Originally Posted by Anonymous


Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
You are all out of your minds. Embarrassing yourselves. If you think PAL matters and waste your time talking about it or ranking town teams you really have no clue. PAL is dying. Yes for beginner boys it's fine but once they start hitting this age, travel is where you should be focused. This conversation going on is screaming daddy coaches and " my town is better than yours" get a life if you think going forward PAL matters. What matters is the training they are getting at the travel level and the caliber of boys they are playing around. That's going to take them to the next level. Now with the early recruiting being banned until 11th grade,the club teams will be that much more important in painting a picture of your son to schools( if that's the direction he wants to go ) . Go ahead and argue this but when the time comes look at the registration stats for town ball. Less and less. Travel more and more. And the downturn in registration Plus the everlasting daddy coaches is a double whammy. PAL was there for both my boys but now from what I see it's not looking too good . Sad but that's how it looks.


I have to agree, sad. PAL is fading. The shift is club (still growing) and town teams that just play tourneys.


I'm sure everyone on this site understands the significance of travel teams. But, last I checked, town teams turn into HS teams. If you follow HS teams, then town teams still matter. The question is, are players still playing on both town teams and travel teams? Or, are they foregoing their town teams and just doing their travel teams? If that is happening in a significant way, then yes, the town teams are not so significant. I'm sure that's different for every team, but for teams where that's happening, obviously that makes a huge difference.


Maybe it would be different if high schools had any involvement in the PAL programs what so ever. They do not. Most PAL teams (not all) are a few kids that play travel, then a bunch of kids that just want something to do in the spring. My son gets frustrated playing with those kids, frustrated with the coach when he gets told to do something different and incorrectly from what his travel coaches teach him. With 2 club practices a week in the spring and 3 spring tourneys, he will not be missing anything by staying away from PAL.