joes87 posted:Define "The Best". Is it the team that wins the most games? The team that does the best job of developing the kids to play "at the next level". The team that does the best job getting the kids in the right places to be seen?
IMO there is no reason for a 9YO to be too concerned about being on the best team. They should be playing on the team that gets them the most on field time and provides good development through coaching. Now if the goal is to play in college (which it should not be at that age) and your path to college runs through a program which is difficult to make at the older level as spaces are locked up at a younger age then you may want to consider getting involved in that program at a younger age.
Isn't this really the question? How do we define elite or best? In our case my son is clearly not good enough to be on some super team that just meets at tournaments and has players from several states. So for him there are really only a few choices. There are about 4 or 5 'best' organizations/teams in the entire state. Only two are within an hour. He is at one of them. He is 14u. One of the parents said the other day "how cool is this for the kids... A Florida commit and possible draft pick out of HS is giving them front toss" I guess I never really thought about it that way. There are a bunch of D1 commits at our place. But then I stopped and thought about what he said... Its true it is neat. And they see these kids first hand and their work ethic. And they understand what it takes and what you have to become. I think that may be the most important part of being with an 'elite' organization.