Quote:
Originally Posted by miami_fan
Youth sports have already been bastardized Jon. There are two distinctive camps in youth sports now. Pay to Play and Recreational. Yes you still are paying for the recreational leagues but you get the idea. That coach is in the Pay to Play camp. He is asking more of the recreational league structure than the recreational league structure can provide him. Most of the kids who are more talented and/or more competitive for the recreational structure will go the Pay to Play route eventually. I am not throwing shade at them. That is what my son has done. My suggestion for the coach and the kids that wanted to win that badly is to go and join or even better yet start their own 8U team and compete against kids and coaches that are in a similar camp as he is. Nothing is wrong with that either. He does not need to try and turn the recreational league into something it is obviously not.
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What do the kids do that can't afford pay to play?
I was at my 10yr (good athlete not hyper competitive) and 7 yr old (very good athlete, hates to lose, hyper competitive, and already a thinker while on the field) granddaughter's soccer games a couple of weeks ago, they play in the park and rec leagues. This is the Des Moines and surrounding towns area, not limited to small pool of players like the small town I'm from where my kids grew up playing. It was competitive, some girls were lost, others trying very hard. Nobody held back but, also, nobody (coaches or parents) were yelling at or about the lesser talented players. It seemed as if nothing had changed from my years coaching little\junior league baseball 20-30 yrs ago. I was actually impressed with the level of play for kids that young.
I commented to my son on the nice facilities and the huge number of kids. He said there was also pay leagues for the totally serious, that parents paid $5k plus for their kids to play. When he said what AAU coaches were making I told him (he's a basketball coach) he should quit his teaching job and start his own AAU team (jokingly
). They can afford to have the girls play in the pay leagues but think it's a joke for most of the players. My son says the "lower tier player's" parents don't understand "junior" isn't that good, gets very little quality coaching, and their 5k pays for the few at the top to travel all over for tournaments.
I think a large number of members here can afford the pay to play leagues. Comments come out "well there is pay to play" for those that want. However, some of us (me 20-30 yrs ago) could never afford such a thing. Yes, youth sports have been bastardized. Like many things the "haves" get theirs.
To be clear I don't agree with the coach, in this example, taking over at third. Bad form taking advantage in the last inning. I have no problem if he's there all game playing that way, though a "one base on overthrow" rule at that age would be appropriate. But when it's thrown out "it's a rec league", as a "have not" I have to think "well that's too bad", it's the only league my child has as an option.