Rec leagues bending rules to pick and choose players without SN

[Anonymous]

The way little league works, Tball and single A (machine pitch) are neighborhood teams.

AA, AAA and Majors are all a draft (coach by coach). All five levels have overlapping age brackets. For example, my 11 year old can play in either AAA (weaker to average 11 year olds) or majors (average to stronger players). My nine year old could play in 3 different levels (AA, AAA, or majors if he was a superstar).

AA does not have a try out, except perhaps if your kid is a star and is officially too young for the level.

AAA and majors are tryouts, with the very best kids (usually 9-12 year olds) on majors.

With my oldest, the teams ended up being jumbled between a ton of different schools and several grades starting in AA, because the coaches the coaches were trying to draft winning teams. He only knew of one team that was a "neighborhood team" and this was a different school than his. All of the other teams have been blended teams, which I thinkis best at this level.

My younger son's level seems to always have a few "neighborhood teams" instead of teams that are drafted to create a balanced team from different schools. I thought it would endby AA, but it has continued through AAA and I anticipate maybe through majors. This is when it starts to sting. Because the teams are drafted by the coach, and because they are comprised of all neighborhood kids, the kids not chosen think it is because the coaches or parents don't like or want them, or that they must be he worst baseball player in their school. It is much more demoralizing when it is a neighborhood team in a draft situation and one or two are left off, than when it is a draft situation where kids are coming from 4-7 different schools and are chosen by merit or by what type of players the coaches need filled. It is easier to swallow rejection based off ability than to be rejected from a group containing all your neighbors, friends or classmates.

That being said, LL coaches are volunteers and it takes a lot of time, so they shoukd be able to pick the team they want to coach. It sucks though to the kids left out.

One more thing, when they get picked for a majors team they stay with that coach until they move out of little league. I think that is designed to prevent coaches from drafting from other teams to create an unbalanced league with one unbeatable team.

14:04 here. That's not how it works with the Babe Ruth baseball leagues I'm familiar with in NOVA. In the Rookies league (A level in LL), the kids are placed on teams based on school boundaries. It's in the Minors (AA level equivalent) that they kids are drafted by coaches - but every player is drafted, no one is left out even through the Seniors level. That continues on through all the levels. This is why the one coach/parent created his own travel team so he could cherry pick the players he wanted. Those kids that weren't picked remained on the rec team.

I also disagree that volunteer coaches should be allowed to leave kids out (which was what you seemed to imply). I have no problem with a draft but in rec leagues, everyone should get to play.

[Anonymous]

I'll admit that it stung when DS didn't move up with his baseball teammates, but I'm glad for the time he spent playing. He had fun up to that point, but it's a shame that coaches and LL officials were more focused on competition than about promoting love for the game. DS is doing other things now and developing new interests, but I warn other t-ball and A ball parents that it becomes very competitive at young ages. If you want your kid to play for fun, find a league that is truly a rec league. Little League is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The way little league works, Tball and single A (machine pitch) are neighborhood teams.

AA, AAA and Majors are all a draft (coach by coach). All five levels have overlapping age brackets. For example, my 11 year old can play in either AAA (weaker to average 11 year olds) or majors (average to stronger players). My nine year old could play in 3 different levels (AA, AAA, or majors if he was a superstar).

AA does not have a try out, except perhaps if your kid is a star and is officially too young for the level.

AAA and majors are tryouts, with the very best kids (usually 9-12 year olds) on majors.

With my oldest, the teams ended up being jumbled between a ton of different schools and several grades starting in AA, because the coaches the coaches were trying to draft winning teams. He only knew of one team that was a "neighborhood team" and this was a different school than his. All of the other teams have been blended teams, which I thinkis best at this level.

