First year - 5 stars (ages below 7)
Second year - 1 star (ages 7 to 9 yrs)
I write this with hesitation because I don't make it a habit to write poor reviews about clubs or places. But I feel what I have to say is important for parents to consider if they are thinking about joining this league. Prepare yourself. This is a highly competitive and clique-ish league. There are a lot of very nice people and families but when it comes to playing and practices, it's clear who's dad is involved in what and what a coincidence their child plays in the starting spots and gets the most attention and help.
Last I checked, we all pay the same dues. We appreciate the volunteering but ultimately, it's about being fair.
Anyway...here is our story....
Our son has always loved baseball. He doesn't like to actually watch baseball but he still loves to play. Mind you, we weren't sure how well he actually played before we signed him up because quite honestly, my husband and I work full-time and neither one of us are really that great at the sport. But baseball and softball runs on both sides of our family. My brother was an all-star, my sister played in junior and high school on the school team, and my husband's two sisters played softball in junior high and high school, one earned a scholarship to play for the University of Washington.
The first year in this league our son was 6 years old and he had a wonderful team and coach. The year before he had played T-Ball at Granada Hills Little League and had the most amazing coaches. He was so fortunate enough again to have great coaches and be around nice young boys. Every single player improved that season and all the players treated each other respectfully and as friends.
In comes second year at NVYB. A completely different situation. Our son started to come home after a few practices saying he did not like baseball. He was also upset every time after practice. I observed him being overlooked and sent out to the outfield and ignored on several occasions during games and practices because he was a little active and one of the younger boys on the team. But the other boy around his age was treated very differently. It would have been different if they threw the ball to the outfield or hit it out there so the boys could practice fielding. But no, you could tell they put him out there to get him out of the way most of the time.
Long story short-ish, I had to write to the player agent to see if we could get our money back because even after talking to the coach about focusing on helping our son, nothing much was happening.
If not to make matters worse, one of the coaches accused my son of using foul language. He won't even say the word ""stupid"" and thinks that is a bad word. He doesn't say bad words, he was 7 years old, and he still doesn't say bad words. Perhaps the coach heard a bad word because he thinks that way or maybe HIS child curses or he's been around other kids who do that.
Overall, with the exception of one coach, it was really ridiculous that two adult men could be so mean to one small child.
The season ended okay, and things were resolved. But most of the season my son felt very singled-out and not ""good enough"" to be taught baseball by the righteous coaches. It was disheartening because he's only a child. The coaches kids were also very rude and mean to my son and picked on him because he was yelled at all the time in front of everyone on the team by the coaches - so of course their sons felt it was 'ok' to make fun of our son and treat him poorly.
Very sad situation overall. Fortunately though, my son throws a mean pitch. Just wait a few years and this will all be nonsense and a huge regret that the league lost a boy like ours and our money to boot. We will donate our time and money elsewhere.
Pros: Son had a wonderful time his first year
Cons: Son was treated unfairly his second year
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