Cooperstown Dreams Park

Kathy, we've taken a team to Dreams Park for the last 3 years, and will go again this year. My son has a chance to be the 1st player to attend for 4 straight years. Our team was 9-10's the 1st year, and it was hell. Notwithstanding baseball ability, dealing with 14 kids this age was murder on the coaches. Even tho' you play 2 games a day, there is a lot of down time and its difficult to keep kids this age busy. As the kids matured, these problems went away the last 2 years. This past year, even tho' we only won 1 of 7 in the tournament, we knocked off 2 teams in the playoffs including a top 10 seed, before losing to the eventual champ, and finished in the top 12. Knocking off the top 10 team was like the super bowl for our team. We were competitive in most of the games, only getting blown out twice. All of our players come from our house teams, and the enrollment for our league is under 90 kids, with almost every decent 12yo making all stars, and a good number of 10's and 11's, so we felt good about our ability to compete against the select teams who pick from the best of the best. We spoke to one team from California who tried out over 500 kids, charging $100 just to try out, that financed their whole summer of travel ball. Your eyes will be opened up to the quality of 12 yo ball players that are out there. We saw one team who had 2 kids hit 7 homers between them in one game!

Overall, its been a great experience. I'd be hesitant to take a 10 yo team again, unless it was a group that was mature beyond their years, but it was a pleasure with the U-12's.

Some more details- coaches stay with the kids in the barracks, and also pay the fee. I don't know how it would work for a female coach. I think they have separate quarters for the girl players, you could probably stay there, cheaper than a hotel. There is a hotel pretty much in walking distance to the park. They are very strict with security- no adults except coaches are allowed back to the lodging area, which is a good thing. Oh- the food stinks, and they will NOT let you bring in any outside food, drinks, coolers, etc. We ended up eating a lot of McDonalds. Bathrooms, well they look like 12yo kids with no Moms around have spent a lot of time in there. Shower early to get hot water!

If you need any more gory details, let me know!

Dan
"Bus Zebley Delaware Stars"