Been there on a 7th grade middle school team. Same 5 or 6 kids played. My kid, who was a better ballplayer sat and sat. It is so frustrating. Anger is an understatement. We even sucked -- maybe won 2 or 3 games. I could have been one of those parents who see on the news. But thank god the season is short and there is another right around the corner.

The next year in 8th grade, the new coach used a 8 to 10 "man" rotation. Kept the kids involved. Actually won a couple of more games. Go figure.

At the age you are at, I would look for a program that can find time to practice more than play games. Find one with coaches who have a clue. Find one where the kids can play. Good luck.

Just update. Finally got my kid out of the league a month ago. now he is starting this new league for spring. let's see how to goes.
I just want to share some frustrating experience with the previous league. I couldn't believe three months were wasted thinking things would get better. It never did.

In order to make money, they accept practice players to practice with select players in one gym. as a result one gym/one coach has 20 players every practice. Ten SELECT players are mixed with whoever didn't make the cut. some of them can barely dribble or catch yet they are there.

Coach wants to win games of course. All he cares is to put starters together to run play and scrimmage. Half the kids are just sitting around and watching. My son is not starter. So he is mixed with practice players. Not learning and sitting half of the time even at practice.

During tournaments, starters play 80-90% of the time. once my son asked to be in. coach told him that the team needed to have 30 point lead before he would let him in. of course when team was losing, coach wanted to catch-up. so no playing time. One weekend, I was in the tournament for 9 hours (waiting in between) for three games. My son got to play a total of 15 minutes. That's actually is a better day because one of the opposing team was really sucky so that my son played more against that team. usually he played last 2-3 minutes of each half (games are played in two halves with 14 minutes each). what a way to waste your weekend like this.

They don't coach. all they do is to do some warm-up drills. then run plays. the way they run plays is against zone defense. my son who is a guard just automatically receives and catches and passes around. They don't practice press. then in the tournament, my son ends up causing turnover because of press. he is immediately yanked out. they just expect you know how to play.

when I told them my son was leaving, they asked what they could have done differently. they know exactly that they could have done differently. we pay for the coach's salary yet had no say of anything. why bother.

I don't understand why some parents still keep their kids there. Some of them are not getting anything out of it. They sit and watch. Parents don't even bother to watch how the practice is run. They drop off their kids at start and pick them up at end. They are thinking their kids must get great training. I think they will face reality check when 7th grader school tryout starts this coming Fall.

well enough venting. hopefully this will help other parents. if you don't like your son's leagues, fire them. don't waste time. you have to change.

Sad to hear that a coach out there is so win crazy. Even after the team had such a big lead, he still didn't let the benched players out on the field until the game was almost over. His loss. He's not getting to see the potential that he has on the bench!