I have a son who really likes to play baseball, but he is very young - just turned 8-years-old. He has also been able to play with one of his best friends every year. Last year, their team won the local rec pony league tournament and he played on the all-star team after the season was over. This year, he and his friend are on a team with a coach who is very demanding. In this league of 7 and 8 year-old kids, they practice for 2 hours usually once a week and then they show up to games an hour early to "warm up" (which really just means more practice). It's been amazing to watch all the boys improve a ton as the season has gone on. They are undefeated and having a fun time. Their team has transformed from a typical team where you have a few boy that are really good, a bunch of average kids, and a few that are really bad to a team where most of the boys are playing really well, and the couple of bad players are playing up like the average kids on the other teams.

A couple weeks ago I started to realize that if we just do rec baseball next year, it will just be pure luck of the draw on what coach he gets. Meaning he could end up on a team where they just show up for games and never practice, and he would not keep progressing much. My options as I see them would be to either just stay with rec baseball and volunteer to be the coach. That way I can request his good friend to be on his team and I can ensure that the boys practice enough to keep all of them progressing. The other option would be for he and his friend to try out for an 8U comp team where they will definitely keep progressing.

I'm open for thoughts from those of you who have already passed through stuff like this.