outfielders...

Actually, Kathy (is this the one in Cinci??), outfield is a key with all travel ball ages, at least what I've seen.

For your question as "how I did it," I simply set the tone by putting my own son in CF. Two reasons, here: he is by far our best outfielder; and it set the tone for the rest of the players (and parents). Our philsophy is simple: you hustle and work in outfield drills (we run ALL our players through I.F. and O.F.) or you won't see any I.F. time.

Don't get me wrong. Life isn't all rosey, as parents still want to see there sons in the infield, but as our team has improved, we've had players come and ask if they can play the outfield in our non-tournament games. The end result has been that we now have a 12-U team that has virtually interchangable parts, except for P/C. I could actually pull a name and position out of a hat and not go wrong; and that helps everybody, not just the pitchers. JT

ps if this is Cinci Kathy: go Astros!!