From Rec to Cal Ripken-need advice

I mean they didn't play together, I meant they "all" didn't play together. And assuming that you're correct and at least 8 of the kids remain as the core, you are more than likely cheating yourselves out of several kids who should be picked up while others are dropped.

There's no way the 13 best 9 year olds will remain the best as 12's! Its virtually impossible. Even 8 is a stretch in my mind. Those 8 may be pretty good, but in 4 years, if the coaches were doing their jobs of developing all of the players, I think it would be more likely that 4 or 5 would be a more reasonable number. If not, I'd say there definitely was a clique that had been formed.

But its all immaterial to my point anyhoo! I'm saying that at 9-10, the bonding aspect doesn't mean nearly as much as just their natural growth as players and good coaching. I'd be willing to bet that if someone like Ag were to take the dregs of what was left in your league as 9YO's, that by the time they were all 12, his team would be just as good as yours.

That's not to denigrate your coaching skills at all or to make out like he's some sort of guru, but more to point out that at that age, so much will change in the next 4 years! my boy got drafted into the majors to a team that won the championship the year before and had 8 players return, and by the end of the season, he was the starting 3rd baseman.

Had he been drafted by a different coach or left to play in the minors, I'd bet my life that he wouldn't be the same player he is today, even I did exactly the same things "off the field". His coach made all the difference in the world! It wasn't the bonding, because he didn't have anyone near his age to bond to. His coach saw his natural ability and managed to bring out the very most he could, and it wasn't at the expense of any of the other players!

The 2 years he played for that guy set something in motion that very few coaches have the ability to do. The result was, every kid but two that played on those 2 teams and stayed in the area, have gone on to make a pretty good mark. Of the two that didn't, one was girl who ended up being voted MVP in the AS tournament the year she was 12, and the other has gone on to be the big stud quarterback at one of the best private schools in the area.

Of the 16 kids that played those 2 years, 5 of the families moved out of the area, two were as explained and the rest all played HS baseball for 4 years and all were starters every year they were on the varsity team. I'd say that was one heck of a track record for a coach!

The reason I'm so sure it was him and not the players is that when he left our league and got another team in a different league, the exact same thing happened! Those players are now getting ready to go into HS ball and I'll just bet they'll be among the best players that go out for the team.

Everything that goes on makes a very big difference to young players. But the most important of all of them is, there has to be a coach at the center who understands all of the things going on, and can deal with them. The better s/he does that, the better the players will be for it.