competitive little kid sports

[_33]

STATE CHAMPS!!!! 

Every Facebook friend I have whose children play baseball are also state champs it seems.

[steve dave]

STATE CHAMPS!!!! 

Every Facebook friend I have whose children play baseball are also state champs it seems.

There are a lot of state champs in baseball. Also a lot of “World Series” champs. Also a lot of hardware handed out to kids. I’m for it because kids love it. But there are a lot of different levels of “champs” in the sport.


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[steve dave]

also congrats to lil SF!

[wetwillie]

I think USSSA just crowns one state  champ per age and A, AA, AAA, Major.  That's about 30 teams across those combinations though. Probably 300 kids and 600+ parents claiming it.

[steve dave]

STATE CHAMPS!!!! 

Every Facebook friend I have whose children play baseball are also state champs it seems.

There are a lot of state champs in baseball. Also a lot of “World Series” champs. Also a lot of hardware handed out to kids. I’m for it because kids love it. But there are a lot of different levels of “champs” in the sport.


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like our team has gotten a lot of hardware this season but one we got was for 9th place. because we laid an egg in pool play and were in the "silver" bracket and ran the table in that bracket. so we finished 9th because the first 8 teams were in the top bracket and they gave the kids rings and they took the teams picture with a giant banner that said the name of the tourney "champions" and, folks, we were not the champions of crap other than beating crappy teams in the crappy bracket. so when you see people posting pictures like that it may be for something really good or it may be for 9th place.

[schreds21]

Lil Schreds (daughter) got second in Western Ks USSSA softball this weekend.  Girls played hard and we beat the champions early in bracket play but couldn't get it done in the champy game(s).  They were excited as hell about their rings so it was all good.

[michigancat]

STATE CHAMPS!!!! 

Every Facebook friend I have whose children play baseball are also state champs it seems.

There are a lot of state champs in baseball. Also a lot of “World Series” champs. Also a lot of hardware handed out to kids. I’m for it because kids love it. But there are a lot of different levels of “champs” in the sport.


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like our team has gotten a lot of hardware this season but one we got was for 9th place. because we laid an egg in pool play and were in the "silver" bracket and ran the table in that bracket. so we finished 9th because the first 8 teams were in the top bracket and they gave the kids rings and they took the teams picture with a giant banner that said the name of the tourney "champions" and, folks, we were not the champions of crap other than beating crappy teams in the crappy bracket. so when you see people posting pictures like that it may be for something really good or it may be for 9th place.

this happened to us in water polo but "platinum" has 24 teams. Got first in "gold" 2 years ago complete with fun medals and everything, then followed it up the next year with a rough ridin' bareknuckle fight for 17th in "platinum" that ended with a lot of grumpy folks glad it was over.

[Stupid Fitz]

I think USSSA just crowns one state  champ per age and A, AA, AAA, Major.  That's about 30 teams across those combinations though. Probably 300 kids and 600+ parents claiming it.

This is what Lil SF and bros won.

Also, this thread is my facebook

[Spracne]

Do you dads actually enjoy this stuff?

[michigancat]

Do you dads actually enjoy this stuff?

I had a blast with water polo before the most recent jerk of a coach. It's a great sport and my kid and I made lots of friends

[Stupid Fitz]

Do you dads actually enjoy this stuff?

Mostly, but it is def a grind. I'm pretty lucky to be with a legit team, but not crazy competitive. We start with light hitting around January, then play summer league and tournaments about every other weekend through end of June and will play a few tourneys in the fall. So it's not completely year round. We have a good group (kids and parents) and kids play other sports which our coaches encourage. There are def some weekends where it's a struggle for everyone, but I love baseball so i'm good with it. Like this weekend we played in the state tournament just coming off another tournament the weekend before. Back to back is rare, but it happened. Ran the table so it was 6 total games in 3 days, so there was no time to do anything else this weekend or last. It's fun though, and I view it as a great experience for him that he will always remember. Lil SF prob only has a couple years left until some of the really good kids on the team move on so we will stick with it as long as we can.

[steve dave]

Do you dads actually enjoy this stuff?

Yes


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[michigancat]

I'll also add that I enjoyed it but am glad it's pretty much over (although there might be club competition in college). It was a nice chapter.

