Yet another commish question

Alright DFPeople - I've prevailed upon our coordinator to change our rec age groups from by-grade to the more standard 6U-14U.

Of course, I've immediately got parents of kids who don't turn 5 until later in the year complaining.

I understand the concept of not being able to please everyone, but a good point was raised by one mom: why not have the 6U division allow girls who are in the same peer group play together? By that, she means allowing 4 year olds who are pre-K to play with 5 year olds who are pre-K.

I can see it both ways. I have concerns about 4 y.o. playing with 6 y.o., but I also see the value of not excluding girls in this age group.

Thoughts?

Bless your heart.

A rhetorical question to ask which may seem silly but needs to be asked is this. If you had a very smart 3 YO in Kindergarten and she or her parents wanted her to play, would you let her? Why or why not? Apply those answers to your decision. You have to have a cutoff age start somewhere. Whether it's by grade or age is arbitrary.

More then softball I tried to make sure no one got hurt, someone still always got hurt.

I would try to forget their age and group like players together. Yes, there are going to be some hard feelings no matter what you do.

Father is the commissioner of a LL baseball leaque. They came up with some goofy rule that any 12U that asks can play in the higher division. He is almost 100% talking to the parents that it might not be in the best interest of the child.

At 6 DD was going to be recruited by Arizona, I thought Mike might come to one of our games. Now I just like seeing her on the field somewhere because there is also a good chance I will get to see her hit too.

YOCOACH said:

A rhetorical question to ask which may seem silly but needs to be asked is this. If you had a very smart 3 YO in Kindergarten and she or her parents wanted her to play, would you let her? Why or why not? Apply those answers to your decision. You have to have a cutoff age start somewhere. Whether it's by grade or age is arbitrary.

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Here's how I see it: it is possible for a 7 year old to play in 6U vs a 4 year old if we make the exception. That seems to me to be too large an age gap, where the 4 year old is at a greater than usual risk of injury. I would hope that the parents of the 7 year old(s) would ask to play up, but what if they don't? This same logic would apply to a 3 year old playing against 6 year olds.

BuckeyeGuy said:

Here's how I see it: it is possible for a 7 year old to play in 6U vs a 4 year old if we make the exception. That seems to me to be too large an age gap, where the 4 year old is at a greater than usual risk of injury. I would hope that the parents of the 7 year old(s) would ask to play up, but what if they don't? This same logic would apply to a 3 year old playing against 6 year olds.

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And I agree with you. The point I was trying to make was that a cutoff age has to start somewhere and you can justify it by age with that argument. By the same token, at the age of 2, my DD was 3 feet tall and by the age of 4, almost 4 feet tall. She slowed down since then but still topped out at just under 6' now. When she played as a 5 YO, she was by far the tallest/biggest kid on the team (heck, the rec league age group) and played against girls as old as 9 since the rec age group was 6-9. Would your league exclude her based on age or would her physical size have made a difference? I'm not trying to argue with you. I'm just trying to give you some food for thought. As far as I can see, you're in a quandary and I don't envy you one bit

Yeah, I'm kinda torn. Probably would be an easier decision if she hadn't been incredibly condescending and then got her dad, a local HS coach involved. Thing is, every league I have checked out has a cutoff date that would exclude her daughter.


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Set the rules and processes that create the most equity and manage to scale. If you manage to the exception, you'll never get anything accomplished. Those 1-2 exceptions will get over it and your league as a whole will be better for you setting some clear policies that are best for the majority of the kids. IMHO

BuckeyeGuy said:

Alright DFPeople - I've prevailed upon our coordinator to change our rec age groups from by-grade to the more standard 6U-14U.

Of course, I've immediately got parents of kids who don't turn 5 until later in the year complaining.

I understand the concept of not being able to please everyone, but a good point was raised by one mom: why not have the 6U division allow girls who are in the same peer group play together? By that, she means allowing 4 year olds who are pre-K to play with 5 year olds who are pre-K.

I can see it both ways. I have concerns about 4 y.o. playing with 6 y.o., but I also see the value of not excluding girls in this age group.

Thoughts?

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What is the value of not excluding girls at this age?
Size and coordination level between 4 and 6 year olds is usually big but the largest gap is usually the maturity. The attention span of that 4 year old will make practices and learning more difficult for everyone and you can bet that this parent will be in the coach's ear pretty often about playing time. I would take into account the 5 year old or 6 year old who's spot she would take on the field. The time spent on correcting and corraling this 4 year old is being taken away from an age appropriate girl. If her argument is good for 6u then why won't it be good for 8u, 10u, or 12u? May as well get the issue addressed now. As far as dad is concerned, you have your rec league, he has his.

BuckeyeGuy - I have been on my local LL Board for what feels like an eternity and while I don't always agree with every rule in the book.....the rules in the book back up our decision making as a board. There are always gray or grey areas depending on interpretation but the rules, league ages, etc. have been put there for a purpose and used by 1000's of leagues throughout the country year after year with modifications made when necessary.

I only say this as a suggestion to stick to the "governing body" rule-book of whoever you are affiliated with. That way, when you do have the questions posed by the moms and dads you have something to point to that is a fairly hard line. If not, you will get challenged on every knit picking thing that a parent can come up with and find yourself spending tons of time thinking and questioning things when you have more important things to do.

Just my 2 cents and hope it helps some.