Originally Posted by ProtonPower
I suppose there are very weak school teams out there, but where I live there is a select team for 7th and a select team for 8th, and then a combined 7/8th team for the next players down. Anyone taking their son off the select grade team -- with 4 or 5 practices a week + games, all of which are already paid for by your taxes -- just to play with maybe one or two "better" players on a club and pay out the nose for that privilege -- would be viewed as insane.

And considering the middle school program is the pipeline to the high school team, pulling him could have a negative impact on his future prospects within that system.

I also believe the club programs will lose ground even for the summer ... each year another group of school district coaches form "school"/town summer programs, and there has been movement off the club teams on to those town select squads. Parents are tiring of the high club fees, and the summer programs being run by the local school coaches are generally cheaper (not always, but far from the most expensive). This trend will continue as local coaches will continue jumping on the summer fees bandwagon, and parents will want to make those connections.

That's great they split it up like that. how many boys to they carry on the select 7 and 8 teams?