[Stay Golden]

Been involved with minor sports in Calgary Soccer, Hockey, as a coach and administrator for many years. JMO when kids are 4-6, Its good to have all the kids recieve something at the end of the year so they keep enjoy playing a sport and most of them at that age really don't know what they are doing. But at age 7 the skill set either increases greatly or only slightly with every child and physical strength also seperates players. At that age is where seperation into divisions reflective of the various skill sets has to take place. Pts and scores become valued by the kids.
Having been involved in the process that helped determine which child should go to which division for the association I was representing. It is difficult because some kids or even the parents see playing say a Div6 as losers as kids and parents involved in Div1, or A,AA,AAA as being winners.
Which is furthest from why it has to be done. It was always difficult to tell a child or parent that they would be playing in a division much less than they had hoped for especially with kids around age 12. We looked at the evaluations as 3 main focal points, confidence, developement, fun.
Several coaches did not give out individual awards at the end of the year because they felt feelings would get hurt or it would be veiwed as favoritism by some parents.
I always gave a most improved, best defensive, best offensive, hardest working, and leadership award out of my pocket and the kids and their parents were really proud getting those individual awards.