Draft night

[Mark Padgett]

Last night, during the 7th grade boys draft, we got down to the last few rounds and one of the coaches said that when he gets to the end of the draft, there's not much difference between the remaining players, so he just drafts the kids with the best looking moms.

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Last night, during the 7th grade boys draft, we got down to the last few rounds and one of the coaches said that when he gets to the end of the draft, there's not much difference between the remaining players, so he just drafts the kids with the best looking moms.

A very smart coach!

[Amesman]

Journalist Bill Geist made that approach pretty famous in "Little League Confidential," his tale as a kids' baseball coach. I think his other main criteria was you have to pick a kid whose family has a great pool so you can have a really cool team party.

Mark, I like the hat-pick action for no-shows at tryouts. How does your league handle latecomers -- those who decide they want to play after the draft, eval day, etc.? My kids' league always has some, and I agree they should get a shot since it's house ball.

But it seems you get either very good players or very weak ones who do that, the former often miraculously knowing one of the coaches really well -- a gracious type who will usually offer to absorb the poor stud onto his roster. Or the mom/dad simply says Billy can't make practice a certain night so, voila, wouldn't you know he can make the top team's practice night ...

Also, does our league make coaches 'seed' their own kids so that at draft day those who have all-star sons aren't automatically two steps ahead (their 'assistants' have great sons, too, of course) of good-natured volunteers who might have weaker players for sons? House ball stinks if there's no attempt at parity. I say that as coach (whose been on both sides of the ledger), parent and official.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Amesman

Mark, I like the hat-pick action for no-shows at tryouts. How does your league handle latecomers -- those who decide they want to play after the draft, eval day, etc.? My kids' league always has some, and I agree they should get a shot since it's house ball.

But it seems you get either very good players or very weak ones who do that, the former often miraculously knowing one of the coaches really well -- a gracious type who will usually offer to absorb the poor stud onto his roster. Or the mom/dad simply says Billy can't make practice a certain night so, voila, wouldn't you know he can make the top team's practice night ...

First of all, the really "top" kids are probably playing in the area's "competitive" program. Our league is purely recreational. Second, we will take "late" kids up until practices start - not after that. If a kid signs up that late, he goes on whatever team would have had the next "hat pick" in draft order, and so on with any others - so the opportunity to "misappropriate" a kid is almost impossible. Actually, we almost never get "late" kids.

The reason we initially put in the "hat pick" protocol for kids who missed tryouts came about years ago before there was a separate "competitive" program around here and some coaches would tell certain kids (a "top" one, obviously) not to come to tryouts so the other coaches wouldn't see their skills, then that coach would draft them. We only had a very few jerks like that over the years, but we had to do something.

We also do not allow "trading". Once a kid is drafted onto a team, that's it. We tell parents that if they want their kid on a certain coach's team, then volunteer to be that person's assistant coach and your two kids will be on the same team (and each team has one HC and a max of one AC). That's the only way - period - no exceptions. Oh yeah - we do place twins on the same team automatically (they take up two draft choices) unless their parents ask for them to be separated, which sometimes happens.

We've been doing this for over 30 years and we think we got it all covered.