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Originally posted by BREAMKING

Bmoser you do realize this is not the same Titans team as last fall. They are way better than they were just a couple of weeks ago. I agree they are pretty darn good and really hot right now. Would love to see a top five matchup with them being involved.

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Originally posted by in_the_know

I've been hearing more and more dads chiming in earlier and earier each year regarding a "dream team" forming in Georgia to compete at a national level. IMHO, this would be one of the worst ideas and wouldn't last for the following reasons.

1. The focus at 10, 11, 12, 13 should be to develop the kids for high school or whatever future they may have in the sport. To try and pull together 12 kids at these ages with the sole purpose of "competing" at a national level would be an incredible disservice to these young boys. There would be no focus on developing them a different positions or working on specific skills (bunting, moving runners, switch hitting, etc) as the stated goal would be to win now. Players would get pigeon holed into certain positions. It is very likely that most if not all would ultimately attend different high schools where they would likely be called on to play a different position than on their "dream team". This would do little to prepare them for that future.

2. If you put all the top kids (and certainly a big focus would be on pitchers), how would these kids get enough AB's against live pitching of adequate caliber? Now, on any given weekend, you can play against the top 1 or 2 aces on any staff of most metro teams and run into a buzz saw. If those kids are all consolidated onto a single team, then you have to face the teams from NC, Ohio, FL, etc., to face that level of pitching. How often are you going to do this? Maybe 2-3 times a season vs. the chance to do it every weekend here in Georgia. The only real option would be to play up in every tournament. The 12u Astros did this a great deal early this season and played alot of 3 and out tournaments. Heard some grumblings along the way....

3. Will the kids have fun? Face it, these little guys like playing with their friends. Sure, they will make new friends along the way, but for many of these guys, the majority of their fun is the time between games or in the dugout with their team mates. This is a big reason that the kids don't burn-out. Take part of this away, and how many of them will weather a season of the demands put on them. We hear time and time again that part of the Bandits success is cemented in the play time they have together off the ballfield. Until this year, all their full-season players were from the local community and they had the ability to hang before and after practice to do this. To put this team together, you'd have to drive from the 4 corners of Atlanta and beyond. The doesn't really support much time together outside of practice and games.

4. In line with #3, what about team & family chemistry. As important as the kids having fun, the parents need to gel as well. Look at the title of the topic that started this thread "Tension". How do you think little Johnny's dad is going to handle little Johnny being the 8 hitter and playing 3 innings a game in the outfield instead of being the 3 hitting SS playing every inning with his team today? Don't think that will cause some tension?

5. Coaches. Who would coach this team. Again, the topic of this thread points out all the dislikes between coaches, kids, parents, etc. Next year we'll see the shuffle of all of the above and guess what; by the end of the year you'll see the same thing. The song remains the same, only the names and uniforms change.


Look at Shut Out's statement, "Sounds like the usual ECB team shuffling is unfortunately already starting.". As he points out, this is not unusual. There is a certain 12u team out of ECB that has been working toward doing this since 10's. Each year he picks up and drops players during the season. He starts out strong each year, but typically, around this time of year, families start fleeing like rats off a sinking ship. Why is this? My guess is that most aren't willing to trade the downside (just a little of which I've mentioned above) for the "status" of having some elite dream team.

There is so much talent around here between the ages of 8 up that keeping it distributed is the best thing that can be done for developing these kids.

Most of this chatter is driven from the egos of Dads that seem to care what someone from Florida enters on a discussion board that their state is better than ours. This isn't something that I've ever heard a kid at this age say they would want and, outside of college football, I've never heard a kid care if Georgia was better than Florida or Carolina or Tennessee or vice-versa.

There are many more reasons than what I've listed against this being a good idea, and certainly, many of you will argue against these with some very valid points. As you do, I suggest that you consider we're talking about kids, not adults, or even young men yet. Also, ask yourself whether your points are rooted in your your kids best interest in developing. If you think that he gains some national exposure by all this that will make him the next Bryce Harper, you may be right, but I'll also point out that there were 924 other players taken in the draft, all of which took different routes to get where this point in their career.

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