Did your son tryout for this team ? were there kids cut after tryouts ?
I also feel at 12 yo your son will benefit from this experience with the right mind set.

quote:

He was asked to play in Hawaii this year

Offered to go to Hawaii at the 13U level?!?!

WOW..... I never thought it'd get that crazy that young. Am I ever that glad I'm not a kid anymore.

Doughnutman - Just about everyone involved with competitive sports team at some point asks themselves " Are we better off going to another team"? And I used "we" because I agree it is a family decision. So you go out and look around discreetly to find all your options. Then you weigh the options and make an educated decision to stay or move on to greener pastures. If you decide to stay at least you gave due diligence to finding something better. If you move on, you try and do it as gracefully as possible by giving ample notice and not bashing the manager/coach on your way out. If you switch teams once a year I think you would be par for the course. If you have a team you love and stay several years consider yourself blessed!

bbd2007,
agree, that's what I was trying to say .. you said it much better

ME TOO !!!

Doughnutman, I “told” my children where they would play when they were in “T” ball and a few years after “T” ball. I “influenced” where they would play during their teenage years. But there came a time when I “asked” them where they were going to play. It is a transition we parents/players have to adjust to as they grow up. Depending on what stage of growth you and your son are in has a lot to do with what you should do. There are a lot of things to consider when you pull your child to play for another team. Moving, transferring or quitting will always be options and could be good options but they can be terrible choices too. Be fair to all parties involved and consider more than the obvious. I’d be the first to suggest you have an obligation to do what is best for your child. Moving to another team may be good but it comes at a price. It's teaching him how he should interact with his teammates, his coaches, and how he sees himself as compared to his teammates. Have you considered there might be something he could dislike about his “new” team or his “new” position? What then? Does he move again? Maybe teaching him how to cope with adversity along with respecting his coaches and his teammates might be more important that just thinking about himself?? I can't tell you what to do other than THINK about it.
When my son was a sophomore in college he was “told” he would be pulled from his position as starting catcher and become a weekend starter on the mound ---- a move he did not want to make. He called and told me of the conversation he had had with the head coach. Since this was discussed during his recruitment I suggested he remind the coach that he was recruited as a catcher and he was told he would not be called upon to pitch. He told me “Dad, I can’t do that. That is not an option”. He did what he thought he should do. He accepted the responsibility and he pitched the rest of the season.
Fungo

PS Let me add it doesn't matter what your son can do --- it's what he IS DOING and how well he does it.

This is the third time it has erased my post.

Doc K,
In Dec '06 he left the 14U travel team that he had played on for 3+ years. When they were 11U he was 9, 12U he was 10, etc.

He joined a 12U team,(his own age), and finished out the season. Jan '07 to July'07. This team only plays 12U. After the season ends(July) the team disbands and the coaches find new players and the players find new teams.

When we were searching for a new team this fall(seasons are backwards for travel ball in Phoenix, nobody plays travel ball Junish thru August unless it is out of state or in the high country) we were contacted by several 13U,14U and a couple of 15U teams that we know about playing. This included his original team that had moved up to 15U.
Does this help? I am at a lost to try to explain it again. We only left one team during the season and it was during time off during the Holidays. After playing for them for 3+ years.

Yea the Hawaii thing was kinda nuts. We passed on that for lots of reasons.

Bobblehead,
His current 13U team is invite only, no tryouts.

And I would never bash the coach or the organization. They are both very good and I consider the Coaches to be friends. I just don't think it is a good fit as it stands now. I will know for sure if the trend continues after the next two tournaments.

Bee,
Why do you want to know my citizenship status? Are you INS or something?

Fungo,
My son has always played centerfield with a little MIF thrown in. I believe he is a natural in Center. After playing 3 plus years of travel in center HE wants to play SS. He was able to this year and he wants to continue to play SS. HE absolutely loved it. It is a major factor in our decisions. I thought I had spelled it out but I obviously have issues and am side tracked easily.

Yea for undiagnosed adult ADHD. I am much better at communicating verbally than this typing ****.

2BMom,
I hear what you are saying. And I do think my son is a natural in Center and will probably play there in HS. We have two other kids that are fantastic in center. But he got a taste at SS last season and he thinks it is the best place on the field. I won't go into specifics about the other SS. Let's just say it is obvious for a variety of reasons who is better and leave it at that. But the phrase "crow hop" does comes to mind.

Sorry - I just deleted my post because after what the others wrote, it seemed redundant!

