quote:I want to add a couple of things that as a coach and a parent with a kid playing JV that I think are important.
I cannot emphasize this point anymore than this...Please do not let your son know how you and your husband feel about the coach. It will not help him get more innings or to increase his performance. If you and your husband have already aired it out in front of your son it's now essential (for your son) you shift gears.
You, your husband, son and an act of Congress is not going to change the coach and how he is handling this situation. You have absolutely zero control...so why not change the things you can?
This is excellent advise. As a parent of a former HS ballplayer that can relate to this, who had to bust his tail and pay his dues for a good year and a half on JV and finally get a mid season call to varsity his junior year, he was shaking his head on why he didn't get his shot earlier considering he had the tools, did all the right things, had a great attitude and hustled all the time. I used to get the comments from varsity parents and former coaches and people who knew him on how the coach doesn't take notice and get him in the starting lineup since he was such a good hitter and the varsity needed offense. While the comments were flattering, it really didn't mean much unless my son got through to the varsity coach that he should be playing.
Sometimes coaches just have their pets and can't see past that and some players have to work harder than others to get their shot.
All the time, I had to sit back and let my son deal with it. He thought about quitting but being he was their top JV player and wasn't riding the bench like most of the juniors already on varsity were doing, he felt the playing time kept him sharp. He wasn't to concerned on beating up JV pitching because he knew if he faced varsity pitching, he would have little trouble including hitting against varsity pitching including the D1 commits in the conference. He played against some of them in travel anyway. He was frustrated but he knew the only way to get the coach's attention was to outhit the competition when he got his opportunity and make the coach look like a knucklehead for ignoring his skills too long.
While he got limited opportunity his junior year on varsity, he did show he can play but it was pre-season the following season where he finally got the varsity coach's attention with his bat, by hitting top-of-the rotation pitchers hard in the preseason scrimmages, whether he made outs or hits, hustle and defensive play that he could no longer be ignored by opening day of the regular season. He ended up an everyday player who hit third on the varsity. So while his time was relatively short, he did what he had to do to become a key player on varsity. To the coach's credit, he did finally give him his shot and he took advantage of it.
In their conference tournament, he stepped up his game even further by hitting .500, led the team in RBIs, a heads-up baserunning play which scored a winning run and making a couple of big defensive plays in the tournament making an improbable run that helped them to get to one strike from making the quarterfinal round. This in part is why the coach missed the boat on him but what's done is done and that ship has long sailed.
As a parent, there's nothing you can do as for how the coach runs his team on the field. Even though there are inequities from player to player, ultimately, it's up to the player to do what he's gotta do no matter how hard it is to watch.