coach2709 posted:I've told this story before but I think it's appropriate again. My first year as a head coach I was 22 or 23 years old and knew everything. I was in my second year teaching and I had this kid in my class who loved baseball. He and I would talk baseball quite a bit. Try outs happen and after the third day I told the guys I would post a list on my classroom door of who made the team. So here it is before first period and the hallways are full of kids and there is a group of guys at my door looking at their fate. The kid I had in class had all his gear with him, looked at the list and broke down crying in the hallway in front of all those other kids. To the best of my knowledge nobody made fun of him or gave him a hard time because it was truly a school of great kids but as a teacher and adult I should not be the reason something like this happens. I learned a valuable lesson that day. That kid hardly spoke to me after that. I don't believe he talked baseball to me as a way to suck up to get on the team. He genuinely loved baseball and I may have helped destroy that love by not handling it better. The last thing we should ever do is destroy the love of baseball (or any sport) in kids.
When my son got unexpectedly cut in 8th grade, it was known that cuts would be made on the field after the end of day 3 of tryouts. So not only did he have to walk off the field barely controlling his sobbing in front of 70 of his peers, he had to do it in front of 100 or so parents, most of which had known him through Little League since he was 6 or 7, that had gathered at the edge of the parking lot that overlooks the field. Freeking brutal.
i