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Several years ago I worked as a basketball referee for our local Y. Our program was similar to the one mentioned in the OP. One year I suggested to the basketball program director that we designate one of our Saturday game days as a "Rollout the Basketballs Day". No coaches, no parents, just the kids on the teams, the refs, a scorer/clock person and one Y staff member assigned to each team to monitor equal playing time and to act in simply a supervisory capacity for the kids playing. It was a blast. It was like the after school driveway and play ground games many of us enjoyed as kids. With some "arms length" direction from their assigned Y staff member, the kids did everything. Coached themselves, called the timeouts, huddled and created their own plays, and did their own subs. How did they determine the 5 starters?. They shot free throws!
First 5 to make one started. Y supervisor simply monitored for equal playing time for all players.....they did not coach...the kids coached themselves. They even figured out when to have someone sit down because of foul trouble. It was great, kids had a blast, lots of laughs, no coach yelling at them for taking a shot too far out or turning the ball over.
I would love to do the same thing one day with youth baseball/softball.
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