We want to sign up our 11 year old son for spring baseball in McKinney. We have found 2 leagues - McKinney Little League and McKinney Baseball Association. Does anyone have some insight or experience with the major differences between the two? We are looking for a more "laid back" approach rather than intense pressure to win.
Thanks for your time!
My son has played with both leauges. I personally like McKinney Little Leaugue better. I don't think they have been around for as long as McKinney Baseball Association, but I like their schedules, pictures, fields and trophies better. On the laid back part... my son is only 6 so at this age they seem to both be pretty laid back. Hopefully you will get some responses from moms with older kids too.
Good luck!
My experience with MLLB was that how laid back it was depended on which coach you get.
My son-in-law coaches for the MBA (Red Sox team) and they are very laid back. The parents are very supportive as are the coaches. If you would like his emal to ask him any questions just drop me a line.
For a couple of years, the MBA and MLLB had joined together. I couldn't really tell any difference when they were together vs. apart. As far as the approoch goes, it really depends on the coach. My son's first coach in MLLB was very competitive and only played the other coaches' kids. Since then we've had a fairly good balance. My suggestion would be to ask the moms of your son's friends and see if they are already on a team they like. We played with the Angels last season (Majors, which is 12U) and I don't yet know if we are going to go back to that team or look for another one. The Angel's coach was not as into developing the players as I would've liked, but he's a very nice guy and he doesn't yell or abuse the kids. He's also very good at communicating. We had once coach that was a terrible communicator and it made coordination a nightmare for us (my two daughters play softball).
Depending on where you live, though, I would check into the Allen or Frisco leagues. Both of those leagues seem to be run much better and more efficiently than the McKinney leagues. Not sure why that is, but we hear wonderful things about the Allen league particularly. Unfortunately, it's too far for us.
Good Luck!