People like to be recognized. Soldiers wears their awards on their uniforms; Walmart Associates wear their pins and badges on their vests. And you probably noticed the stickers on helmets of college football players. Ohio State has Buckeye stickers. Florida State has Hatchet stickers. Clemson has Cats Paw stickers. These stickers are awarded by the coaching staff to teams (like the offensive line), or individuals based on their game performance. So, when I was coaching, Little League, I had individual awards that were passed out after a game or at the first practice after a game. The awards I had were embroidered small gold stars about a third of an inch high that I could purchase in a sewing shop. The stars were not iron on, they had to be sewn on to a player's ball cap by a parent. As with most little league teams, my teams had a spread abilities, from those pretty new to the game to those who were experienced and skilled. But I found a way to award a fair distribution of stars to all the players. Did the players like to be awarded stars? Let me just reply by saying that if a star was awarded an a Monday game, the player showed up at Wednesday's practice with that star sewn on his ball cap.

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