Little League/How to drive kids and coaches away

"(4) Sons of managers and coaches are not included in the team composition until the manager and coach assignments are made, and then the sons are added to those teams."

Where the equity if Coach A's kid is a stud and Coach B's is a dud?

Never had a problem here. There'll always be studs and duds whether they are sons of managers and coaches or not.

"maximum of 15."

This is a difficult number to get every kid a lot of playing time. I didn't get my LL'ers (I'm also a travel coach) MPR. I played them all at least three innings unless there was a discipline problem. We had 21 games including playoffs. Every kid had at least 40 plate appearances. I don't believe kids get better with one plate appearance a game.

The MAXIMUM is 15. Never reached it yet. It's just to allow for all players to play whether teams are added or not. Try to keep max at 12 depending upon number who try out. Had a couple of years in which we had enough players to add to teams, but not enough to increase number of teams. This rule takes care of that.

"(6) players who participate on travel teams cannot participate in our league."

I could see this driving the best kids out of the league if all-stars doesn't have a positive history. Why would you want to limit the kids to 15-20 games a season? All-stars guarantees 2, 3 games? Our league encourages kids to play in other programs as long as LL is the priority. Do you have the all-star party/BBQ right after pool play?

If my son was limited to the short LL season, he might have left the league. I'm sure many other good players would have too.

"Parents of players who participate on travel teams cannot manage or coach in our league."

Our experience is that there is no such thing in reality of travel teams not interfering with LL teams. No LL player should be allowed to pitch in more than one game a week. That is the major interference. Travel managers may be more knowledgable, but that doesn't necessarily make them better coaches of LL-aged players.

In other words, travel is the enemy. I'm glad we don't live where you do. LL and travel live in harmony here.

Enemy? no. Just too much for our LL-aged players? IMO, yes. Playing 15 to 20 games in a short season with all stars added is plenty. We don't have a long season in the midwest, so we have to make sure we use what we have effectively. We don't live in the wonderful world of TG with abounding talent, and my children are not as multi talented as yours. But, what we have is a successful feeder program that regularly produces high school and college talent with more than our share of major league products through a system that attempts to provide a varied athletic background.