My younger son's level seems to always have a few "neighborhood teams" instead of teams that are drafted to create a balanced team from different schools. I thought it would endby AA, but it has continued through AAA and I anticipate maybe through majors. This is when it starts to sting. Because the teams are drafted by the coach, and because they are comprised of all neighborhood kids, the kids not chosen think it is because the coaches or parents don't like or want them, or that they must be he worst baseball player in their school. It is much more demoralizing when it is a neighborhood team in a draft situation and one or two are left off, than when it is a draft situation where kids are coming from 4-7 different schools and are chosen by merit or by what type of players the coaches need filled. It is easier to swallow rejection based off ability than to be rejected from a group containing all your neighbors, friends or classmates.

That being said, LL coaches are volunteers and it takes a lot of time, so they shoukd be able to pick the team they want to coach. It sucks though to the kids left out.

One more thing, when they get picked for a majors team they stay with that coach until they move out of little league. I think that is designed to prevent coaches from drafting from other teams to create an unbalanced league with one unbeatable team.

14:04 here. That's not how it works with the Babe Ruth baseball leagues I'm familiar with in NOVA. In the Rookies league (A level in LL), the kids are placed on teams based on school boundaries. It's in the Minors (AA level equivalent) that they kids are drafted by coaches - but every player is drafted, no one is left out even through the Seniors level. That continues on through all the levels. This is why the one coach/parent created his own travel team so he could cherry pick the players he wanted. Those kids that weren't picked remained on the rec team.

I also disagree that volunteer coaches should be allowed to leave kids out (which was what you seemed to imply). I have no problem with a draft but in rec leagues, everyone should get to play.

Agree. Our rec league doesn't allow coaches to pick the teams (except basketball, where they do a skills eval and draft to try to keep the teams even). Every kid gets put on a team. And all the coaches are parent volunteers. Letting parent volunteers pick and choose their players for rec league creates a really ugly dynamic IMO.

[Anonymous]

You completely misread my post.

I said that what happened with my oldest kid (now middle school) is what usually happens in the draft from AA and up. Coaches are going for the best team so tye teams usually end up blended from several elementary schools. For example, his last season team had kids from seven or eight different schools. He has only had one team since he started draft pevels that was mostly from one school, and they had 7-8 kids from one school and the rest from other schools, so there were still five school represented.

With my other son, there seems to be a few coaches who are still drafting only neighborhood kids. It has continued through AAA so I suspect it will continue through majors as well. I do not like that way but they are the ones who stepped up to volunteer so they can draft who they want. The team still ends up balanced ability wise even though it is all neighborhood kids. FWIW, my kid is one of the ones left off and he is not the worst player. I don't like that but I also did not volunteer so I cannot really complain.

But what you and I are describing is the same kind of draft system.

Anonymous wrote:

The way little league works, Tball and single A (machine pitch) are neighborhood teams.

AA, AAA and Majors are all a draft (coach by coach). All five levels have overlapping age brackets. For example, my 11 year old can play in either AAA (weaker to average 11 year olds) or majors (average to stronger players). My nine year old could play in 3 different levels (AA, AAA, or majors if he was a superstar).

AA does not have a try out, except perhaps if your kid is a star and is officially too young for the level.

AAA and majors are tryouts, with the very best kids (usually 9-12 year olds) on majors.

With my oldest, the teams ended up being jumbled between a ton of different schools and several grades starting in AA, because the coaches the coaches were trying to draft winning teams. He only knew of one team that was a "neighborhood team" and this was a different school than his. All of the other teams have been blended teams, which I thinkis best at this level.

My younger son's level seems to always have a few "neighborhood teams" instead of teams that are drafted to create a balanced team from different schools. I thought it would endby AA, but it has continued through AAA and I anticipate maybe through majors. This is when it starts to sting. Because the teams are drafted by the coach, and because they are comprised of all neighborhood kids, the kids not chosen think it is because the coaches or parents don't like or want them, or that they must be he worst baseball player in their school. It is much more demoralizing when it is a neighborhood team in a draft situation and one or two are left off, than when it is a draft situation where kids are coming from 4-7 different schools and are chosen by merit or by what type of players the coaches need filled. It is easier to swallow rejection based off ability than to be rejected from a group containing all your neighbors, friends or classmates.

That being said, LL coaches are volunteers and it takes a lot of time, so they shoukd be able to pick the team they want to coach. It sucks though to the kids left out.

