Can't Decide What To Do (Advice Wanted)
Hi Home Plate Parents - Please help. My wife and I don't know what to do and our son is conflicted and what to do and I would love some HomePlate insight since I feel like every parent on this sub can relate. Sorry if this post ends up being long, we just want some advice. Some details are changed because we want to keep this anonymous and we're using a throwaway account here.
Background: My son is an 11U player and has been playing with the same core group of boys for 3 years. Good families and we all generally get along really well. This year, the organization brought in a "pro-coach" who is a HS coach in our city. We loved the coaching and my son developed a lot, but we do not like the coach for our son. He swears a lot and says some very misogynic and borderline racist things. A lot of "it's just a joke". That aside, we decided to try out for other teams this year and we're proud that he made 4 really great teams and we've narrowed it down to the two we're most seriously considering. The problem is that we can't figure out what to do, and our son is having a really hard time making a choice. A lot of info below, thank you for reading it all the way through.
Team A (regional powerhouse): We've known about Team A for a number one years, they are one of the most respected independent teams in our region. A number of their alumni has played D1 ball and drafted. The head of the program is very involved, and its not huge. They have 9 teams total and each team gets their own dedicated coach. For my son's age group going into 12U, they have two teams. He got an invite to join their organization but we have no idea if he's going to play on the "better" of the two teams. He has a good friend on the "better" from school who desperately wants him to join. My guess is that my son would make the "lower" team but would be one of the best players on that team and so he would get lots of reps.
Things to like: Lots of reps and practice, they practice 8 hours a week and pitching is a part of that weekly practice. Roster size of 11-12, so less bench time for everyone. The two teams scrimmage against each other a lot and they practice together. The organization avoids separate practices so it feels like a cohesive unit. We also like their hitting approach, its a lot more exit velocity and launch angle focused. My son would also get to play with kids his age and go to Cooperstown though it's not clear how important Cooperstown is to our son. He says he doesn't care. We know one family who plays for them who confirms the reputation. Great organization and development / practice and from the limited exposure we had to the coaches at his age group, they seem genuinely nice but it was just an hour.
Things to not like: One con is that they recently lost their indoor space so they are renting out space from other teams and are in the process of opening their own space. Because of this, their fees are significantly higher, 2x our other option, before we incorporate Cooperstown costs. We also don't like that the head of the program is hard to get a hold of, but he does respond (eventually). We heard that the actual coaches for our age group is great and super responsive.
Team B (new comer): My son has been working out at a facility to get extra reps and been taking private hitting and pitching lessons for the past year there. The coaching staff is just two guys and they treat my son well. They are starting a new travel team at the 13U level only and invited my son for a private tryout. After the tryout, they offered him a spot on the team where he would play up a year.
Things to like: A lot we like about this program. Both coaches are really experienced, one is the headcoach of a local highschool team and has some travel coaching experience. The other coach is was a former pro pitcher who made it to the high minors. We love the pitching coach, think he's a differentiator and its the position my son wants to play the most (2B and P are his primary positions). The coaches are very responsive, I text with the coaches regularly and the coaches own the facility, so there are no worries about indoor practice space. We also like the idea of him "playing up" a year, it can be a swim sink year for him and could accelerate his development. We also like the costs, it's literally a 1/3 of the other program since we don't have to deal with Cooperstown. I like that we have known his coaches here longer and they seem to care about our kid. They've pro-actively cancelled lessons on us citing arm care like (hey let's not do these lessons back to back, he's going to need a rest day if we work on X). We've spoken to former players who have played for them who said good things about them.
Things to not like: It's a new team and so we don't know what it will actually be like once season starts though they are saying all the right things. They want to roster 15 kids so we worry about playing time in a continuous batting line up. They said they want to rotate players every two innings, so everyone will get some field time. They plan on playing in a local league to play against other travel teams regularly and also do 9 tournaments so lots of games. My son is also on the smaller side at 11U, so I worry about the larger diamond in 13U.
TLDR: We are lucky to have two great offers and can't decide. One is with an established organization that has a higher floor. The other option is with a new organization but we know the coaches well and has huge upside. We turned down the established organization last year so he could stay with his friends and we also feel like if we turn them down a second time, he won't get a third offer to join as we think about optionality down the line.
If you were us, what would you advise your kid to do? (Again sorry for making this long, just a lot of stress about little kid baseball which is stupid when I say it out loud)
Posted Jul 13, 2026, 10:42 AM UTC