[schreds21]

I like it.  I help coach so it's even more of a time suck but most of the time it's pretty fun.  The head coach shares the same philosophies about it as I do so that helps.  We are playing 8U so right now it's about teaching them the game and making sure they are having fun.  Our goal is to make them better ballplayers and have them wanting to come back next season.  The wins are nice but my gratification is in watching them progress and gain confidence and seeing the big smile on my daughter's face when she does well.  We encourage all the girls to play other sports and most of them do.  We will do voluntary hitting one day per week during winter and spring.  We start practice right after spring break because half our team plays soccer too(I don't enjoy soccer at all but at least I'm not coaching that one).  We play in the Salina league and it's one double header a week since we drive from McPherson and we practice once a week.  We also do 3-4 tournaments and are done by first week in July so we actually get a bit of a summer too.  We have a good group of kids and parents so that definitely helps.

[Cartierfor3]

Do you dads actually enjoy this stuff?

I'm happy with the path we took to hold back our 2nd from the club sports world until she hit 12. Ask me again in a year. I'm sure if my oldest had stuck with baseball I would enjoy the crap out of while complaining constantly about the $.

[steve dave]

we're in a tourney in sioux falls this weekend and the high temp is in the 70s

 

[Stupid Fitz]

we're in a tourney in sioux falls this weekend and the high temp is in the 70s

 

That sounds amazing after a state tournament weekend of every game in the upper 90's. It was brutal. Hope you guys don't get flooded. Go Lil SD

[steve dave]

we're in a tourney in sioux falls this weekend and the high temp is in the 70s

 

That sounds amazing after a state tournament weekend of every game in the upper 90's. It was brutal. Hope you guys don't get flooded. Go Lil SD

we played last night and first pitch the heat index was 105. by the end of the game it was like 30 degrees cooler and incredible out. mid game tornado sirens started going off and it got real windy and purple skies out but weather stayed east of us so we just played through it, lmao.

[Stupid Fitz]

we're in a tourney in sioux falls this weekend and the high temp is in the 70s

 

That sounds amazing after a state tournament weekend of every game in the upper 90's. It was brutal. Hope you guys don't get flooded. Go Lil SD

we played last night and first pitch the heat index was 105. by the end of the game it was like 30 degrees cooler and incredible out. mid game tornado sirens started going off and it got real windy and purple skies out but weather stayed east of us so we just played through it, lmao.

We played the late games last night. 3 and 2 is hilarious when it comes to this stuff. One game, there was lightning everywhere and they were like, "play ball!!!!!". Other times it barely sprinkles and they cancel. We played at 7:30 and they had announced previously that due to the heat they were shortening all games by 15 minutes, which is hilarious. By our 7:30 pm game, it was amazing outside, but they still shortened.

[Stupid Fitz]

Add League Champs to our trophy case. Pretty great year for a group of kids that don't play year round. They got huge rings which made me LOL. They have gotten rings before after winning a random tourney, but they were almost plastic feeling. These things are like 3lbs and huge. Pretty funny. Also, i'm def cool with the season being over. It's fun, but it is a lot and I'll be happy having some weekends back. Go Cats

[steve dave]

Here’s lil sd’s 2024 hardware collection with one tourney to go. caveat what I said earlier about travel ball making it rain hardware though, we did not win all these tournaments.




 


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[Stupid Fitz]

Nice. The rings are hilarious. Still mostly medals in our area apparently. One of his buds complained about getting a medal instead of a ring one time and I said, "what are you going to do with a giant ring for winning a random tournament". He replied, "well, what am I going to do with a medal". ha

[star seed 7]

Rings are way cooler than medals or trophies

[steve dave]

we have played in 7 tourneys and have finished with a winning record in 5 of them and a .500 record in 2 of them. feel really good about that because 2 seasons ago this team struggled to finish in the top half of 9U tourneys most of the time. they've come a long way. also we are almost assured of finishing in the top end of our final tournament given who we drew in pool play. should go into brackets with a 2-0 record and first round bye unless we lay an absolute egg. also have confirmed 100% of my team is coming back for next season which is really rare at this age in the soap opera that is travel baseball and I feel really puffed up as coach about that.

[steve dave]

Rings are way cooler than medals or trophies

agree 100% here. also they make some pretty cool ring display boards and I'm going to get lil sd one for his bedroom wall.