help with draft

Question
I am on the Board of Directors for my city's recreational softball league.  Every Spring we have a draft for our 10U and 12U divisions and every year we have coaches complain about how the draft is done.  

Currently, we have each head coach pick a number and that is their selection order.  My question is what is the most fair order to do the draft in?  For instance if we have 9 teams we start at 1 go to 9, then go backwards 9 to 1...but where from there?

Answer
Lisa,

I can only attest to Little League.  There are two ways to conduct a draft.

First and foremost, determine how many kids will be on each team.

You can conduct a "circular" draft.  This is where you draft in order, 1-9, and after the 9th team's pick you go back to the 1st team and continue until there are no players left.

You can also use the draft method which you have, called a "snaked" draft.  Going from 1st to 9th, then 9th to 1st, then 1st to 9th, etc..  Both are fair and it should be up to the governing body's determination of which draft method should be used.

I hope this has helped.

-Martin Hoover