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you and your son have fun. Good luck!

quote:

Bee, Why do you want to know my citizenship status? Are you INS or something?

did you mean ICE? (imigration-customs-enforcment)

nah, YOU inquired whether Hawaii was international play ...

your citizenship would determine that answer

I believe in committments, but I also believe in my son being happy. We left a team before, but it was for his health reasons. He was being abused.

Good luck in your decision, you have a very hard one ahead of you.

And I am so glad that someone else suffers from Adult ADHD.

Once again TG, most teams play 100 games in a ten month season, if not 120 games in Phoenix. It is the desert. Anybody can play less if they want to stick to rec ball. You will play 40 games in two seasons. Travel ball is a full time commitment. Part time and other sports don't cut it. Most kids have to choose one sport by 12U. By age 12 or 13 you are set in your sport if you want to compete in HS. There are exceptios of course, but they are super studs. Nobody plays 3 6A sports.

And I thought this thread was dead. If anyone wants to argue with me start a new thread entitled,: argue with Dman. Just make sure it is under Pre HS. Anything else and I will not notice it.

Let's RUuuummMbBLE.

threads never die here d man, they find a new life this time of year when baseball slows down. and insomniacs like me start reading in the middle of the night.lol.

This is not a argument. It just seems very sad that at 12 you have to be set in your sport. Thats the age when kids should be trying new things.
What is gained by being so selective at that age?

Everyone has their own opinion. But here is my question. If weather is not a factor, who is going to make the team, the kid that plays a sport year round for 5 years and is polished? Or the kid that plays rec only and is way behind the other kids that play year round?

As a coach what do you want? The players ready to play from day one or the kids that will take a couple of seasons to catch up? Would you rather polish skilled guys or take on a project that may or may not be able to play or even want to put in the time it takes to play?
More and more each sport has at least two seasons with a workout regimen that takes up the rest of the year. It is getting to be like college and the pros more and more every year.

It is a difficult question, but the competition is playing year round, winning is important for HS. If you want to keep your job.
I am not saying it is right, but it is reality. At least in the desert when the only thing stopping you from playing any sport year round is the occaisional dust storm.

TG,
Keeping up with the Jones's?
Please, if my son didn't love playing I wouldn't do it for a second. Cut out the insults. This isn't kindergarten.com and I'm not 10 years old. He plays this much because he would play 300 games if I let him.
The game has changed in 20+ years. More oppurtunity and more risk. My goal is to keep him healthy, competitive, full of desire and have a chance to play in HS. I grew up in the midwest and playing year round seems crazy to me, but if I could of I would of played basketball year round growing up. I only played other sports because there was nothing else to do.
He is like his Daddy. Just substitiue basketball for baseball. Everybody knows about love of a sport. The enviroment where I live makes every sport year round. And most people play year round.

Keeping up with Joneses. Please. Get on azbaseballnetwork.COM. You will find 30-40 teams 13U and 14U that are trying to make a HS team. Should we just ignore this fact?
I prefer to face reality.

quote:

who is going to make the team, the kid that plays a sport year round for 5 years and is polished? Or the kid that plays rec only and is way behind the other kids that play year round?

D-man, I read your post and it appears you are either being over dramatic or actually convinced a child in Phoenix MUST follow a particular route to become a polished player to continue on into high school. Not true. It's not how MUCH a player plays or where a player plays ---- BUT ----- HOW a player plays that determines his "worth". Look at football players that only play 10 or 11 games a year. Some of them get very good with such little game time. Granted these football players “work” at getting better year round but they don’t have to play 100 plus games to do it. If we follow the philosophy of “Work at practice and Play at games” maybe we should focus more on good instructions and good training and less on the number of games played. I’m a firm believer that a good balanced approach of playing time and instructional time will maximize a young player’s development. My son spent more time hitting in our basement than he did on the diamond. He passed on fall ball and actually played two years of high school football and said he had lots of fun doing so while he continued to get better at baseball. I’m going out on a limb and say that playing too much can actually get in the way of good development. Could it be this “play. play, play attitude” is driven by the egos of the adults that are involved.
On my son’s college team there were players from the desert, players from the south, players from the east, players from the west and players from the north His team even had two players from Canada. Being SEC caliber players they had one thing in common ---- they had talent.
PS: I agree that Arizona is a great place for baseball ---- My son just finished his professional season in Tucson, AZ with the Rockies INSTRUCTIONAL league. He is currently continuing his development by WORKING OUT at his old college facilities. However it’ll be about 6 months before he plays another game.
Fungo

quote:

Everybody knows about love of a sport. The enviroment where I live makes every sport year round. And most people play year round.

how are his grades?