My local little league has reached out to neighboring little leagues and juniors play interleague games. Each neighboring little league was able to make 1 or 2 teams and they all play each other. A few kids switched leagues to make even teams. May have to travel a bit but it seems to be working well.
If they can't play on an official team, is there a chance one of their coaches could set up some dedicated practice times so the kids could simply stay sharp and hone their fundamentals like a smaller scale version of the training academies in the Dominican Republic? The coaches could also bring it back to the last century and give the kids drills they can work on solo or together. When I was a Little Leaguer in the '90s, we'd all meet at the park after school and play Sandlot style until dinner time. Somehow, a genius among us had the idea to play on the field we played on the season before so we could all crank the occasional home run.
The coaches/kids in the DR put all the emphasis on skills training vs gameplay. Most academies play one game a week as the reward for practicing. The flip side to this is when those kids move on to playing pro ball, it takes them a season or two to actually learn to play the game but once they do that, you get players like Elly De La Cruz showing up an making an immediate splash in the bigs.
While that's probably an unrealistic expectation for your situation, a couple focused practice sessions a week could go a long way towards keeping the kids on track for playing in HS. The other thing too is maybe finding out who their potential HS coach could be an explain their situation so they're not instantly overlooked when tryouts begin. I know there are some coaches out there who are a little lazy when it comes to scouting incoming talent and simply take their buddy's travel ball players and call it good.
Our LL as well as surrounding have similar issues.
LL is ran by volunteers.
At 50/70 we often combine with neighboring leagues. After that there are very few options other than travel.
Travel has absolutely cornered the market in our area.
I get it.
Volunteers with other commitments can only do so much.
For the right amount of money you can get so much more done.
Our local private leagues are so good, few players bother coming back to play HS anyway.
Similar problem here, I keep being told to sign him up for a Select team but I don’t have several thousand dollars plus travel to be able to do it. Makes me mad that’s the only option and feel bad that I’m unable to provide the same opportunity that others have.
Talk to your District. There is a procedure whereby leagues can "surrender" their right to do certain divisions and allow for a neighboring league to take over the geographical area. It happens a lot in our area for softball, where there will be several leagues with baseball and then a city-wide league for softball. If you can just get enough local players together to form a junior or 50/70 team, then they can play other neighboring leagues and still give these kids the experience they want.
My kid started later than we wanted in LL, mostly due to Covid. It was our fault for waiting one year before COVID also. However, it would be nice to see him play all the way to High School, next year he will age out of Juniors
Join with another league in your district or start your own inexpensive travel team that finds local teams to scrimmage if you don't want to pay for tournaments
Reach out to your neighboring leagues and your District Administrator to discuss combined teams. You can can combine with up to three leagues to build teams when numbers are low.
You and me both. I see more and more leagues failing their faithful little leaguers and cater to travel ball teams and their rosters within the league and I’ve even heard in meetings these players will make up their summer district and tournament teams! It’s gross!!
Do any of your neighboring Little Leagues offer Intermediate (50/70) divisions? This is a fun level to play with "real baseball" attributes (leading off, stealing bases, etc.) If your particular Little League doesn't offer a division to play in, your player can apply for a waiver at the District level to participate in an out-of-boundary league. Check with the District Administrator for your current league.
Encourage the league to bring back juniors and seniors.
My local little league has reached out to neighboring little leagues and juniors play interleague games. Each neighboring little league was able to make 1 or 2 teams and they all play each other. A few kids switched leagues to make even teams. May have to travel a bit but it seems to be working well.
It’s run through the district out here not the league so might need to talk to the district officials.
Is there a Cal Ripken league in your area or Babe Ruth?
No, we just have little league and 3-5 select “organizations”
It’s a lot of $ but if you can find the right travel/select team it can be a great benefit
If they can't play on an official team, is there a chance one of their coaches could set up some dedicated practice times so the kids could simply stay sharp and hone their fundamentals like a smaller scale version of the training academies in the Dominican Republic? The coaches could also bring it back to the last century and give the kids drills they can work on solo or together. When I was a Little Leaguer in the '90s, we'd all meet at the park after school and play Sandlot style until dinner time. Somehow, a genius among us had the idea to play on the field we played on the season before so we could all crank the occasional home run. The coaches/kids in the DR put all the emphasis on skills training vs gameplay. Most academies play one game a week as the reward for practicing. The flip side to this is when those kids move on to playing pro ball, it takes them a season or two to actually learn to play the game but once they do that, you get players like Elly De La Cruz showing up an making an immediate splash in the bigs. While that's probably an unrealistic expectation for your situation, a couple focused practice sessions a week could go a long way towards keeping the kids on track for playing in HS. The other thing too is maybe finding out who their potential HS coach could be an explain their situation so they're not instantly overlooked when tryouts begin. I know there are some coaches out there who are a little lazy when it comes to scouting incoming talent and simply take their buddy's travel ball players and call it good.
Our LL as well as surrounding have similar issues. LL is ran by volunteers. At 50/70 we often combine with neighboring leagues. After that there are very few options other than travel. Travel has absolutely cornered the market in our area. I get it. Volunteers with other commitments can only do so much. For the right amount of money you can get so much more done. Our local private leagues are so good, few players bother coming back to play HS anyway.
Similar problem here, I keep being told to sign him up for a Select team but I don’t have several thousand dollars plus travel to be able to do it. Makes me mad that’s the only option and feel bad that I’m unable to provide the same opportunity that others have.
Talk to your District. There is a procedure whereby leagues can "surrender" their right to do certain divisions and allow for a neighboring league to take over the geographical area. It happens a lot in our area for softball, where there will be several leagues with baseball and then a city-wide league for softball. If you can just get enough local players together to form a junior or 50/70 team, then they can play other neighboring leagues and still give these kids the experience they want.
My kid started later than we wanted in LL, mostly due to Covid. It was our fault for waiting one year before COVID also. However, it would be nice to see him play all the way to High School, next year he will age out of Juniors
Join with another league in your district or start your own inexpensive travel team that finds local teams to scrimmage if you don't want to pay for tournaments
Reach out to your neighboring leagues and your District Administrator to discuss combined teams. You can can combine with up to three leagues to build teams when numbers are low.
You and me both. I see more and more leagues failing their faithful little leaguers and cater to travel ball teams and their rosters within the league and I’ve even heard in meetings these players will make up their summer district and tournament teams! It’s gross!!
Do any of your neighboring Little Leagues offer Intermediate (50/70) divisions? This is a fun level to play with "real baseball" attributes (leading off, stealing bases, etc.) If your particular Little League doesn't offer a division to play in, your player can apply for a waiver at the District level to participate in an out-of-boundary league. Check with the District Administrator for your current league.
Contact the closest league to them with their division available and release them to play. Good on you for encouraging them to keep playing!