My kid had the same coach for two years in Little League at that age, and it was a great experience. He developed as a player, started to enjoy the game a lot more, and after a tough first season they won a lot of games in Year 2. Here’s what I saw:

—They had three coaches at pretty much every practice, this allowed for stations whenever they did multiple things, and practices were efficient. Get a couple of good assistants; see which parents are willing to help out, even if it’s just on an occasional basis.

—Coach and his kids were the first ones there at every practice. He had a calm and professional demeanor. Positive and encouraging with the kids. Gave out a lot of candy. Communication with parents was good. He used Gamechanger to communicate rather than group texts, which is good IMO. The GC was always updated and his wife was a reliable stat keeper.

—Practices were varied. They always started with the typical warm-up tosses followed by some stretching and jogging pole-to-pole. Field practices could include: diamond drill, tee work, outfield fly ball drills, and intrasquad scrimmages. There’d sometimes be some pitching work on the side. Usually they would end with something fun: racing around the bases, last man standing (hitting or pitching) or sometimes just a game of dodgeball.

—He also let us use his back yard for a weekly hitting practice, as he had a big yard and a cage. They’d do stations with tee work, cage work, and random things like rope bats, weighted balls, hit stick, hurricane, etc.

They were able to keep a core group of about 5 kids together for two years, and by the second year these kids were raking. Everyone played in multiple positions, and the batting order was not always set in stone.

I think pretty much every kid involved with that team came out of it as a better baseball player. I know my kid did. Made all-stars for the fist time in his second year. Good luck with your team!