I know the terms "competitive" and "6th grade" are incongruous, but that's the terminology the leagues around here use. It's to differentiate the purely recreational leagues from the ones that try to "train" kids to play on HS teams.
For instance, there's two leagues that operate in my city. I'm on the Board of the rec league. We have about 900 kids in grades 3-12 who (most of them, anyway) play for the fun of it. We try to emphasize sportsmanship, fun and fundamentals over competitiveness. We're pretty successful at it, although there's bound to be some exceptions. Some of the "better" players can't afford to play in the other organization so they wind up on one of our teams. Our policy is that any kid who wants to play can play. We even have a "scholarship fund" to help kids from low-income families. No one is flat turned away.
The other league has kids from grades 5-8 and has teams in about six or seven cities in this area. Players are selected at tryouts. It's relatively expensive to play in this (and similar) leagues around here. The emphasis is on winning. I referee in this league, too - and there's a huge difference in the attitude of the parents. In all fairness, most of the coaches are OK with the refs and I've come to know a few of them from working their games over the years. Oh yeah - these guys pay at the game, usually in cash, sometimes by check.
