get the early morning Sunday consolation game. It’s funny because some parents on the other teams in our club complain so bad about when they get a 9 and a 5 on Saturday. We had that once last year in Foley and we loved it because it was a really good football day and we got to the sports bar at 10:30. We all hung out, watched football, fed the kids, then let the kids loose in the arcade next door while the Mom’s went shopping and the Dad’s “watched the kids”. Meaning we were drinking playing arcade games and going back to the bar to catch the games. Luckily our group is one that gets a few drinks in and stay supportive and fun, I have witnessed teams’ parents that aren’t the same way. It seems it’s always Louisiana or Central Mississippi teams.
lol, I cannot count the number of parents / kids I've know who have done the travel ball stuff. Spent countless hours and thousands of $$ practicing, traveling, playing. But I can count on one hand the number of those kids I've known who've made it beyond junior college.
That’s the parents that I can’t stand. I always tell people the best soccer player on my elementary team didn’t play soccer in college. He was too busy returning punts for TDs against Tennessee in 1998.
I would like to see shift away from the weekend tournament model and more games during the week in a 'season' format. The setup of 'select ball' isn't really the problem in my mind, the problem is the games all crammed into a weekend, with a 'win at all costs' format.
Will never happen and I for one am thankful
Once they hit kid pitch here they do evals and drafts to try to even out the teams and ensure you’ve got a couple of kids at least on each team who can throw some strikes. It ranges from fairly skilled players to kids who don’t even know how to put a glove on so random assignment doesn’t always pan out.
