It is somewhat apparet that many 'elite' travel teams cater to a certain town or cluster of towns one way or another and breaking in would be hard for an out of town/non local player even though he/she may be more skilled than a player who has already been on the squad for some time - from reading these posts it seems to be that way - is this a fact or are the teams diversified in regards to player participation and the towns they are from?? It also seems that a lot of these so called 'elite' teams are based on the north shore of Long Island.....why is that?
That is spot on with our team....based south shore though. And even when the child is more skilled than many other teammates, the politics come into play. It's where you are on the rung that determines position/play time no matter where you go.
First priority...kids with older siblings in the program. Second priority, the coaches children. Then the coaches local team players. Finally, the bottom rung is the few players outside the system who get placed in a 'specialty position' where their talents can't out shine the others.
So, when more kids from the higher rungs tryout the following year, the bottom rung gets the boot. Bottom rung are 'spot holders' for future roster changes. That's my experience and unfortunately, my child is one of two outside the system players. I saw it last year or two, but looked the other way...and now...getting a rude awakening, but accepting the reality. Get the most out of it this year, decide if the solution is to move on next year.
