Spot on. Coaching little league baseball is magical. But beyond baseball, just find ways to get involved deeply in your community, particularly helping kids. Building a sense of place and contributing to its future enriches the soul like little else.
Particularly relevant within the tech debate about the AI boom / lottery and how it can distort perceptions of success. There's always someone who will make more $$ or have built more status in some way...but nobody can replicate the bonds you built with the parents and other coaches and particularly the kids across the community. That season and that team is forever unique.
Find a place. Invest in it. Commit to it. You won't be disappointed, even if you lose in the semi-finals. (Sorry we couldn't bring it home, Jumbo Shrimp!)
There is something truly magical about a Little League season that is really hard to put into words.
You get handed a group of kids from your town. Different skill levels. Different levels of interest. Some of them barely know each other. Some of them are only there because their parents made them show up.
And then over the course of 3 months something just happens.
They start to figure each other out. They start to care. They show up for each other in ways you never expected. And by the end of the season that group of strangers becomes a community.
That is the magic of rec league and Little League baseball. It is your town. Your kids. Your neighbors. Kids who pass each other in the hallways at school, whose parents grab coffee at the same place on Saturday mornings, coaches who have been coaching against each other for years.
There is a shared history and a shared community that just makes everything feel different.
And here is what I really believe. A really well run, well orchestrated Little League or rec league season, even one that does not end in a championship, can be one of the most magical experiences a kid has in youth sports.
It is just a different animal than travel ball. Not better or worse in every way.
But when it comes to community, to meaning, to that feeling at the very end of the season….
It is really hard to beat!