With All Of Life's Uncertainties

**7teen** · April 19th, 2009, 10:46 PM

I am fairly certain that there are more kids in Wise T-Ball than are in the rest of the Wise LL program combined. 8 teams with 10-15 kids per team.

In 10 years you'll be seeing plenty of these kids donning the Wise County (whatever geographical direction they name the new school) Uniforms. #17 for the Reds can rake it! And he's only 4!

hahaha

**7teen** · April 19th, 2009, 10:50 PM

To comment on the program as a whole, I feel one thing that really hurt the program (aside from the other things already mentioned which I agree with ALL of them) is the field(s) itself. When Wise LL was played on the current Girls SB field for Kelly, there were teams galore. People could drive through Wise and see games going on all the time.

Now while the fields at the airport are nice and offer more things, not having the league play IN or NEAR town I think hurts it as well.

I spent plenty of days and nights at the field either playing games, practicing, playing cup ball, etc...

**imported_Sportsfan** · April 21st, 2009, 01:21 PM

One thing with the numbers in T-ball, is the girls. They will move on to softball once they play a year or two of T-ball. Thankfully my child is out of Little League now, and I do hope things get better. The biggest problems that I saw all the years that he played, were dad's that had to make their son's all stars, no matter how the child played, and a lot of petty jealousy. The last several years that my son played, he had the same team mates. The older ones of course moved on, so they would have to split up the younger kids for each team. That is just the way they decided to do it, to try to make it more fair, and I think the kids enjoyed having the same team mates. It doesn't matter anyway, at some point they will all be playing together on the same team, and only those who work hard enough will get to play. Oh, and whoever was upset about the working hard bit for 9-12 year olds, they either did their jobs and got to play post season or they didn't. Who in their right mind would load a team full of kids that would rather play in the grass and dirt, then pay attention and play the game. They may be young, and little, but they still work hard, they love to win, and hate to lose, and I don't care if it's Little League, or college ball, there is still a job to be done. If a player doesn't do their job, then they may cause their team to lose. That's part of being on a team, everyone has their part to play, and sometimes even the best players can not make up for other's mistakes.

**Golic** · April 21st, 2009, 04:49 PM

I am not talking about post season! Post season (All-Stars) should be reserved for the best kids. Those kids should be pulled from the other 4, 6, 8 teams or however many you have. But as for the set teams you have in your league, those teams should not be divided up amongst ability with the best kids on one team.

I was under the impression that about 10 years ago, Wise Little League placed the best kids on the same team during the regular season, and allowed them to beat up on the other teams, causing kids on the losing teams to lose interest and not play. If so, then I blame that as one of the reasons why Wise Little League is in the shape it is in. If that was not what happened, then perhaps I was misinformed.

The regular season should be open to as many kids that want to play and the coaches of those teams should actually coach the kids on how to play the game. No, kids should not be playing in the dirt or the grass and if they are the coach needs to deal with them. If they continue to come out, then you give those kids their 2 innings or whatever the rules state and take them out. Little League in the regular season isn't just about winning.

"I trust in God
I love my country
and will respect its laws
I will play fair
and strive to win
But win or lose
I will always
do my best"

But once the season is over, you take your best and put them on a team for all-stars.

Sportsman* · April 21st, 2009, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by Golic

I am not talking about post season! Post season (All-Stars) should be reserved for the best kids. Those kids should be pulled from the other 4, 6, 8 teams or however many you have. But as for the set teams you have in your league, those teams should not be divided up amongst ability with the best kids on one team.

I was under the impression that about 10 years ago, Wise Little League placed the best kids on the same team during the regular season, and allowed them to beat up on the other teams, causing kids on the losing teams to lose interest and not play. If so, then I blame that as one of the reasons why Wise Little League is in the shape it is in. If that was not what happened, then perhaps I was misinformed.

The regular season should be open to as many kids that want to play and the coaches of those teams should actually coach the kids on how to play the game. No, kids should not be playing in the dirt or the grass and if they are the coach needs to deal with them. If they continue to come out, then you give those kids their 2 innings or whatever the rules state and take them out. Little League in the regular season isn't just about winning.

