Gentlemen-
I am usually a passive observer of HSBBWeb, and I get involved on a few occasions. I can honestly say this is one of my favorite threads. Discussions like this are what make us all better coaches. Kudos to all involved!!!
Coach Z- Your question on the Ws... it's not even close the difference in our on field performance (which I do not measure in wins alone). We play a much better schedule than we did, we have moved up an enrollment class and are having much more post season success.
I think this is because of a number of things, and I don't think it is all because of my discipline philosophy. I was fortunate to take over a solid program, so I wasn't rebuilding anything, more like installing my philosophy and developing a program instead of just a varsity team.
The one very positive side effect I believe has taken place with this philosophy is that my players handle pressure situations better. Don't get me wrong, the kids still feel pressure, get nervous, and are 15-18 year old kids just like every other 15-18 year old kid. I just think they don't have the fear of me jumping down their throat if they make mistakes. They know that it will be handled within the team, or with them individually. I will not air them out during a game, in the papers, or in public in any way. They are not afraid to make mistakes.
As far as the one individual kid who is being disrespectful, I don't think you will change him right away. He's probably been doing whatever he wants for years being the big fish in a small pond. I would make your goal with him long term, not short term. If you're in it for the long haul, you have 4 years with him. Maybe the goal should be to help him mature and judge if it worked or not when he is a Jr. and Sr.
If you're able to develop a program on mutual respect that kids really want to be a part of, when a similar kid comes around in another 5 years, you will have developed your program to the point when you can say "That's not the way we do things at this level. Here's what you need to work on to be ready to play with us. For now, work on those things on the JV/Freshmen level."
DM me your email and I'll send you those Codes of conduct.
CoachB- I always enjoy your comments, and always greatly respect your opinions. I think the way that the coach handled those situations is awesome. Nobody got belittled, nobody was run to make the coach feel better, he didn't blow his top in a self serving rant. Instead he got is point across in a much more powerful way. I would bet those kids played their hearts out for those coach because they wanted to, not because he wanted them too. Had a similar situation down your way a few years back that let to us practicing reacting to striking out, making errors, and losing games in the lobby of the Super 8 in Collinsville. Man, you should have seen some of the looks we got!
I'll leave you all with this thought: I almost resigned my coaching position a few years ago after a horrible post season loss. We had just put up 48 runs on 3 of the best big school teams in the state, then got 2 hit shut out by a sophomore with 4 varsity innings in the first round (still can't figure out why he was starting that game... but kudos for that decision). I really thought we had the chance to win it all that year, and we got bounce in the first round. I was mowing my lawn in the summer about 5 weeks later it was still eating me up inside. That's when I realized that I couldn't let my happiness and feelings of self worth ride on the performance of 15-18 year old kids. All I could do was try to influence their lives in a positive manner as best I could, put them in situations to succeed, teach them the game of baseball, and sit back and enjoy the ride. Some days we would win, sometimes the quality team in the other dugout would win, but as long as those things happened, it was a successful day.