Our organization has a 2 day tryout for our team every year.This is 16 hours of baseball on a weekend.We try to limit the number of players to around 80,by having kids fill out form with teams played for,honors earned,and a list of referances that we can talk to prior to tryouts.We also have people from around the state whose kids have played for us that we contact to see if kids are what they say they are. In a sense we have a pre tryout before they ever see the field.these kids are from through out the state and some travel as far as 250 miles for tryouts.We keep anywhere from 12 -16 players depending on pitching needs,or if maybe 2 kids are equal.Normally 1-8 are easy to pick as they are heads above others. 9-12 are always argued about till final decisions made and then 13-16 are put on a list fo about 6-8 kids and we discuss good/bad until final selections are made. Sometimes this process takes 3-4 hours to complete.All the evaluaters have seen players in differant stations,settings, Etc. Lots of times it comes down to not taking a kid because parents were real jerks all weekend.Last year had a boy who probably was in top 8 players but father was telling every coach/parent what they were doing wrong,how his son did it better,how we/they should do it- you get the picture.After the process is finished head coach has final decision on who he wants to keep.He then writes a letter to kids that made the team telling them congrats and dates of our first team meeting with parents with 4 hr practice to follow.Kids that didn't make the team are sent a form letter informing them that they didn't make the team and coaches phone number and hours to call if they want to discuss anything that took place. In most cses there will be probably 5-10 calls from parents that thought their kids had a shot at making team and in most cases they were on our final list.At this time we will ask them about the group that son was in and if they could pick anyone that they thought made it -they pick them out right away.After any other discussion our coach will tell them that if they want to come to our practices that they are more than welcome.We aren't going to change the team but it allows them to see if son is willing to work at his game to get better through our coaching.In most cases kids might come once or twice and it always shows that we made the right choice.We also receive calls from parents telling us that there kids had a great time at tryouts,learned a lot from our staff and knew that there son didn't make the team when they left .These parents usually will ask who made the team and we ask for feedback from them if they agree.This is also pretty positive from them that we made the right choices. We do have several former players dads that were major leaguers,college players and/or coaches and they are always willing to help out with tryouts and practices whenever they can.They also evaluate and help in the process of picking the team.This process has worked in our group for for 8 years and we keep trying to add more if we think it will help. Last October we held a camp on a Sunday to get the players that will be trying out for the team in 2005 what we were going to be looking for,what drills we run,fundamentals,etc. This gave them a chance to come in relaxed and just see what the tryout is all about and see some of the other players. This also gave us a chance to get an early start on evaluating for next years team.Oh, we had 45 kids show up and so far we have over 3/4 of them signed up or this years tryout!