"I trust in God
I love my country
and will respect its laws
I will play fair
and strive to win
But win or lose
I will always
do my best"

But once the season is over, you take your best and put them on a team for all-stars.

You've been misinformed. Send me a PM and I'll give you the facts.

**lpdbsbl** · April 22nd, 2009, 08:53 AM

The kids should be split up, with this taking place by means of a draft. However, the teams shouldn't be completely re-drafted each year, just a supplemental type draft unless you gain so many new players that new teams have to be added. Also, on the little league level, all kids should be taught to play all positions possible. One of the biggest problems with baseball in our area now is that too many coaches at the little league level try to keep the kids in one position all the time. As kids grow and their bodies change, the kid that was only capable of playing outfiled at the time because of quickness, arm strength, etc. may wind up being a 3rd baseman, but has never played the infield and has to be taught from the ground up. In many ways, "travel ball" is killing the quality of baseball for those same reasons. Since the travel ball is all about winning, kids are again locked into learning one or two positions.

I do also feel that the the video games, computers, and other things of that nature have attributed to the decline of good athletes in our area as well. However, I had video games too, but my parents would make sure that I wasn't on them at all hours of the day and night because they would take us to the park or out in the back yard and we would play and be active. With the down turn in the economy, maybe more kids will have to revert to getting outside and playing some!

**yankeebaseball** · April 26th, 2009, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by Unchained

Shupe had so much more to work with when he was at JJK than Wyrick has had/has now. Drive out and watch some Little League there if you doubt it. When I played Little League baseball,we had 12 fully loaded teams. Now we struggle to field 4. When Dave took the reins at JJK the cupboard was completely bare. What he has managed to do here is truly remarkable.

thats just not true. shupe didnt want to wait on the kids he had to develop. Burton had kids that were winning on the levels before HS. He basically thought with any coaching he could maybe steal a title at Burton and give the finger to JJK. Saying the cupboard was bare is just false. Longworth, Stinson, Bates etc. Finished up in 2002 (GC had their run in between,producing high quality teams with the great run of athletes they had in all sports) Bentley/Kopp etc was a fresh in 2005 and the team they had now were all fresh in 06. Shupe saw a window in between (with other factors granted). Kelly would be where they are now with Shupe or Wyrek. Everyone knew as the 02 team ended that Bentley, Dotson etc. were waiting in the wings.

**BALLCOACH** · April 27th, 2009, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Bozman214

As far as little league goes Coach Shupe came to all of the games and had his teams drawn up years in advance, he could tell you who would be playing for JJK several years before they were even old enough. So little league is very important for all high school programs.

That is a true statement. I'll never forget walking into Coach Shupe's office back in 1990 when I was 12 years old and seeing a future list of teams from 1990-1997. Obviously I looked for my name and found it with the eventual position that I would play during my high school days. That's one thing I've never forgot over the years.

**starbuck** · April 27th, 2009, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by Bozman214

Back to the point...Coach Shupe didn't do anything amazing at JJK to be a sucess. He showed up and was given some of the finest athletes to ever play in the LPD. A coach is just a coach, it's the players who make the program a sucess, and with the talent pool Shupe had over the years at JJK a monkey could have had state titles. .

I disagree with this statement for a couple reasons. It is a combo of coach and athletes. You can have a great group of athletes but if you don't have anyone coaching them in the correct way it isn't going to happen. back in school at Norton we had the same type of athletes on the football team as we do now but we never had a winning season. In 86 we had a team that was basically in every game we played but 2 but could only muster a 4-6 record, never made the playoffs. We were playing the wrong scheme for the talent we had. we didn't have the people to play a power game but that what we were playing. at the end of my senior season after we went 1-9 and a coaching change took place in 2 years Norton was playing for a state title. don't try to tell me that a coach is just a coach and it is the players that make a program. A great coach with no players will look less and a program with great athletes and no direction is going to not have success.