Yesterday the Tulsa Little League team was removed from the Little League World Series. Later a judge ordered them allowed to play Texas today for the SW Regional championship. Texas had defeated Louisiana, the game was supposed to be Louisiana vs Tulsa with the winner playing Texas today. After Tulsa was removed, the championship game was moved up.
I cannot find the court ruling itself but below has portions. Tulsa admits using an illegal player in the state championships, but not in this regional. According to many people online, the illegal player doesn't live in the Tulsa boundary, but his sister is a special needs player whose home district does not offer a program for special needs. By rules, she and her siblings become eligible in nearby districts that offer such. The problem is, Tulsa also does not offer a challenger league. Some say that Tulsa even faked scorebooks, but that is not a widespread view.
To LLWS, the state tournament and the international are one and the same, so playing an illegal player there doesn't insulate one from punishment in the international.
Tulsa also had its girls softball team removed a month ago for illegal players.
Why do judges feel so inclined to determine sports? This isn't as bad as the Sorsby case, but it seems egregious to me. Sports aren't decided by the rules of the sport but by who can hire the best lawyer. Because of strict pitch count rules, Texas will be playing at a disadvantage when they earned the advantage.
@arthur-dent literally texting with our law school crew now about this. They are saying these are far from the elite kids anymore. Travel etc crushed this. I never knew that. I assumed llws was the best.
@arthur-dent literally texting with our law school crew now about this. They are saying these are far from the elite kids anymore. Travel etc crushed this. I never knew that. I assumed llws was the best.
The quest to squeeze every dollar possible from parents have ruined youth sports. Sure, the elite get better coaching, but families are going into serious debt. And the odds of the full-ride still just aren't good.
A couple of years ago I started a thread on Michael Lewis' book on youth sports. It really was amazing how much parents are spending. LLWS obviously isn't profit driven enough so parents have moved on. Just like high school sports where in many sports kids now do travel instead. We need to make sure these hedge funds make more.
@arthur-dent we’ve been talking about it off and on non stop on our text group. The parents are delusional. D1 soccer is impossible now. MO State U now has 28 internationals on the roster. These parents are paying a fortune and it ain’t for a D1 scholly. It’s for the memories they are making. They just don’t realize it yet.
I have the greatest small sided turf enclosed soccer field by my house I’ve ever seen. It’s phenomenal. Truly. When we were kids we’d have played pick up there every waking hour. We played on the street. My minion. Good young technical player. NEVER wants to practice on his own. None of the kids do. Here’s my theory. We’ve ruined it for them. They don’t think of going outside to play 3v3 as fun. It’s so regimented that they now think of sports, training, practice, travel as one more structured thing they are required to do. Like school. Not a fun free time thing.
@arthur-dent we’ve been talking about it off and on non stop on our text group. The parents are delusional. D1 soccer is impossible now. MO State U now has 28 internationals on the roster. These parents are paying a fortune and it ain’t for a D1 scholly. It’s for the memories they are making. They just don’t realize it yet.
I have the greatest small sided turf enclosed soccer field by my house I’ve ever seen. It’s phenomenal. Truly. When we were kids we’d have played pick up there every waking hour. We played on the street. My minion. Good young technical player. NEVER wants to practice on his own. None of the kids do. Here’s my theory. We’ve ruined it for them. They don’t think of going outside to play 3v3 as fun. It’s so regimented that they now think of sports, training, practice, travel as one more structured thing they are required to do. Like school. Not a fun free time thing.
sad. We blew it.
I'm just at the onset - U9 traveling to Des Moines, Fargo, etc. to play teams in the same area. Fees on fees. Practice now 3 days/wk.
@arthur-dent we’ve been talking about it off and on non stop on our text group. The parents are delusional. D1 soccer is impossible now. MO State U now has 28 internationals on the roster. These parents are paying a fortune and it ain’t for a D1 scholly. It’s for the memories they are making. They just don’t realize it yet.
