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I've informally spoken to a few coaches in other communities about this and the response is positive enough to move forward.
There are players who clearly need to leave rec and go traveling to continue to be challenged. There are other players who are on the edge of being able to be on a travel team yet won't get challenged fully by the rec system. The "tweeners" are what I will be talking about here.
Those tweeners need something to keep them challenged. If they were challenged they could grow even more and possibly move on to travel or stay within the rec but either way they would be better prepared for their junior high and high school teams when they get there.
My daughter is one of those tweeners (maybe she will make a travel team, maybe she won't) but I do know that she is similar to a bunch of players in our league that if they got to play together more often (in addition to all-stars) that it would be a good thing.
Here is my proposal in a nutshell: Form a team very early in the season and play other like teams on Sundays. Maybe a double-header every other weekend, two games on consecutive Sundays and on off, or something like that. Other communities that are in on this will do the same and we go play each other. Make them full on competitive games with a shared cost umpire. No "league" standings would be tracked. The teams would be chosen any way that community likes but ours would be open to anybody and is NOT the all-star team.
Some communities already do this, or appear to do this. I say this because some of the all-star teams we play in tournaments are very solid and look like they have played together for quite a while. This lead to us thinking "What are they doing that we are not?". During our regular league play we see that another community that we play are ahead of us in some aspects. What are they doing that we are not?
We know that each time that by making our rec league more competitive there is a certain layer of player that may be overwhelmed and not have an enjoyable experience. One way to increase the abilities of the more advanced rec player is to get them together and play more competitive games on a regular basis.
So.... I've told my rec system that I will be writing a proposal that we can give to other communities in our drivable area to see who wants to join in. Maybe this sort of thing would be useful to you as well?
I'd love your thoughts on this. Know that I realize there are many things a rec system can do in order to get better. I think ours does a great job. I'm just looking at this one thing that can be done and will focus on it. Other things are in the works as well but all I can do is what I can do.
There are players who clearly need to leave rec and go traveling to continue to be challenged. There are other players who are on the edge of being able to be on a travel team yet won't get challenged fully by the rec system. The "tweeners" are what I will be talking about here.
Those tweeners need something to keep them challenged. If they were challenged they could grow even more and possibly move on to travel or stay within the rec but either way they would be better prepared for their junior high and high school teams when they get there.
My daughter is one of those tweeners (maybe she will make a travel team, maybe she won't) but I do know that she is similar to a bunch of players in our league that if they got to play together more often (in addition to all-stars) that it would be a good thing.
Here is my proposal in a nutshell: Form a team very early in the season and play other like teams on Sundays. Maybe a double-header every other weekend, two games on consecutive Sundays and on off, or something like that. Other communities that are in on this will do the same and we go play each other. Make them full on competitive games with a shared cost umpire. No "league" standings would be tracked. The teams would be chosen any way that community likes but ours would be open to anybody and is NOT the all-star team.
Some communities already do this, or appear to do this. I say this because some of the all-star teams we play in tournaments are very solid and look like they have played together for quite a while. This lead to us thinking "What are they doing that we are not?". During our regular league play we see that another community that we play are ahead of us in some aspects. What are they doing that we are not?
We know that each time that by making our rec league more competitive there is a certain layer of player that may be overwhelmed and not have an enjoyable experience. One way to increase the abilities of the more advanced rec player is to get them together and play more competitive games on a regular basis.
So.... I've told my rec system that I will be writing a proposal that we can give to other communities in our drivable area to see who wants to join in. Maybe this sort of thing would be useful to you as well?
I'd love your thoughts on this. Know that I realize there are many things a rec system can do in order to get better. I think ours does a great job. I'm just looking at this one thing that can be done and will focus on it. Other things are in the works as well but all I can do is what I can do.
