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Article Regarding High School Cuts

coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, afterall.


Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
MizzoubaseballMizzoubaseball1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, afterall.


Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.


I dont know if I wanna admit kids today are soft, because then I will be admitting at the same time that I turned into an old man!

Seriously, I can see a lot of what everyone talks about. I can see it in my kids and I work to correct it. My son has his issues with problem solving and thinking for himself, like your example. I just get a kick out of people who say "kids today are soft, but not my kids."
zombywoofzombywoof1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by all322:


But I'm sure he still loves you.


You're absolutely right. Smile He's grown up into a fine young adult. I think I can take a little credit since we as parents get the blame when a rotten one turns out. Graduates in May with honors with a major and a double minor, currently holds a management position on his job as a 21 year old, is a go-getter and not waiting for things to come to him. I really can't complain with how he's turning out.
Last edited by zombywoof
S seattlestars16100+ posts
Very Nice Mizzou. My kids will have more education than I did. I have more than my father and he had more than gramps. My kids are better trained than I was they are bigger stronger and faster. My fathers high school teams would have been destroyed by my sons teams. Dad was a 190 pound guard in the early 50's. My 190 pound son is a safety with speed. College admissions are more stringent than they were for me, as for gramps who really went back then? My kids had eggs for breakfast, I had oatmeal gramps had dirt. My kids drove to school today. I rode the bus. Gramps walked with no shoes up hill both ways in the snow and was glad too. Do all the John Waynes get the idea.
W Will1,000+ posts
a couple years back I was talking to a kid after I saw him play. I was impressed by his talent etc etc. I asked him where he went to school. He told me. I asked him about the school team. He said he quit because he did not like the coach. here on this forum we are talking about getting cut and how some kids handle it or dont handle it and he makes the team and quits.
lefthookdadlefthookdad5,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, afterall.




I actually think that the kids are fine. there are always exceptions. From my view, society as a whole has gone soft...especially the parents. I deal with both quite often. The juvenile judicial system is soft as well. The kids have access to better technology, they have learned how to work the system to there advantage.....and they are doing it very well.
Last edited by lefthookdad
A all32210+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's.


That's hilarious. I also used to bang on the side of our TV when I was a kid to get those lines out. As a high school senior I changed plugs, points and the occasional water pump. Even rebuilt a carb. If I lift the hood up these days, it appears to be an alien spacecraft. I use those FAQ's and boards(like this one), because our world changed, and I'm trying to keep up, though losing the battle often. If I think of how my views have been affected by computers, 24 hr news, political sound bites and mass ad campaigns, I must also understand that my children grew up with these things and formed their views while my wife and I tried to help them with the right and wrong as we saw it. There were always bad apples, punks and others that our parents told us to stay away from, and today is no exception.

As for me, I vote not soft, but will limit mine to those young people that make up my kid's circle of close friends. When this last one finishes college, we will be 3-3, bettering my parents mark of 0-3, and still I worry that we, the kids from the good old hard days, have screwed things up enough to make it that much harder to succeed, even while we say how easy they have it.

Coach, have you tried the Nintendo games of today? It ain't pong anymore, yet they figure it out.

Finally, may I say that I've left all the hard parts of raising our kids to my wife. I just pretend I helped.

Zombywolf, you should be proud. Takes after your wife huh? Big Grin
M Marklaker1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.


I'll bet your father's generation said the same about your generation, and his father's generation felt the same about your dad's. Nothing new.
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, afterall.
I believe you will find most kids who have made it to college sports have discovered success takes hard work and life isn't always fair. Sometimes they may have discovered hard work is required because they didn't go 100% long enough to fail once. I don't see anything wrong with kids growing up with life not being perfect.
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
quote:
Originally posted by Marklaker:
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.


I'll bet your father's generation said the same about your generation, and his father's generation felt the same about your dad's. Nothing new.
Many of our parents and grandparents went through tough times regardless of their economic and social status. Our parents grew up in a depression and fought in a war. Our fought in a war and raised kids during a depression. I'm not advocating war. But for most of our generation and our kids there haven't been the challenges that make a coach upsetting a kid significant.

In Randy Pausch's Last Lecture he mentioned whining about his grad school finals stressing him out. His mother responded, "When your father was your age he was fighting the Germans." It does lend some perspective.

If anyone wants to gain some perspective on life go to youtube and search "Randy Pausch Last Lecture Oprah." It's ten minutes long. His entire Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon is also online. It's over an hour.
LB luv baseball5,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Will:
a couple years back I was talking to a kid after I saw him play. I was impressed by his talent etc etc. I asked him where he went to school. He told me. I asked him about the school team. He said he quit because he did not like the coach. here on this forum we are talking about getting cut and how some kids handle it or dont handle it and he makes the team and quits.


Similar kind of story ... two year starter returning for SR season quit becasue it wasn't fun anymore. Said it was an after school HS activity and when it isn't fun it wasn't worth his time becasue that's what the rest of his life is going to be once he graduates from college and someone pays him to do a job and take orders.

