02-27-2019, 03:44 PM
Quote:Little league around me has been decimated by travel teams and soccer. The better half of baseball players are nearly all playing on travel teams and after the age of 10 are no longer playing recreation little league. So you have 120 players in the 9-10 age group and 50-60 in the 11-12 age group in my son's league. Soccer is also exploding around here and taking from all of the major sports.
Soccer is massive by me, too. And everywhere, I think. It has definitely taken a huge bite out of baseball/basketball/football. When I mentioned little league, I was lumping travel teams in there as well. Our community does a rec league and a more competitive league; but there are also a lot of pay-to-play organizations who definitely pick off a lot of good players from the community leagues.
What's really interesting is how much football has suffered around me. One of the local high school's football teams (which was once insanely competitive) is now no-cut because so few kids are trying out now. I guess parents aren't digging the concussion stuff all that much...