I have the greatest small sided turf enclosed soccer field by my house I’ve ever seen. It’s phenomenal. Truly. When we were kids we’d have played pick up there every waking hour. We played on the street. My minion. Good young technical player. NEVER wants to practice on his own. None of the kids do. Here’s my theory. We’ve ruined it for them. They don’t think of going outside to play 3v3 as fun. It’s so regimented that they now think of sports, training, practice, travel as one more structured thing they are required to do. Like school. Not a fun free time thing.
sad. We blew it.
I'm just at the onset - U9 traveling to Des Moines, Fargo, etc. to play teams in the same area. Fees on fees. Practice now 3 days/wk.
You're going from a larger metro area to a smaller metro area to play teams. Now that's dumber than shit. Course, central Indiana does the same nonsense but at least they built GRand Park so everybody just come here now. There's like 5 or 6 really good programs in central IN all less than an hour from each other, yet they all will travel out of state at levels BELOW ECNL. Total rubbish money grab bullshit.
@jdb mls nxt Ecnl and on and are ridiculous. It’s a money grab. If you live in a decent sized city there is absolutely no reason to travel. None. when I played you got one trip a year. Holidome. Pizza Hut. Fabulous.
now these parents are expected to travel every other weekend! Nationals for ten days. 11 month season.
@jdb mls nxt Ecnl and on and are ridiculous. It’s a money grab. If you live in a decent sized city there is absolutely no reason to travel. None. when I played you got one trip a year. Holidome. Pizza Hut. Fabulous.
now these parents are expected to travel every other weekend! Nationals for ten days. 11 month season.
@larsiu all of this so my kid can maybe play NAIA soccer
@jdb shit that’s all foreigners too. When I was in college there was a school called the college of Boca raton. It became Lynn university. We were a top ten d1 team. Beat Reyna’s uva. Made the tourney blah blah blah. Best team I played in college was a practice game against the college of Boca raton. They were Fing men. There’s always been Rando naias that are great. Sangamon state. Lynn. Lindsey Wilson.
@jdb mls nxt Ecnl and on and are ridiculous. It’s a money grab. If you live in a decent sized city there is absolutely no reason to travel. None. when I played you got one trip a year. Holidome. Pizza Hut. Fabulous.
now these parents are expected to travel every other weekend! Nationals for ten days. 11 month season.
@larsiu all of this so my kid can maybe play NAIA soccer
@jdb I will tell you the counter. My dad after I left for college left my mom. We were playing at Duke and he was a big guy with a heavy beard and one of my buddy’s said hey I think that’s your pop in the crowd. Long story short he came back to school with me and gave me a check for five grand. I didn’t hear from again for three years. Total midlife crisis. Left my mom his job. All of it.
he later said that when I left for school he didn’t know what to do with himself. Me. And games. And practice. And soccer was his whole life and his favorite part of life.
I think if you just focus on the time together doing all that stuff and look at that as the end it’s worth it. The time in the car. Travel. Talking. I mean otherwise what? How many Fing times can you go to the zoo and history museum
@jdb I will tell you the counter. My dad after I left for college left my mom. We were playing at Duke and he was a big guy with a heavy beard and one of my buddy’s said hey I think that’s your pop in the crowd. Long story short he came back to school with me and gave me a check for five grand. I didn’t hear from again for three years. Total midlife crisis. Left my mom his job. All of it.
he later said that when I left for school he didn’t know what to do with himself. Me. And games. And practice. And soccer was his whole life and his favorite part of life.
I think if you just focus on the time together doing all that stuff and look at that as the end it’s worth it. The time in the car. Travel. Talking. I mean otherwise what? How many Fing times can you go to the zoo and history museum
When my GS played HS hockey, they had two teams with one group of coaches and players. One Travel/Tournament team and the sanctioned HS team. HS players were selected by a competitive process and the players were required to play on both teams. The travel team played tournaments all over the U.S. at 8 or 9 different locations. About one a month for the school year. GS had a blast, but they burned through a lot of money, some of it a grandparent’s scholarship.
After graduation, he was young enough to play on a rec team with one of his HS buddies. Game quality was awful compared to high level HS. in the final playoffs GS got pissed, broke his stick, and was ejected. That is how his youth hockey ended.
