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Travel players dropping down to play in Little League Tournement
By: Randy Dykstra
I've heard both sides now.... You wouldn't believe the grief and names the travel players and teams are called when we do go and play travel ball instead of being "loyal" (ha ha) and playing for our community rec team. Most rec leagues do everything in their power to PULL DOWN the top players and make them equal to everyone else.... UNTIL ALL-STARs come around and then those same people will flat out ABUSE the star players all in the name of WINNING! (Recall some of the pitching counts and frequency that coaches have had kids throwing in earlier posts.) This year, every kid on my son's travel team is competing for a Rec league All-star team... However, we all notified the teams prior to selection that come JULY 29th we are boarding a plane bound for the twin cities, MN to play in the AAU National Championships... The leagues had a choice to NOT select us. None of them did. Every Kid was selected to an All-start team. (some in LL, some in Pony Bronco) If LL would cater to the needs of the ADVANCED players and stop trying to make them equal to everyone else,... the travel leagues would disappear. As an example... How many independent Soccer teams are there? Each league fields a "SELECT" team for each age bracket. The top kids compete for that team, against the Select teams teams from nieghboring leagues... There are yearly try-outs and they work a lot harder that the "rec" teams. If LL would do the same thing most travel teams would die off... for lack of players.. Crying about the fact that some kids WORK harder, are more dedicated to their sport, put in the sweat and tears, and do everything that is required to EXCEL is ludicrous and typical of the LL mentality. If you want to compete, DO the work required... DON'T be-little the ones who choose to sacrifice in order to taste the thrill of victory. And DON'T demand taste because it doesn't taste as good with out the seasonings from hard work.
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