Tucked away here in our own little bubble of suburbia (or often called our bedroom community), our Rec League has been just that. A normal recreational league with spring and fall seasons. We play 8 matches and a tournament each season. Otherwise the kids do summer camps and sometimes clinics in the winter.

But that’s it. We haven’t really seen the rec kids do more than that. In talking with other teams at some events we’ve been to, some rec teams that aren’t ready to be challenge or want the more laid back regular season with some spice in between take their rec teams to various tournaments in the summer and other events.

Is this common at the Recreational level? The NCYSA has a fledgling program started to try and define rec districts and officers to help foster inter-league play, etc. I think this would be a cool thing for older rec teams. Less stress than a challenge team traveling all the time, but still exposing the kids to other teams, etc. If we get NCYSA affiliated, I’m hoping the rec districts take off so we can provide some additional opportunities for our teams to play in between seasons. The mission laid out by the NCYSA for the recreational districts sounds very promising.

What do they do in your neck of the woods? Are off season tournaments common at the rec level in your area? Or do your teams fit our mold where we just play our regular seasons and that’s that.

I think inter-league play in moderation would be a good thing for some rec teams. I know my team would enjoy facing teams from nearby towns. After a while you play the same teams and kids for a few years its nice to mix things up. But rec is still rec so hopefully something like this doesn’t result in things getting out of hand.