Team Drafting

In our rec league, we start new each year. The only "protected" players are a coach's daughter(s), who can play for him. We usually have two coaches/team and if each has a daughter, then their team will have two protected players. The problem is that sometimes the parents of the best two kids want to coach together so those two can be on the same team.

We have a coach's draft meeting before the season and all the players are "categorized" into whether they are "A", "B", or "C" players (this info never leaves the meeting!). The protected players are similarly categorized. Then we draw for who gets first, second, third, etc, draft choice. The team that gets last choice then gets to pick two players and the rotation goes backward from bottom to top. For example: if there are 6 teams, when #6 draws, they get two players, and then the choice goes back to team 5, who gets one, then team #4, etc... when you get back to team #1, they get two picks and you then go to team #2, etc.

OK, so what about the coach's daughters? Let's say a team has two coach's daughters that are both "A" players... during the draft, their team skips (doesn't get a pick) in the first two rounds.

After the draft is completed, the committee looks at all the teams to see if one is particularly "stacked" and one is very weak. We will then try to even things up a bit by making a swap or two between those two teams.

Also, other teams may make trades at the end of the meeting... that way you might be able to get your favorite player. We never let any of the kids know that they were traded, or how they were categorized. Once the meeting is over, the rosters are set for the rest of the season... no more trades.

It's not a perfect system, but it has been workable most years.