Angry parents/kids

Is this a private school?   I am assuming if a 2027, that he is in 8th grade.

In our state, you can only play 4 years of varsity baseball.  8th graders in middle school can play JV, but not varsity, unless they sit out their senior year (coaches know this and don't play 8th graders on varsity).

Sit back and relax.  The better players will make the team, and the best will play.

Edited:  there will always be grumbling:  Making the team, playing time, etc.  Sit way down the 1st or 3rd baselines and avoid the chatter.

It's a shame that parents/kids would get angry at this stuff.

What they should do is come out to watch a practice to see why the coach made that decision.

Ignore is how you deal with it, if they are that talented it's not the first time this will happen.

showing up to watch practice is on the short list of terrible ideas a varsity athletes parent can have...there is nothing but bad that can happen. for you, the coach, your son and the team. just mind-blowingly terrible. IMO of course

My son and his friend were the only sophomores on a strong varsity squad. At an early season game, we were losing and the coach puts both boys in. I hear parents saying, “why would he put in the sophomores??? What is he doing ?”  They hit back to back doubles to tie the game.
In short, you don’t say anything. If they deserve to be there, they will stay and eventually the talk will stop. It  gives you insight on how to treat young players and their parents when your son is an upperclassman.

Thanks, it just a shame. it is only practice.  Public school not private.

They will be on the freshman team this year.

@Dadof3 posted:

They will be on the freshman team this year.

We went through the same thing, 3 players and my son. However, they wanted to remain on the freshman team to help their friends and play multiple positions. Coach relented and called them up as needed.

Not one player had a problem, they were happy for the guys. They are life long friends.

On the other hand some parents made comments but it was clear that these 4 could play on varsity.

Winning cures all hard feelings.

JMO

@keewart posted:

Sit back and relax.  The better players will make the team, and the best will play.

Sit way down the 1st or 3rd baselines and avoid the chatter.

I’ll take this is reverse order:

The better players will make the team, and the best will play - I do think that this is normally true, but not always.  There are some crazy situations out there.  The real question is, how do you know if you are in a crazy situation? Or you’re just a parent letting their biases get the best of them?  In summer ball when coaches or recruiters ask where the player plays in HS, the majority of them react in a very negative manner and at best just say “sorry about that”. You are in a crazy situation.

Sit back and relax; sit way down the baseline and avoid chatter - this is exactly how you handle a healthy situation or a crazy situation (unless there is an obvious situation that calls for parent intervention).  These situations always work themselves out. Maybe not how we would like them to be worked out.  The journey might be rough but the ending outcome usually works out about right.

@baseballhs posted:

My son and his friend were the only sophomores on a strong varsity squad. At an early season game, we were losing and the coach puts both boys in. I hear parents saying, “why would he put in the sophomores??? What is he doing ?”  They hit back to back doubles to tie the game.
In short, you don’t say anything. If they deserve to be there, they will stay and eventually the talk will stop. It  gives you insight on how to treat young players and their parents when your son is an upperclassman.

Similar situation with my son. My son was put on the varsity team his freshman year (covid year). The team was loaded and was projected to contend for the state title. In the first tournament of the season, coach put him on the mound to start a game. That didn't sit well with some of the senior parents. Then the last day of the tournament coach started him in the outfield. Made a really nice grab, laid down a sac bunt in a crucial situation against a ranked opponent, and just missed jacking one out of the yard. From that point on, he was in the regular rotation of innings on the mound and was playing outfield. We heard the rumblings every game. We ended up sitting on our own in the stands, away from the rest of the parents. Interestingly enough, the parents who actually understood and would talked to us was the parents of the player who got drafted in the first round that year. They got it as their son had gone through the same thing his freshman year. We talk about it now with my son. He said some of those old teammates he has ran into have said how mad they were when he was put on varsity and started taking "their" playing time. We have lost close friends because my son developed at a different rate than their kid and we were looked upon as being "too good" because he went and played with more advanced teams. At some point you just say it is what it is, do what is best for your kid, block out all the noise and go on with life. When I see some of those former friends now I just kill them with kindness because I know everything that has happened has been justified.

The politics of HS baseball can be a shock to the system if you aren’t prepared for it. The experience for my 2 sons that played HS baseball in North Texas was very different for each but both were rife with political issues. FWIW each played in different 6A (highest class) programs. In both cases there were players on the field that didn’t belong and players on the bench that should have been on the field. Other commonalities were that neither program cut seniors, seniority played over younger talent in some (but not all) situations, and the booster club parents had way too much influence over what happened in the program. Both schools also had young “new school” coaches that were the last person to arrive at the field and the first to leave. Neither of the two HS HCs that my sons played for knew the game well enough to teach it. I found the first go around to be very frustrating. With my youngest son I had learned some things thru previous mistakes and did much better. But I will never forget things that were done by adults that intentionally hurt my kids in their attempts to advance their own kids. Truly reprehensible.

There are some states where it is allowed.  In SC, you can start 6 years of varsity ball from 7th grade on.

