Little League Junior Gold Pilot Program

We have been trying to get the LL here to do something similar. How did you all get this started? Can you give more details about it? Please any and all info would be appreciated!

Sounds like a good idea. Why did it have to be 13's only? Most of the kids who left district 13 leagues, left LL juniors to go to a strong PONY program with top notch 14yo players as well as the area's best 13yo.

This is not a knock, if youre boys are having fun and doing well then all is well. I believe what I just typed because its true!

Here's the "but":

At 13 if the kid cant transition to 60/90 well... then he should stay at 80 foot bases and keep having fun.

Then again there is always the the late bloomer exception.

My only advice is if you think the boy has upside leave LL. Find out when the fall tryouts are and get him there. If it works out for him come spring he'll have much more fun... guaranteed

I think the age 13 was chosen beacuse this is the age that Little League seems to lose most of their players. As I understand it, next year they will include 14's also. District 57 is the district you need to contact for information about this program. As far as the bases....we played about 1/4 of the games at 90's. We played alot of good competition, for these kids were the best 13's in these districts. My son plays travel ball all year, and was not looking forward to playing Junior little League because the competition is just not the same. Where I live we do not have anything other then Little League. My son played out of our district to participate in the Gold Program. The cost is a little more but you play better competition and more games.

As a matter of fact, my son transitioned very well to the 60/90 field this spring. That's all we played on. It was the other kids who had problems. I wasn't asking about the program for the base size. I simply wanted an alternative to junior LL which offers no competition and travel teams in our area which can cost around $6000 a season and some of which are not really that competitive. This sounds like a possible alternative.

Izzismom-My son also transitioned well to the bases. We didn't join the gold program for base transition, we joined it for better competition and it was a great alternative for Junior Little League. You can E-mail California's district 57 and get all the info you need on it.

Starr-- Thanks, I'll do that.