Thanks TXCATCH and CABBAGEDAD!
I think there is obviously a health position to be found between kicking them off the team as well as not letting the inmates run the asylum.
Part of the problem is that even the school does not make baseball a priority. I got a text Sunday evening from one of my players saying him and 2 others would have to miss Monday (were supposed to have a game that has been rescheduled because the other team is on Spring Break and can't field a team...obviously not just me) because they had band practice. Band practice. BAND PRACTICE. The school has a program Thursday to invite upcoming 8th graders to the HS and they have to have band practice to prepare and the baseball players were told if they were not there they would be cut, and would probably also effect their grade seeing that band is an elective class.
I emailed the principal and band director and verified that they do actually have band class as an elective during the instructional day, I was correct. I asked then, why are my players being forced to make a decision to go to either band practice or baseball practice? They have classroom time, why are they now taking time from extra-curricular activities? I asked if I could check baseball players out of band class to take BP...you want to guess how that went over?
Another example, our Softball Coach who is a faculty member was told by the principal that she could not coach practice one day last week because there was an after school staff meeting. I would have been like, "send me an email." The issue is that they would not expect our football or basketball coach to be at that meeting if it were in their season, but softball, baseball, soccer, track, cross country, volleyball...they are looked at more like clubs than competitive athletics.
Sorry, some of that was just to vent!