The 15 year old son of my significant other was playing in a tournament today. His coach, and I use that term loosely, decides after his team was beaten twice by scores of 16-2 and 16-0, to run the kids for punishment. Now, as a head high school baseball coach and someone that cares about someone on that team, this really angers me.
First off, the so-called coach, still plays in college. During games, he does not seem to know what to do. I laugh at some of these "select organizations" that think just becuase you take a kid that plays Division I college baseball, they can coach. In the first game today, they gave up 16 runs in the first inning and the pitcher was left in for the entire inning. Hey, Joe Torre wannabe, 1-800-BULLPEN.
The team is 0-4 so far in the tournament, so what does our young coach do, he runs the kids after the last game today...which by the way is at 5:15pm with a 110 degree heat index. My boy has asthma and struggled to finish only 3 of the 10 sprints. He was then made to feel bad about that. My S.O. was very upset and called me to fill me in on the details. They have one more game tommorrow and that will be it for him this summer. The parent in me wants them to come home tonight. The coach in me wants him to stay and tough it out for one more day. We are leaving it to the 15 year old to decide for himself. He is not a quitter, in fact, he is a real tough kid.
My big question for the so-called coach is this. By running the kids, how did that help them field the ball better...or make more accurate throws...or throw more strikes...or get on base?
I was just wondering how many of you are spending big money this summer to have your kid get high quality coaching like this.
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