I love all these posts that insult the parents of the kids on select teams. Other than directly insulting kids, it is one of the most devious cheap shots on here; impossible to counter because when you do the original poster replies "you see, you people are nutty" (or words to that effect). Its like trying to disprove the negative and lets face it, is usually perpetrated by a person whose child did not make one of these teams. So let me add my two cents to the nutty parent issue: we have been involved with 3 organizations: - 2 travel, 1 PAL. In only one of those organizations did all of the following occur: - parents approaching, calling, texting and e-mailing the coach to tell him who should and should not be playing, and when - parents yelling insults at children who were not their own from the sideline - parents openly insulting other children, for example "this kid cant even catch, why is he in?" - arguments between parents of the same team on the sideline - parents who did not pay their way - other general "brown nosing" to get in good graces with the program (I will leave it there) - parents coaching from the sideline in direct conflict with what the coach is trying to achieve (e.g. Johnny, take it yourself, go to the cage")
Yes, that was in the PAL program if you havent already figured it out. Ours is considered one of the top programs on the island so if it happens in ours, it happens in yours too.
On a more positive note, we found the parents on both travel teams very pleasant and not "nutty" at all. As a matter of fact, parents from travel teams can leave all of the "town associated drama" and pre-conceived nonsense behind. No issues bleeding over from other sports, school, friends, etc. No resentment or jealousy towards other kids because they wont be competing against each other for a position at school. People actually rooted for other peoples' kids - and did it with sincerity!
