A little background...

I'm a dad, coach a little to help out my sons 14U USSSA team and recent baseball convert. I never played after TBall, had little interest in it growing up and only really became a fan when my son started playing TBall. I'm now pretty much a seamhead. Listen to MLB network in the car, follow it closer than any sport, have a bunch of buddies that go on game weekends to Chicago, StL, Milwaukee, etc and go to a dozen or more minor league games here in town a year.

Here in IA baseball is a HS summer sport. HS tryouts don't start until May 1 and the season runs through Mid July. Few seniors end up playing as a result so the schools allow 8th graders (who have finished 8th grade and are technically Fr once game start) to play in HS.

What surprises me is the lack of interest in the baseball program. At a parents and players meeting last week we had 20 8th graders (10 of which are kind of delusional, they are bottom 3 players on their Pony league teams), maybe 15 Fr (4 or 5 of which have played nothing but rec league) and maybe 30 or so So/Jr/Sr. This is consistent with what I hear from parents at other schools as well.

We have a huge Pony League in town that feeds 2 HS's with 250+ kids playing as 9/10 year olds and probably 200 kids that play as 11/12 years olds if you count the 30 or so who move to USSSA teams at 11. Our HS FB team has 80 Fr, 60 So, and 80 Varsity players, JH Basketball team has 50 kids, JH XCountry team has 50 kids, the marching band at the HS has over 300 kids, so the kids here are involved.

With all that said, is this consistent with what you all see in other areas? Do kids just abandon baseball after 12 in other areas as well or do we have something going on here because of the weather and late season?

I can tell you a lot of parents complain as the Pony Season winds down around July 4th about how late it goes (our kids go back to school in mid Aug and get out Memorial Day). Is the family dynamic driving kids away?

Love to hear some thoughts. My son developed a love for the game about 11 and has become nearly obsessive, but he is rare around here. What I'm trying to understand is whether this is just about baseball (it's a different game mentally and physically and to be honest I think that in today's world where kids are never taught to handle failure, a game where the best ever failed 6 out of 10 times at bat is probably a hard thing).