One more thing, when they get picked for a majors team they stay with that coach until they move out of little league. I think that is designed to prevent coaches from drafting from other teams to create an unbalanced league with one unbeatable team.

14:04 here. That's not how it works with the Babe Ruth baseball leagues I'm familiar with in NOVA. In the Rookies league (A level in LL), the kids are placed on teams based on school boundaries. It's in the Minors (AA level equivalent) that they kids are drafted by coaches - but every player is drafted, no one is left out even through the Seniors level. That continues on through all the levels. This is why the one coach/parent created his own travel team so he could cherry pick the players he wanted. Those kids that weren't picked remained on the rec team.

I also disagree that volunteer coaches should be allowed to leave kids out (which was what you seemed to imply). I have no problem with a draft but in rec leagues, everyone should get to play.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add, every kid, mine included, gets put on a team. It just might not be the team with your next door neighbor and your three classmates and your two best friends. It might be a team where he has one kid he knows, or no kids he knows.

That isn't really so bad though. My older kid's very best teams were a team where he knew no kids going into it, and a team where he knew several kids from being on blended teams from AA through majors, but which had no other kids from our school and only one other kid from our neighborhood that he doesn't socialize with since they are three ysars apart.

I do not have an issue with the kids ending up on teams where they have no school mates. That is a very positive thing if done correctly. I actually prefer this.

I do have an issue with teams continuing with almost all kids from one school or neighborhood where a few kids get left out. That stinks because the kids feel unwanted.

Anonymous wrote:You completely misread my post.

I said that what happened with my oldest kid (now middle school) is what usually happens in the draft from AA and up. Coaches are going for the best team so tye teams usually end up blended from several elementary schools. For example, his last season team had kids from seven or eight different schools. He has only had one team since he started draft pevels that was mostly from one school, and they had 7-8 kids from one school and the rest from other schools, so there were still five school represented.

With my other son, there seems to be a few coaches who are still drafting only neighborhood kids. It has continued through AAA so I suspect it will continue through majors as well. I do not like that way but they are the ones who stepped up to volunteer so they can draft who they want. The team still ends up balanced ability wise even though it is all neighborhood kids. FWIW, my kid is one of the ones left off and he is not the worst player. I don't like that but I also did not volunteer so I cannot really complain.

But what you and I are describing is the same kind of draft system.

Anonymous wrote:

The way little league works, Tball and single A (machine pitch) are neighborhood teams.

AA, AAA and Majors are all a draft (coach by coach). All five levels have overlapping age brackets. For example, my 11 year old can play in either AAA (weaker to average 11 year olds) or majors (average to stronger players). My nine year old could play in 3 different levels (AA, AAA, or majors if he was a superstar).

AA does not have a try out, except perhaps if your kid is a star and is officially too young for the level.

AAA and majors are tryouts, with the very best kids (usually 9-12 year olds) on majors.

With my oldest, the teams ended up being jumbled between a ton of different schools and several grades starting in AA, because the coaches the coaches were trying to draft winning teams. He only knew of one team that was a "neighborhood team" and this was a different school than his. All of the other teams have been blended teams, which I thinkis best at this level.

My younger son's level seems to always have a few "neighborhood teams" instead of teams that are drafted to create a balanced team from different schools. I thought it would endby AA, but it has continued through AAA and I anticipate maybe through majors. This is when it starts to sting. Because the teams are drafted by the coach, and because they are comprised of all neighborhood kids, the kids not chosen think it is because the coaches or parents don't like or want them, or that they must be he worst baseball player in their school. It is much more demoralizing when it is a neighborhood team in a draft situation and one or two are left off, than when it is a draft situation where kids are coming from 4-7 different schools and are chosen by merit or by what type of players the coaches need filled. It is easier to swallow rejection based off ability than to be rejected from a group containing all your neighbors, friends or classmates.

That being said, LL coaches are volunteers and it takes a lot of time, so they shoukd be able to pick the team they want to coach. It sucks though to the kids left out.

