All,

I have been in Little League since 1991… I have seen the gamut of draft “policies”, tryouts, and team picking. The two leagues that I was involved with at higher levels always drafted Minors and Majors. (8-10, and Majors). One even drafted Farm (7-8) … They held tryouts…for majors… all the managers got to see all the kids at tryouts .

As I have been focusing on making District 13 better in all respects, I have discovered a lot of discrepancies in performing the draft. Some leagues didn’t draft at all. Some had a convoluted process of drafting to the point where it appeared as if they had a draft but really just assigned kids from various travel ball teams to the teams they wanted… and even another just let the managers bring travel teams into the league as a unit.

So my first question is this.. I know what Little League says in the rule book and the website. I have been a player agent and ran drafts. I have talked with Kit about it… and one of my ADAs contacted Andrew and got something yet a little different. Do you all see a consistent approach being upheld in all cases? I am looking for fairness to all kids and honesty from boards… (pipe dream I know)….

What I read in the book is that majors (ages 9-12) draft. They have now ONE tryout that is mandatory. They may do a “legacy draft”, or a pool draft. (holding some over from the previous year to a team, OR everyone gets drafted every year). I know the distribution of 12 year olds needs to be … on “parity” and numbers count.

So --- Kit says that if the division is competitive, then they draft. (I asked what is the definition of competitive) – she said “If they keep score”) . I asked, “What about if they go to Districts as division, is that not competitive?”. The answer came back affirmative that could be considered a competitive division that a league sends to Districts.

Then, one of my ADAs called Andrew and he called Williamsport (or that was the report that came back from the ADA ) and the headshed said that only Majors needs to be drafted…

The whole reason I am getting into this during this year specifically is that I have had more parent calls than ever before, (Not board calls) asking why this league or that league is not drafting like they should… so the parents are concerned kids are being overlooked because they are not on someone’s “travel team”… or in the past they sense some unfairness in how teams are assigned.

So my questions to you all:

How do your leagues draft, and what do you uphold as far as procedure?
Do you have any draft irregularities in your leagues and how do you handle that?
What method do you all see prevailing in your leagues?

I have a meeting scheduled this week with Player Agents from each league, and if possible any board members and their presidents… I’d like to get all my ducks in a row before the meeting later this week. Your help and input is appreciated… thanks much…

Regards

DA WA13 and Kinda5 still