I've got my kid at Katy American LL currently, and it is a rather poorly run organization. We are playing there because we didn't know any better and friends had their kids there too.

I was really hoping to try and get him to a better league where there is less drama and potentially better coaching. Are we SOL unless we go select league?

I know there is Katy National, and I recently saw there was Katy Pony. Are either of those better?

Appreciate the help

My son played several seasons at Katy Pony. He enjoyed it and we never had a problem.

Pony organization was always a far superior product than LL in most situations.

bigjag19 said:

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What's the mom situation?

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Key question

We are in Katy Pony 8U right now and enjoy it.

We've played in National and Pony for 6 seasons, 2 national and 4 pony. I'm a head coach, and will say none of them are great. Pony has it's own issues, but I really like the President of National, Brian Pattison, a lot, although i feel the competition in National is much lower than Pony. We are moving to select this year.

Depends on the age and how serious you kid is about playing. If he just likes hanging out with friends while playing a game, I'd keep looking at LL's. If he wants to improve, I would either get him with a coach and/or select team. Also depends on your financial situation as different clubs can get pretty pricey.

We are in Katy Pony 8u right now. We enjoy it, but it definitely has its own set of challenges. We've never played in National or American, but have heard (also stated on this thread) that the competition is better at Pony. More than happy to talk with you about our experience.

txaggie02 said:

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We are in Katy Pony 8U right now and enjoy it.

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Are you coaching in 8u?

BCE10 said:

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txaggie02 said:

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We are in Katy Pony 8U right now and enjoy it.

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Are you coaching in 8u?

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Yes, Asst. Coach. This is my second season of coaching our son at Katy Pony. It serves its purpose for a kid that's 6-7 years old. Never played at Katy American or National, but our neighbors that are also Aggies and have a kid a bit older than our son recommended playing at Katy Pony, after playing at the other leagues. Our son is a really good ball player and we will move up to a select team soon, but we just aren't quite ready for that commitment. We are happy with Katy Pony for this age and the other parents have been great (at least on our teams). I'm not the head coach, so I don't have a direct line of communication to the league office and can't comment on that. One thing that did get approved this year is league sponsors. I guess for some reason, the previous president of the board didn't want sponsor signs on the fences and all that. With this change will come additional funds, which will allow for improvements to the facilities. The fields are good, but they could use some covers for the bleachers, as well as a few other things.

Not in Katy but zoned in district to play Katy Pony in all star tournaments and such.

Played at Katy fields and against their all star teams at our place.

I have also coached teams at Katy American & Katy National for select tournaments.

I think the fields are equivalent in quality. Pony fields are a bit better but there's absolutely no shade there compared to the American / National fields.

I would offer that coaching is always going to be depend on the moms/dads of any given age group. Some class years have excellent coaching and some suck.

Having played and coached in both Little League & Pony, I think Pony is better for transitioning to select ball. Pony fields grow with the kids, lead offs are in play, dropped 3rd strike, pick-offs, etc...are in play as soon as kids start pitching.

Little League with the smaller fields and no leadoffs makes for a tougher move to "real baseball" in my opinion.

We moved from Pony when they raised their rates and we could no longer paying those fees for rec ball with their leadership drama. We've been at KALL for a few seasons now, and the politics and potential corruption have hit a breaking point for me. There was a lot of shady stuff that happened this past weekend with their festival, and the donation baskets where the president of KALL "won" a good number of them and had hid others (or mistakenly misplaced them) so that he could claim it later on.

I'm now interested in where the money, donations, sponsorships, etc. are all going - as it doesn't seem like that money is being used as it should be.

Sills has been the commissioner at KALL of how long now? It's time for some fresh blood in that spot.

A Bradyn or a Kolton needs to be in travel ball, baw. It's in their DNA. You know what to do here.

We might be interested in that.

Regarding the financials, we had moved here from Spring a few years ago where the director of the Klein Youth Sports (Soccer) was investigated and ended up being charged because of issues with finances. How would one go about shining more light into that darkness at KALL?

What team do you coach for? I'll come say hello when we play!

Red Sox

Im exhausted just reading this thread. We kinda stopped all the sports activities…baseball, football, volleyball….it all seems to operate the same way. The dramatics are exhausting. After the kids summarized it as "kinda sucks", we just said the hell with it all. I think, as said already, if you want to do it, you just have to accept and deal with drama and bull**** which is something I simply don't do.

We'll book fields at Katy City Park, or other parks in the area. We also supplement that by renting a few cages at DBat as well to get the hitting in.

Also, as far as drama goes, we had to kick a few parents off the team when we first got started. The kids were great, but the parents were starting trouble, and there just isn't time for that. We made it clear to the parents it had nothing to do with the kids athletic ability, they were being asked to leave the team solely due to the parents and their attitudes. Once we handled that, which we did very quickly, we've had very good luck our first year trying to keep it drama free.

aTmLoKi said:

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We might be interested in that.

Regarding the financials, we had moved here from Spring a few years ago where the director of the Klein Youth Sports (Soccer) was investigated and ended up being charged because of issues with finances. How would one go about shining more light into that darkness at KALL?

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Wow, really? Who? I was a volunteer there and coached all my boys teams for years there. This was 2005-2013 time frame.

EDIT: Found it...hope the guy rots in hell! I spent a ton of time out there volunteering to coach, find coaches, referee, organize teams, etc. My only payback was the scheduler would put my 3 teams back to back, with a break before the 3rd game so I wasn't spending ALL day there Saturday's.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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My three boys play multiple sports year round. I encounter zero drama.

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Typically, there is less drama when your kid is good at sports.

We play on Saturday. I'm the pitcher for the Cubs.

BCE10 said:

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We play on Saturday. I'm the pitcher for the Cubs.

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That's funny because I'm the pitcher for the Red Sox. Looking forward to the match up. You guys are playing well!

bigjag19 said:

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What's the mom situation?

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Why hasn't this been addressed?

[If there are news reports that come out on this subject, feel free to post those news articles. Official public communications from the organizations being talked about here would also be sufficient. Thanks. -Staff]

Coached in KNLL, Pony and Select. Go Pony and then Select when you feel your kid is ready. KLL will never go far in All Stars.

I have coached Head and Assistant at Katy American for 8+ years. There are issues for sure, but I have heard similar from other Rec leagues. We also have our kids in select baseball, and have had mixed experiences with them. I currently coach 2 teams at KALL and invest a lot of time and energy into my kids. I love it, but it's hard work.

With Rec baseball, it's often luck of the draw what team your kid is drafted to/placed on. There are various levels of coaches, some who have a lot of good experience and those that can barely throw batting practice. I will say, if you have ANY interest in taking the reigns and being a HC, there is always a need.

If you have questions about my experiences, I am happy to share.

What rec leagues or select teams is everyone leaning toward for the spring?

My 9 year old nephew lives in Richmond and has activities in Katy, but they're not familiar with Little League or Pony there.