HS baseball has its ups and downs, that's for sure.  I am very thankful not to have had a bad situation like some described.  My son and 2 other freshmen were put on varsity.  We had no idea how any of it worked, so we didn't know what to think or how to behave or where to sit.  The first half of the season he didn't play, that was the most awkward part - we really didn't know what was happening.  We didn't know any of the upperclassmen parents, so we didn't hear any comments, and, we didn't run into the parents of the non-varsity freshmen, so we didn't hear their comments either.  The second half he started, by then I guess people were used to us.  In hindsight, I think the coach made them a cohort on purpose, and they seemed to fit in with the team pretty well.  Junior and senior year they were co-captains of a good team.  So coach knew what he was doing, even if he didn't explain it to the boys or parents.

The funny thing was, before the season son was practicing with the varsity.  We asked, does that mean you are playing on varsity?  He didn't know!  We didn't even know which schedule to put on the calendar, until the season started.  We never talked to the coach about it, in hindsight that was kind of strange - in later years I heard coach explaining to other parents his plans for their freshmen.

@Dadof3 posted:

My friends son is a 2027 kid who is asked to practice with the varsity team - just practice.  And he is only one of two or three, how would the parent of this kid and the kid deal with any blow back? in a big school and there will be a number of cuts

You don't give a choice because of play. My son was called up to varsity mid-way through season. Coach delt with it by playing a senior when it didn't matter and the kid when it did. He was really senior oriented but at the end of the day did want to win.

I can only suggest you worry about the things you can control and be supportive to the team regardless of the politics.

First game sophomore season my son was starting at third (after not making JV his freshman season). A senior teammate's mother sat next to me and said "No clue why coach has your son on the field, there are better options." Some sports parents get lost in the genetically driven mama/papa bear thing, I smiled and told her I had no clue either.

I don't think you can get through 4 years of HS sports drama free, the goal for me was to have way more fun than frustration.

In middle school a bunch of Pop Warner parents were upset my son had never played organized football and started his first game. Most football parents didn’t know who I was. I sat there, took in all the insults and enjoyed watching my son play.

In 8th grade my son was invited to practice with the varsity baseball team a few times. The current junior shortstop was a good ball player. He went on to play mid major as an outfielder. He was a horrible shortstop. I believe my son was invited to practice with the varsity to put pressure on him the following year. It got back to me the word was the best defensive shortstop (my son) was only in middle school.

In reality, the varsity coach had no intention of having my son start at short freshman year. He didn’t believe in freshmen playing varsity. He was the last varsity cut. He played JV and walked into the short job soph year. He was the first soph to start opening day in six years. There were displeased parents.

A couple were thrilled and screamed at him when he was picked off first to end the season. They missed the post season by one game. These two parents completely overlooked his two out, two rbi single made it 6-5. My son was fast. Everyone in the park knew he wa going. The pitcher caught him leaning for the third out. They completely overlooked he had already been named all conference.

Because I was a known travel coach the high school coaches chatted with me. It was general baseball talk. It was never about my son. But, that’s not what was said in all the rumors.

I was on the youth sports board and the baseball and basketball committees as my kids were growing up.. I was accustomed to the rumors I was influencing situations. All you can do is ignore the noise.

@Dadof3 posted:

My friends son is a 2027 kid who is asked to practice with the varsity team - just practice.  And he is only one of two or three, how would the parent of this kid and the kid deal with any blow back? in a big school and there will be a number of cuts

My 2022 was one of two freshman who practiced with the varsity team when they were freshman.  The other kid landed on JV. My son ended up starting on varsity as a freshman. This was a time when freshman almost never made varsity at our school. All the other freshman made the freshman team.

Many of the freshman parents who we knew when our kids played together at middle school or in rec, all of a sudden, stopped saying hello to us at the field. And, many of the parents of sophomores and juniors were not welcoming...at first. One dad actually came up to me, introduced himself and said "You know your boy jumped over a lot of kids who have been putting in their time."

Very quickly, the parents of the juniors and seniors became friendly once they saw my kid play. The freshman parents continued with the cold shoulder thing because they just couldn't understand why their kids were on freshman.

Fast forward to junior year. Many of those kids were now varsity players. And, all of a sudden people were saying hello again when seeing us at the field.

Sports parents are an interesting breed. I don't think most of them are intentionally that way. They just can't help themselves.

My son was a pitcher/3rd baseball as a freshman. Third on JV, pitched varsity. That annoyed some people that he was taking positions on two teams. We avoided the discussion as much as possible, but I do remember that whenever I posted something on FB or anywhere about a good win, I always made sure to mention at least one or two other players.

ie—so fun to see Indianola pick up another win. Awesome HR by Joe Smith, and great play at short by Brenden. Duncan picked up the win and struck out six. What a great team victory.

@old_school posted:

showing up to watch practice is on the short list of terrible ideas a varsity athletes parent can have...there is nothing but bad that can happen. for you, the coach, your son and the team. just mind-blowingly terrible. IMO of course

Agreed.  The only thing I can think of that is worse is to go full camo, setup a hunting tree stand with binoculars in the woods to watch your son at high school tryouts.   True story.   I know a guy......

This crossed over from angry to crazy.

Good feedback.  So far everything has gone well for the kid and his parents.  I guess this wasn't much of a surprise by any of the kids either.