Our Town tournament team has the top 22 of about 45 kids who try out, but there is still a distribution of kids from very good to not good at all.
But our coaches play the boys mostly evenly. It costs them games, but it's a Town thing. For the most part, that's the right way to do it, but there are some kids who do not want to be there or work at getting better and honestly should not play a minute. It's unfair to the best kids, but you have to keep the peace.
That last part is a big one for me. My son in on a 2026 team, just following this discussion... His team has some below average kids who show very minimum effort and coachability AND they have been playing a few years. Then there are some brand new kids who started with almost zero skills (because they are new), but are trying/hustling, asking coaches questions, playing wall ball before after practice, etc. Some have caught up already. I'd rather lose games giving the latter group more time. But it's that first group that bothers me to no end because it's so futile.
