What age group? If he was trying out for a group that played last year, it was an uphill battle.

I'm sure the tryout was completely open, but the reality is any new player has to be noticeably better than one of the existing players to knock someone off the team. If he is basically at the same level as an existing player, they will probably keep the existing player.

The math always works against the new kids. If they had 20+ kids returning from last year, and 60 additional kids trying out, how many of the 60 had a realistic chance of making the team? Maybe there were 2 open spots, and 2 existing players they wanted to replace, and 1 that simply got outplayed. That's just a guess. (And saying there were 5 open spots going into the tryout is probably an over estimate.) But if that's close to reality, that means 60 new kids went out for 5 places. And if those 5 spots were at positions your son doesn't play, it might have been impossible to break in.

Nothing against TB or any of the other clubs. If my son were on TB last year, and we paid the fees, and the coaches new and liked him, and there was nobody obviously better than him at his position, then it would have been tough (and probably unfair) for them to tell us to go somewhere else this year.

We're in the same position. But that's how I explained it to my son, and I think he felt better about it.