My son's team is considered travel, but we consider it travel, "lite." In other words, we don't do tournaments every weekend and have to stay at hotels and drive hours away all of the time. I have some friends who do this and it consumes their life.
Our travel team is what I'd consider local regional, we normally do about 2 out of town tournaments, but the rest are within the local region within the league that several have formed. We don't focus on only winning, meaning if that was the case, certain kids would always be benched. Each travel team has its own flavor and imo a lot of them are toxic with aggressive dad coaches and we want nothing to do with that. I always feel bad for those kids on teams like that, you can tell that they are crushed because they get screamed at so much.
Every year teams break up because families don't like the coach, or think their kid should have gotten more play time. It's frankly an annual drama. Ask around to find a team that is more low key. We are losing several players to more high pressure teams, we are sad to see them go, but will be holding try outs to recruit more kids from our rec teams. I know that other travel teams look at ours and probably think we're a joke... but we have a good, positive vibe. The families who whine are the ones who want to leave, which is fine, we see it as having to deal with less high maintenance entitled people. Like it's been said, this is not pro sports, we see it as a chance for our kids to be exposed to some better teams and each year we see our own kids improve. They have fun and right now the 3 coaches get along great... I feel like that is unusual, there is often so much underlying tension and also favoritism, when our coach left last year, ALL of that came out, everyone was unhappy and was glad he left. We rarely bench anyone unless they have a rotten attitude. That is unusual. Most travel teams happily bench kids with the sole goal of winning.
Last edited by hellokitty; 06-17-2021 at 08:59 AM.
Mom to 3 LEGO Maniacs
Angie
Mom to
DD- 9/09-9/09
DS- 2011 DS2- 2012 DS3- 2015 DD-2019
DS had his first practice last night. He loved it! He said he didn't know anyone there, but has this amazing ability to just kind of fit in and get along. He said everyone was "really nice". He is still super hopeful that another kid drops out...I'm not sure about that but the coach seems nice and I hope that he will see his effort in practice and DS will get to play a few games at least.
DS- 8/11
DD- 5/14
Bless your sweet kiddo!!!!! I hope he has fun and gets to play some!
Mom to:
DS '02
DS '05
Percy--the wild furry child!!! 2022----
Simon--the first King Charles cutie 2009-2022
RIP Andy, the furry first child, 1996-2012
"The task of any religion is not to tell us who we are entitled to hate but to teach us who we are required to love."
We're almost at the end of the season.
The team is too big. Not sure if there was a shortage of coaches or whatnot, but there are 15 kids on the team. DS and another kid are the "alternates". DS will have only played 3 games out of about 15. There were a LOT of games, but also a lot of kids around and no one vacationing too much I guess. There were only a few practices at the beginning of the season, then too many games for there to be time to practice.
When DS does play, the coach has him field every other inning (outfield) so he rarely gets to field a ball. He bats dead last in the order so usually bats twice in 6 innings. It hasn't been going well, and he has struck out a bunch and walked a few times. The coaches' kids play every inning and are at the top of the order.
DS really loves it though. He loves being on a team. Even when he's not doing well. He doesn't know any of the other kids real well (they are a grade ahead of him or go to different schools) and he's only there rarely, but manages to be the best cheerer in the dugout. He loves recounting all the plays of the game to my dad afterwards.
I'm still super sad for him. I'm not sure what to do from here. I guess we have time to decide. I'm inclined to sign him up for some fall/winter baseball clinics or private lessons. Not to pressure him - I don't care about him being good at baseball! But to help him be able to continue to play and enjoy this. I fear he's going to start enjoying it less and less as it gets more serious if he can't keep up.
I know this is originally a BP, but any advice welcome too.
Last edited by basil; 07-25-2021 at 08:57 AM.
DS- 8/11
DD- 5/14
Baseball can be the worse daddy ball spirt of them all when my son played it was not unusual for their to be 4 to 5 coaches for 13-14 kids, most of them there to ensure their kid gets to playing time/good slot in the order.
I think your clinic idea is a good one. Also, is there fall ball near you?
We’ve hired a local college boy to help DS1 with baseball. They meet once a week for an hour to work on skills. It is low key and perfect for us. You might try something similar for your DS. It is money we’ll spent to get his skills up.
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Any way to see if there are other team options in nearby communities? There are quite a few options here (4) within a 20-30 min drive of my house. Maybe fall ball would afford him the chance to play more. If he loves the game, I bet he would be interested.
He sounds happy and I'm glad for that.
K