One more thing, when they get picked for a majors team they stay with that coach until they move out of little league. I think that is designed to prevent coaches from drafting from other teams to create an unbalanced league with one unbeatable team.

14:04 here. That's not how it works with the Babe Ruth baseball leagues I'm familiar with in NOVA. In the Rookies league (A level in LL), the kids are placed on teams based on school boundaries. It's in the Minors (AA level equivalent) that they kids are drafted by coaches - but every player is drafted, no one is left out even through the Seniors level. That continues on through all the levels. This is why the one coach/parent created his own travel team so he could cherry pick the players he wanted. Those kids that weren't picked remained on the rec team.

I also disagree that volunteer coaches should be allowed to leave kids out (which was what you seemed to imply). I have no problem with a draft but in rec leagues, everyone should get to play.

[Anonymous]

My neighborhood is developing its own Little League, and the board has unanimously decided to be open to players of all abilities. This LL was created by parents who didn't like how competitive the other neighborhood LL was, even for their NT children. At least in my neighborhood, we've had little problems attracting families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighborhood is developing its own Little League, and the board has unanimously decided to be open to players of all abilities. This LL was created by parents who didn't like how competitive the other neighborhood LL was, even for their NT children. At least in my neighborhood, we've had little problems attracting families.

Where is this?

[Anonymous]

This is so shitty, I cannot even believe people. I am so very sorry. My children go to catholic school and play on CYO teams. Everyone is welcome, valued and plays. there is a boy with DS on one of our baseball teams. Last year when he got up to bat, the pitcher pitched to him until he hit that ball. There were cheers of joy from both teams- parents and kids. Let me tell you, this child taught every child on the team something about hard work perseverance and just the joy of playing ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I coach a soccer team and just reached out to a mom of a boy who is friends with some of the kids on the team. I don't know if he has a diagnosis, but he is physically awkward, inattentive and doesn't generally do sports, and I had hesitated in mentioning to his mom that we have a spot on the team because some of the other parents are super focused on winning, and put pressure on me. But this thread got me feeling bad about that and prompted me to reach out to her so she can see if he's interested. So thank you for sharing your perspectives.

As a parent who didn't care less about winning, I will say that the issue wasn't winning. It was about the overall experience my own child had while participating on the team.

The reality is that some kids were so disruptive that practice was a serious struggle to get through for all kids and became really boring.

In terms of school teams, sorry, but sometimes kids are just tapped out by the end of the day of already dealing with a child in school and they don't want to have to deal with him/her in sports and on weekends. Another issue I saw a lot of the times was that kids who were ok in school but feel apart during practices because they were later in the day and the kids were too tired and/or because medications had worn off.

I believe both kids - NT and special needs - have a right to play on the teams but in truth over many years I never saw any good ways of balancing the two out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it the league or the parents.

We were in a SAM league in MoCo and a team pretended they were not a team anymore and formed a new team without the SN kid. He ended up on our team.

The week before we played their team the mom explained the situation to my H (the coach).

We put him in at striker and told every kid on the team that nobody should shoot except this kid for the 1st half. I can't remember how much we won by but it was enough and this boy scored multiple times (as he did every game). It's just this game we never took him out even though league rules say he needs to sit a quarter.

When my H went to shake the coaches hand, he held it and said, "you are an a$$hole for kicking <insert name> off your team". There were no other words and I am pretty sure the guy was not the bad guy, some mom probably was.

It is not in the spirit of any rec league that I am aware of but parents can form teams and if they have enough players they can say they don't want any kids assigned to their team.

That's what happened to my son's homeschool bowling league. People suck.
I am glad to be away from those people but I will never get over their horridness - our son's favorite thing in the world was bowling. He wasn't hurting anyone or bothering them - why do that?

Anyhow - this shakes out the good vs evil. I hope your child finds some great kids to play with.
People who think rec sports are about winning at all costs are ignorant morons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I coach a soccer team and just reached out to a mom of a boy who is friends with some of the kids on the team. I don't know if he has a diagnosis, but he is physically awkward, inattentive and doesn't generally do sports, and I had hesitated in mentioning to his mom that we have a spot on the team because some of the other parents are super focused on winning, and put pressure on me. But this thread got me feeling bad about that and prompted me to reach out to her so she can see if he's interested. So thank you for sharing your perspectives.

