Can somebody help me clarify if the PD, specifically the PD baseball program enforce a rule saying that if your child plays in this particular park district program they can't play on any other baseball teams?

I think that a private organization could say this and the baseball organization used to be private, but once they became part of the PD, they don't have any business telling parents what they can or can't do with their child outside activities.

Any comments?

Maybe it's 'cause our resources are stretched with having 4 boys in baseball,
but I don't understand why one would WANT a child on more than 1 team??

Just curious....

That's what I was thinking, CMW. When we had three in the program, it was a 20+ hour a week time commitment to get them to practices and games - the older teams have three games a week and practice. That includes the time required to cheer their efforts during the games. Good times with a lot of good friends made, but I'm glad those days are past.

I'm just want to know if the PD has a league to stand on trying to tell a parent that if you sign your kid up for our PD program that your kid can't play anywhere else.

I don't think the park district should be able to say that at all! Example, your child plays RMS travel soccer; but also plays park district soccer during the fall with his/her friends. That's okay, right??

Another thought: Any child in Glen Ellyn should be able to play on a park district sponsored team - period end of story. If the parents choose to put their child on another team additionally to allow their child even more time to play their favorite sport then so be it. That should not be the business of the park district...In my opinion

I think they PD would have an interest in ensuring that kids who join the PD baseball aren't going to miss some large percentage of games/practices due to their also being on a different team. That wouldn't be too fair to the coaches or other players on the PD team.

What the percentage should be, who knows?

That said, I'm not sure the PD should have a right to exclude, just an interest.

As in politics, so long as a kid(parent) has fully disclosed their conflicts, it could then be up to the coaches to figure out if they want to "draft" that kid in the first place and how much playing time they'll let that kid have during the season. At least in the case of pitchers, PD coaches have a right to know (if only for the kid's arm's sake) how many innings a kid has pitched recently. You don't want to have a kid penciled in to pitch and then have his parent come up and tell you, "no, my kid can't pitch today, he's got a big game against Elmhurst tomorrow". If I were a coach, I'd have a problem with that.

Now that's a damn good answer.

Thanks, those were my thoughts as well.

I will edit myself for bad things will come if I do not.

We had this exact problem in our school basketball league, parents deciding to overbook their kids AND expecting the other coaches in the league to cowtow to their needs when their son has to play a Titan's game that conflicts with a practice time. And then their son let's his team down twice during a ten game season because his other team is more important.

Priorities need to be set and scheduling issues need to be addressed before attempting to particpate in multiple leagues at the same time.

Middlein87 has it exactly right. When Glen Baseball established that rule years ago (pre park district days) it was for the purpoase of protecting the arms of pitchers. As a rule, the players who would be most interested in playing on more than one team are the better players. Many of these are pitchers and it is much too difficult to monitor the amount of innings a pitcher throws if he is involved with multiple teams. Glen Ellyn Baseball, as do most programs, has restrictions on how much a player may pitch and it is important these limits not be exceeded.

quote:

Originally posted by Grateful:
Thanks, those were my thoughts as well.

Great.

I'm hoping I didn't give the impression that I was in favor of an outright ban. I'd just like to make sure coaches aren't "wasting" their draft picks (and I'm assuming there is a draft, I'm not too familiar with GE baseball beyond tee ball) on players who may not be able to be there all the time.

And I'd hope that the leagues (coaches) would be able to communicate about pitcher usage.

BBers
WE NEED YOUR HELP
As a tax payer to the Glen Ellyn Park District (GEPD), do you think it is right for the park district to tell you what you can sign your child up for?

As some of you know, I have broken the ice and formed a 10U travel baseball team that is playing in the West Suburban Baseball League with 27 other teams the same age. Our kids are way behind the curve as far as baseball skill and the kids are having a fun time learning to play competitive baseball in a fun environment.

The GEPD is trying to tell us that your child can only play baseball in the Glen Ellyn’s Park District Program. If they play in any other organized game, they will be kicked out of the park district baseball program. This of course is not their policy in girls’ softball, basketball, soccer or any other program they offer. But, the baseball board which made this rule 5 years ago before they were part of our park district is going to try and keep this “EXCULSIVE” rule in place to the detriment of our children.

The Baseball board has done everything they possibly can to stop our team from forming, but we have persevered.
Please tell your friends about what the baseball board is trying to do. THEY CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DICTATE WHAT SPORTS WE SIGN OUR CHILD UP FOR!

NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP. PLEASE ATTEND THE PARK DISTRICT BOARD MEETING TONIGHT AT SPRING AVENUE AND THE PARK DISTRICT BOARD TO MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS AND LET THE BOYS PLAY AS MUCH BASEBALL AS THEY WANT. 7:00pm TONIGHT AT SPRING AVENUE REC. CENTER.

YOUR PRESENCE AT THE MEETING WOULD MEAN A LOT TO ME and the other 24 parents involved in this new baseball organization.

I have three kids that play in various GE Park district sports. I have no problem with you forming your team BUT if your players also play on a park district team and they are missing practices and games because of the conflict of being on two teams, then I have problem with it. My kids have played short handed (if the opposing coach doesn't mind and forces them to forfeit) and get winded since they don't have subs. A team that doesn't practice together since some are regularly missing can't play cohesively in games. We stick to one team-one sport and are dedicated to that team, the coaches and teammates. If you can do the same being on two teams, great and good luck.

Grateful,

Are there steps that your team is taking to prevent the concerns that Dem raises? What about the whole pitcher rest thing. How has that shook out?

Grateful,

By "kicked out" do you mean this year or will they be "black balled" from any future playing in the PD program? Either way it is wrong and I will try to attend.

Ideally, the kids would go with the house league game, but what about kids that miss practice for a school drama club practice or a conflicting soccer practice?


The Pd can't tell a parent what they can sign there kid up for on their own time.

As posted previous, we only have our kids in one sport, on one team per season. They don't play baseball and soccer, only one. If a child misses one or two practices because of a conflict with drama or ochestra; so be it. BUT we've experienced too many consistley absent players due to teams/sports conflicts. This is one reason my husband won't coach next year. Kids today, especially in Glen Ellyn, are over-scheduled and too much into the "me". Two sports is a good experience for "me", and not thinking about TEAM concepts, commitments made and loyalties. Do these kids apologize to their soccer teammates when they picked a baseball game over a soccer gmae and his soccer team lost because they were short-handed?

Full Time Travel Baseball for kids 10 and under? What a joke. Let the kids play - all the positions - with all the kids in the local community and develop their talents along with the talents of other kids. AFTER they have done that, THEN establish some travel teams.

Sounds like the travel parents kids would in fact mess up a good thing for the rest of the community's kids. Sorry pal, I would support the decision of the baseball club and hope that the Park District Board would do the same.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Main Streeter,

We are in the West Suburban League with 27 other 10u teams from this area and the league is just 2 years old.
Don't we have 10u travel or club soccer, swimming, basketball, football. girls softball. etc. already available in this town.


It's not about what you as a parent would do for your child, but that the PD is saying if you sign your child up for our program, you can't have your child where another team's hat for even one game as a substitue.

You can be exclusive if you are a private team or club, but not to a taxpayer that signs up for one of your programs. It's none of their business.