So I clicked the link and I'm overwhelmed. How on earth do you figure out which teams to avoid? Which ones are the national teams with local franchises, etc? Some of them I already know about through friends and their own kids teams. But I don't know all of these. And knowing that you need to try out a year in advance is kind of overwhelming too.
Apologize in advance for the long response, but I went through a very similar situation over the last year or so, and some of this may actually help.
My son is a 9U player, and we just went through the whole process of evaluating teams and organizations. He had offers from a few programs, and we chose the Sparks for three reasons: 1. The coach. 2. The coach. 3. The organization - mostly because of the facilities and access we get to them.
If it's not obvious, my advice is to focus more on the coach and less on the organization.
The two biggest things for me were whether the coach truly prioritized development or was he chasing trophies, and his coaching style.
A coach will usually reveal himself pretty quickly if you listen carefully. Get him talking about last season, the upcoming year, roster expectations, goals, etc. You can learn a lot from how he talks about kids, parents, and winning. Talk to parents already on the team too, if you can. Some will be blunt, others will just drop subtle clues. You'll get valuable feedback/info
Every coach will say development comes first, but the reality is most coaches prioritize winning and putting their own kid in positions to succeed while winning. That’s just human nature. Even parents get restless with "development" once the losses pile up. Most of the time, your kid is getting a look because another kid left, a family is unhappy, or someone is getting cut. Ask him what opened up the roster spot and his answer will probably reveal his outlook.
Coaching style may matter to me more than most. Kids need to learn how to deal with different styles of coaching - that's all true. But for now, I’ll take a coach who isn't obsessing over every detail and remains positive and stresses having fun over baseball genius who’s one error away from having a heart attack in teh dugout. I think it’s important for my son to continue having fun and that will turn into a love for the game, and the coach plays a massive role in whether that happens or not.
There’s more structure, more work, more repetition, more expectations, and more pressure, even at 9 years old with travel ball. You gotta keep it fun. If a nine year old starts feeling like he’s going to work instead of going to practice or a game, the adults in the room have probably fucked something up.
There are definitely some organization factors that matter too. I think a couple people already mentioned the prioritization of the elite teams, and that’s absolutely something to consider. Our organization seems to be well run, organized, and structured - they make sure every team gets their field time, cage time, access to facilities.
I think most parents pick organizations because they’re established and consistently produce talent - kids get scholarships out of our club every year and some get drafted. I knew that but didn't really care b/c my kid is 8 and I don’t have my head up my own ass. For every kid that gets a scholarship, two dozen more get washed out.
That said, it
does matter even at a young age bc the organization’s name alone attracts talented kids, and they become your son’s teammates who compete against each other. I watch practice closely and these boys compete with each other quietly but intensely. One kid starts barreling balls in the cage and the other kids lock in. Nobody wants to be outdone. I didn’t expect that dynamic at such a young age, but apparently steel sharpens steel even when it can barely wipe its own ass yet.
The costs are what they are and whether people think it's crazy or not is just a matter of perspective. I pay around $2500 and in return, I get access to a high level coach, hours of practice from November through June, access to great facilities, fields, cages, 50+ games and he's on a team with kids that push him to be bettter.
I could absolutely do it cheaper with rec ball, but I’d still be paying for a lot of the same shit anyway - rec fees, cage rentals, private lessons, camps, etc. Outside of the rec fees themselves, none of that is cheap. To get anything remotely close to the amount of field time, cage work, reps, and coaching he gets with the Sparks through private instruction would probably cost me 5x more than I already pay. That's not an apples to apples comparison, I get it but optinos are limited.
I can take him to the local field and throw BP for free, but I can’t do that in the winter and I’m not a baseball guy. We play catch, and I throw to him a few days a week. I played football, so I can help with basic athletic stuff and effort, but I never played baseball, and I just don't have the knowledge to “coach” him much more and he's turning nine tomorrow. I know my own limitiations and I don't want to turn into the baseball equivalent of the woman on the couch screaming “WHY DON’T THEY JUST RUN AROUND THE PILE?!” during a football game.
Fully endorse this message.
My town rec league was awesome growing up. And at the end of the season, we had an All-Star tournament where the best players got selected to be apart of that team and play against some other local AS teams. If you stood out in that AS tournament, you could get selected to take part in the bigger AS team tournament that took the best kids from all the AS teams to compete towards the LLWS.
Even with all of this, we still had plenty of time to be kids and one of my best baseball memories is the "Lob Ball" league we started. Age didn't matter. It was about getting all the kids in town together to play our version of Sandlot ball. We took it seriously and usually at the end of summer were able to break into enough teams to create a tournament. Zero parent input. Self-coached (by the older kids on each team). It was truly amazing.
Take those same kids and create a PT travel program within your little league. This is actually pretty common, and it’s what we do in our town. My son played on a team like that last year. You can usually pick up a game every weekend during the LL season and enter a few double AA tournaments and play other towns with similarly situated teams - roughly 25 more games and the kids play better competition.
If you’re fortunate enough to have some dads that know basically and commit their time, you can absolutely develop younger players just as well as a bigger organization.