As a parent who didn't care less about winning, I will say that the issue wasn't winning. It was about the overall experience my own child had while participating on the team.

The reality is that some kids were so disruptive that practice was a serious struggle to get through for all kids and became really boring.

In terms of school teams, sorry, but sometimes kids are just tapped out by the end of the day of already dealing with a child in school and they don't want to have to deal with him/her in sports and on weekends. Another issue I saw a lot of the times was that kids who were ok in school but feel apart during practices because they were later in the day and the kids were too tired and/or because medications had worn off.

I believe both kids - NT and special needs - have a right to play on the teams but in truth over many years I never saw any good ways of balancing the two out.

You're a terrible, terrible, shallow person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighborhood is developing its own Little League, and the board has unanimously decided to be open to players of all abilities. This LL was created by parents who didn't like how competitive the other neighborhood LL was, even for their NT children. At least in my neighborhood, we've had little problems attracting families.

Very great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I coach a soccer team and just reached out to a mom of a boy who is friends with some of the kids on the team. I don't know if he has a diagnosis, but he is physically awkward, inattentive and doesn't generally do sports, and I had hesitated in mentioning to his mom that we have a spot on the team because some of the other parents are super focused on winning, and put pressure on me. But this thread got me feeling bad about that and prompted me to reach out to her so she can see if he's interested. So thank you for sharing your perspectives.

Very good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I coach a soccer team and just reached out to a mom of a boy who is friends with some of the kids on the team. I don't know if he has a diagnosis, but he is physically awkward, inattentive and doesn't generally do sports, and I had hesitated in mentioning to his mom that we have a spot on the team because some of the other parents are super focused on winning, and put pressure on me. But this thread got me feeling bad about that and prompted me to reach out to her so she can see if he's interested. So thank you for sharing your perspectives.

As a parent who didn't care less about winning, I will say that the issue wasn't winning. It was about the overall experience my own child had while participating on the team.

The reality is that some kids were so disruptive that practice was a serious struggle to get through for all kids and became really boring.

In terms of school teams, sorry, but sometimes kids are just tapped out by the end of the day of already dealing with a child in school and they don't want to have to deal with him/her in sports and on weekends. Another issue I saw a lot of the times was that kids who were ok in school but feel apart during practices because they were later in the day and the kids were too tired and/or because medications had worn off.

I believe both kids - NT and special needs - have a right to play on the teams but in truth over many years I never saw any good ways of balancing the two out.

What in the world are we teaching our kids? We don't have to be inclusive because we're tired of sharing our space with SN kids at school? Whaaa???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I coach a soccer team and just reached out to a mom of a boy who is friends with some of the kids on the team. I don't know if he has a diagnosis, but he is physically awkward, inattentive and doesn't generally do sports, and I had hesitated in mentioning to his mom that we have a spot on the team because some of the other parents are super focused on winning, and put pressure on me. But this thread got me feeling bad about that and prompted me to reach out to her so she can see if he's interested. So thank you for sharing your perspectives.

As a parent who didn't care less about winning, I will say that the issue wasn't winning. It was about the overall experience my own child had while participating on the team.

The reality is that some kids were so disruptive that practice was a serious struggle to get through for all kids and became really boring.

In terms of school teams, sorry, but sometimes kids are just tapped out by the end of the day of already dealing with a child in school and they don't want to have to deal with him/her in sports and on weekends. Another issue I saw a lot of the times was that kids who were ok in school but feel apart during practices because they were later in the day and the kids were too tired and/or because medications had worn off.

I believe both kids - NT and special needs - have a right to play on the teams but in truth over many years I never saw any good ways of balancing the two out.

If you and your kid are so tapped out with "dealing" with the undesireable kids from school, then you need to request that your own kid be put on a non neighborhood team instead of pressuring the neighborhood team to reject other kids.