Quote:
Originally Posted by Arles
I've been the VP of Operations for our local Little League for two years. Working with the president, we've setup a pretty good set of procedures and rules that everyone seems to be following (to prevent that kind of chaos). I will be off the board in the fall, and my hope is the next guy just follows what we have.
I've been involved with both Little league and Pony and think Little League is far superior. It may just be a result of our area, but there's such a better national infrastructure there. We are joining a Brazilian soccer team/league as well this spring and I will see how that goes. Youth sports is a minefield and the corruption/shadiness is pretty prevalent. Outside of joining a board or coaching yourself, I'm not really sure how you avoid it.
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Little league has died off here a few years ago and every attempt to bring it back has failed except on the north end of Tacoma where they keep it rather exclusive. I like the organization that Little League brings, but parents in this area tend to want something more competitive. Tacoma PONY died off 5-6 years ago when their President was indicted for using the league as a personal bank account.
The PONY league I was VP of went from the brink of death to expanding and thriving before the local sports director at the city's parks and rec department decided he was going to create a competitive baseball league. Rather than work with the other leagues in the area he tried to undercut prices and leverage his access to city fields. He gutted our league, ran his league for 3 years, and his league was folded last year when he was promoted out of his sports director position and the guy that replaced him had no interest in maintaining a competitive baseball league.
What we're left with at this point is Rec level baseball in Tacoma (pop:215k) and Lakewood (pop: 60k) through 12u. After 12u your only real option is highly competitive select baseball based out of Seattle.