Coach, I appreciate the intent of this thread. I would give a word of caution, if you tell these players that they lack heart or that they don't have drive/motivation, etc. they will believe it. Instead, lead by example. Be excited to be in practice. Give 8 (not 4) positives to every negative. Give them a reason to achieve. Oh, I know you might think that winning should be their reason. People/players "win" in a lot of different ways and in your case, perhaps that small step forward is a victory. Per the "not in this for moral victories," you might want to rethink that if you want to change the climate. Moral victories might be all you have for a while. JMHO!
They have shown heart... it is showing it on back to back days is what the problem is. I don't think they were pushed last year by the coach that was there. I think he saw a bunch of "untalented" kids and never pushed them to be better. It seems like he thought that good enough was good enough.
I, as most of you can tell, don't see it that way. You as a coach shouldn't settle for being "good enough" as a coach and I don't want my players to settle for "good enough". In the short time I've been coaching baseball I've done so much studying, watching of videos, and learning from you guys on here.
Thursday, we had a "Come to Jesus" talk with the boys. We let them know that it is in there, I know it is in there... find it. Show it. Believe it.
Friday we had to have indoor practice due to 4" of rain falling Thursday and Friday. Our lone senior came and got my keys from me and I told him to readjust the tarps and then head over to the small gym and we would be there to get things going. Some background here... We have had to lead everything by hand. Besides 3-4 kids, if the coaching staff didn't explicitly tell them to do something, nothing would get done besides standing around.
Well as the head coach and I enter the common's area we hear the ping of bats. We both stopped, looked at each other and smiled. We walked in to the gym... cage was down, bunting, soft toss, and tee stations going. Everyone working. No one standing around doing nothing. I looked at the head coach and said to him, "I think it might have gone off. Let's wait until tomorrow and see if it has." But it was a step in the right direction.