anotherparent posted:This was very similar to my son's situation freshman year and half of sophomore. He was a starting fielder halfway through freshman year, but hit in only 4 total games, even though there were other players with horrible batting averages. When he did bat, he hit decently, so ironically, his freshman BA was over .300. We assumed (and told him) that it must have do with what the coaches saw in practice. In fact, we never figured it out. It ate at son, it ate at us. We knew enough to know that parents don't talk to the coach; we did not know enough to suggest that son talk to the coach. We just had no experience with varsity sports, we didn't know if that was something that was recommended or absolutely the wrong thing. So, freshman year he never said anything, he did hit a lot in the cages after practice. When it happened again sophomore year, we asked his hitting instructor if it would be o.k. if son talked to the coach, and the instructor said, of course he should. Son still felt nervous about talking to the head coach, so he texted (!) the (younger) assistant coach. He then did get more at bats. Junior year he was in the lineup all year, senior year we will find out if the rain lets up so that the season can start.
In hindsight, I wish that we had known to tell him to talk to the head coach, right from the start. He would then have had a better take on it, and a better relationship with the coaching staff earlier on. It all worked out in the end, and it was certainly a good learning experience, but it was a really long freshman season.
Thank you for understanding and the advice. Glad I'm not the only one here to experience this 