I
guess this all started years ago, when rumor in the Little League stands
indicated that one of the teams was just a travel team in Little League
uniforms. No one probably would have even discussed the issue, if
this team wasn’t beating up on the other teams on a regular basis.
I questioned why the League allowed this to happen. Wasn’t Little
League supposed to be the place where coaches wanted teams of equal skill
competing against one another? After all, didn’t USAAA travel
teams exist for the coaches and players who wanted to create super teams and
travel the mid-west playing tournaments?
I
decided to be optimistic and hope that the next year when kids tried out for
teams, the league would try to create teams of equal skill. I was
sadly mistaken. In two of the past three years, one team has
dominated the league and in the other year there were 2 teams that rose above
the rest.
I wrote my first letter
to the board when I heard that the dominate team of the 2015 had 3 players who
played for that team’s coach before and who “sat out, instead of tried out”
before the draft. I couldn’t believe that kids were allowed to skip
try-outs and be drafted by their tournament team coach (especially one who had
2 All Stars (coaches kids) before the draft). After the draft was
said and done, this elite team had 5 Major league (the most advance level) travel
team players and 3 additional players who played on last year’s ruling team
(same coach 2014 and 2015).
When I approached the
Little League board I was informed: “There are specific checks and balances put in place … to ensure
that every manager has the opportunity to get as much info
about any player as they want, and can draft any player they want.” Things began to become much clearer. The
goal of Ankeny Little League was not to have 10 teams of equal skill
level, which would allow for a great playing season for all the kids. Rather,
the goal was that any coach could draft any player they wanted, as long as
someone didn’t beat them to it first. Coaches before kids.
Coaches who were new to
the league this year, or who were asked to coach 2 days before the draft were
not given any special help in learning this system. The league asked
for an additional volunteer at a time close to the draft, and this coach was
provided with the player list as he walked into Try-Outs. What
happened to him this year won’t happen to him again, as he realizes that he
will need to do extensive work before the draft. This is because the
league does not have the expectation that kids will actually try out. The
kids who play travel team baseball or were previous All-Stars are the least
likely to show-up according to a different coach.
So in a nutshell – what
I learned this week is at least two people on the Ankeny Little
League board were not surprised that the coach who dominated the 2014 season
had 5 elite level travel team players placed on his team without a single
try-out in 2015 (2 coaches kids would have no reason to try out). The
league feels this is fair, because any coach COULD have chosen 3 of top tier
travel kids had they wanted to do so, and done enough home-work to scout travel
teams (in person or on the Internet).
The expectation that the
coaches pick their teams based on try-outs was a ridiculous assumption. Additionally
the idea that the try-out list would accurately represent last year’s players
was unrealistic. (Despite the fact that many 2014 All-Stars were
given this designation on this form, 5 were not.) Good luck to the
new coach to know about these extra skills because, as I mentioned above – the
All Star kids often skip the Try-out. My children have tried out
each year as asked by any league. Perhaps I was naive to think we were
all expected to make this effort to help the league's attempt at fairness in
the draft. I am not sure why tournament/All star kids who do not
demonstrate their skills to all the coaches are not randomly placed across
ALL the teams for some equality. I bet more would feel like they had a
reason to show-up for the try-out if they weren't thinking that their
tournament team would pick them up if they sat out. Obviously the “checks
and balances” that the league feels that they have in place are there for a different
reason than to create 10 equally skilled teams. Stacking a team is
not only acceptable, but expected – as long as the other coaches let you get
away with it!
My son loves sports and
baseball is his current favorite. He has had an EXCELLENT coach
every year that he has played Little League and I thank these men. They
love the sport and helped my son become a better player each year. His
coaches helped him learn about good sportsmanship. Too bad the
league sends a different message by allowing stacked teams play in what I
thought was a recreational league.
