Most 7 year olds are not ready to be exposed to an uber-competitive environment. That is not to say that some children that age are capable of handling higher levels of competitiveness.

When I was a kid there were many different types of sports leagues catering to kids with different levels of skill and competitiveness. Most kids played in ordinary sports leagues which had a level of competiveness that was appropriate for the normal child of that age. There were a few sports leagues that were highly competitive that catered to kids who excelled at a particular sport.

For example, we had AYSO (youth soccer) which most kids at my school participated in during the fall. There was also club soccer which was only for kids that were really good at soccer and were willing to dedicate a large amount of time to practice soccer. Kids who played club soccer often did not play other sports like baseball due to the time commitment. Also, some sports seem to have a culture that is highly intense. I knew people that figure skated that spent several hours a day practicing and would wake up at the crack of dawn to practice. Hardly any baseball players would do something like this.

Perhaps the church league, while being associated with a church, is an unusually competitive league aimed at kids who are good at football and are dedicated to it.

This is kinda off the subject,but not really.My wife and I signed our oldest son(5) up for Tee ball this summer and we got lucky and got a great coach.He was great with all the kids,and everyone played.The thing that really suprised me is when we played this other team.Their coach was a rude ,foul mouthed jerk that thought he was playing for the pennant or something.He yelled and cursed the kids when they made a mistake.And these were 4,5,and 6 year old kids just learning to play baseball.I know that if we had gotten that idiot as a coach my boy wouldn't have played this year.It amazes me that the other parents allowed their kids to be treated that way.

I'm in my mid thirties and I've never had an interest in sports, ever. I'd enjoy watching paint dry about the same as I'd enjoy watching a football game. Your story about how your kid will be excluded is "one" good example of why I hate sports.

In a lot of cases kids are mean to those with physical ability inferior to their own, parents and family members are intense about their kids' games to the point of it being unnerving and just weird, and coaches care nothing for the kid as a person... only their ability to contribute to a winning team is important.

Anyway, it's a little silly to subject your kid to this experience of rejection and outcasting. Unless he really has no problem with just participating in practice and being excluded from everything important, I'd pull him out. It's a cruel world...

Same with me, I will watch sports on TV but I will not participate in them. Recreational skiing on family vacations is about as close to sports as im willing to get.

You would not believe the horror stories that went on when I was in HS from 2002 - 2006 regarding sports. The football team and the cheerleading squad was treated as if they were the supreme living Gods of the universe. The high school was built in the 1950s for like 1,000 students max and when I graduated in 2006 my senior class numbered about 500 and the incoming freshman classes each year are bigger and bigger and the school is falling apart with the concrete staircases being all chipped and ceiling tiles falling down, etc. the school is in general in need a big time overhaul or even a replacement with a larger more modern building. Yet no no, we cant fix the ceiling tiles for we must buy the football team new uniforms every year or build the cheerleading squad their own private fitness center/practice room (even though we already have 2 fitness centers, 1 of which is the football teams private fitness center and 3 regular gyms). It really makes no sense how the school district will do whatever it takes to give the sports teams their every demand even if it means no heat in the winter, cutting back on security guards, eliminating bus routes, etc.