I do greatly appreciate the "practice player" moniker and role. Makes it a lot easier to say "no" to a girl if you can offer them a practice player spot.
I’m very surprised that a softball hotbed like SoCal doesn’t have middle school sports. Our MS teams play in the same conference as the high school against the other middle school teams. There’s no championship, but they practice every day and play three games a week. It’s a big deal, tryouts are today and there are 25 kids trying out for the team.