When you need to change leagues...

There comes a time when good things come to an end. ...and sometimes, that means you have the need to change sports leagues for your child. This could be for many reasons...

• You're moving
• The kid outgrew the old league
• You're changing sports

Or, the league is no longer meeting your needs and expectations. That's the problem I have. For many years, we have been running our kids through the current program each season. Started with the oldest, and now with the middle - and planned to have the youngest there too. But then things got weird.

Instead of "regular" games, we have "tournament-style" games, where you play little mini games, and a bunch of them - instead of 1 game, or the occasional double-header. Instead of pre-announcing the schedule at the beginning of the season, we go crazy on Friday or Saturday morning figuring out game times. Sound confusing? It's not the half of it.

I've been coaching my kids in parallel all season. Those in charge of the schedule are well aware of this - and, of course, they "value their volunteer coaches". Like hell. I can count how many weeks my kids games haven't overlapped (and there's no need for them to...) - 1. Exactly 1. If all of that weren't enough, the guys running the clock are confused, and the refs assigned to the 8-9 year-old basketball games have been marginal. Ok, so they've gotten way better, especially lately, but still...

Thinking back to when we first started, there was a time we were changing sports directors like we changed socks... almost on a season-by-season basis. Even that was probably better. So, perhaps we'll try a different route for the fall sports.

It is truly unfortunate when adults ruin kids sports - through whatever behaviors, bureaucracy, or what have you. Maybe the kids should run their own leagues?