An interesting perspective for a 17 year old kid to have.
D Doughnutman1,000+ posts
You guys that always talk about how soft this generation is, really crack me up.

You sound like Grandpa Simpson.

"When I was a kid you never went out after dark because the hun might get you. Now, I had a stick that I used to play with, the rich kids played with two sticks. Now, when we played, we had to be careful because of the turnip in our belt that was the fashion of the time...zzzzzzz."
W Will1,000+ posts
quote:
You guys that always talk about how soft this generation is, really crack me up.

You sound like Grandpa Simpson.


having retired from teaching close to 40 years and coaching 30 of those I can speak from experience. It is a whole different ballgame now than it was before. Call me a grandpa simpson but my perspective is one of experience. You can be cracked up but let me put it another way compared to when I started to when I left they were tougher when I started.
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, afterall.


Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.


I think there might be some confusion with some people - my post above to Mizzoubaseball was a joke. It was intended to be humorous and not a judgement towards today's youths. Some of you got it and I'm glad we could share a laugh. Some of you didn't get it and I hope we can now have a laugh.

My two cents is that yes we do have soft kids today. We have strong kids and we have kids who are on the fence that may become strong or may be soft. It's always been that way and you can't really judge a generation at the moment. You have to let time go by and create some perspective.

The generation that fought in WWII is considered (rightfully so) the greatest generation in America but when they were in their time I guarantee the previous generation was criticizing them. It wasn't until after they got older and we saw how they made it through a depression and a world war and came back to a strong America that we realized how great they were. We are too close to this generation to truly judge them because we haven't been able to evaluate them. The WWII generation wasn't born to be that tough - they were molded and shaped by their experiences into the greatest generation. The funny thing is they had their fair share of soft people - those who were too scared to fight to succeed.

There are some days in the classroom where I think America's future is going to be in shambles and I'm moving to another country because they are our future. Then there are other days where I'm so proud of them I can't see straight. Same kids with totally different results - they need time to know if they are soft or if they are going to be tough.

Today's kids have it tougher than what we did because of the prevalence of drugs out there and the fact that the divorce rate is very high. Some of the things I see kids going through at home and they still come to school to get an education. These kids are tough and have it going on. But there are those who succomb to terrible parenting and possibly drugs. Are they soft? I don't know but I do know they are who we make them to be.
D Doughnutman1,000+ posts
Will,
Did you have to deal with the stuff kids today have to deal with?
HIV
24 hour pron
24 hour entertainment
respected members of religion being caught as child molesters
insanely competitve college entrance
Heroin
Crack
Meth
cameras everywhere
get in a fight in school and go to jail
get a ticket. lose your license til 21
parental divorce
step brothers/sisters
step dads/moms, multiple step dads/moms
24 hour news reports about child abuse death

These kids are tested and will be proven to be tough as nails when needed. They may be a little softer on the physical side, but they deal with issues that are so far from what everyone else grew up with it is laughable.
AntzDadAntzDad1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:
So, the main point I picked up from this discussion is that the younger generation is weak, cant handle adversity, soft, and will not be able to function in the real world because they are coddled.

But not the children of the people that post on here, only the other kids. So, if "all our our children" are in good shape, maybe the younger generation will be fine, after all.


Yeah, I understand some of the 'kids are soft these days' stuff. Forget, for a minute, how tough all of our baseball players are.

Remember the 10-year war in the Middle East... fought by volunteers.
M Marklaker1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by coach2709:

I think there might be some confusion with some people - my post above to Mizzoubaseball was a joke. It was intended to be humorous and not a judgement towards today's youths. Some of you got it and I'm glad we could share a laugh. Some of you didn't get it and I hope we can now have a laugh.

My two cents is that yes we do have soft kids today. We have strong kids and we have kids who are on the fence that may become strong or may be soft. It's always been that way and you can't really judge a generation at the moment. You have to let time go by and create some perspective.

The generation that fought in WWII is considered (rightfully so) the greatest generation in America but when they were in their time I guarantee the previous generation was criticizing them. It wasn't until after they got older and we saw how they made it through a depression and a world war and came back to a strong America that we realized how great they were. We are too close to this generation to truly judge them because we haven't been able to evaluate them. The WWII generation wasn't born to be that tough - they were molded and shaped by their experiences into the greatest generation. The funny thing is they had their fair share of soft people - those who were too scared to fight to succeed.

There are some days in the classroom where I think America's future is going to be in shambles and I'm moving to another country because they are our future. Then there are other days where I'm so proud of them I can't see straight. Same kids with totally different results - they need time to know if they are soft or if they are going to be tough.

Today's kids have it tougher than what we did because of the prevalence of drugs out there and the fact that the divorce rate is very high. Some of the things I see kids going through at home and they still come to school to get an education. These kids are tough and have it going on. But there are those who succomb to terrible parenting and possibly drugs. Are they soft? I don't know but I do know they are who we make them to be.


Nice follow-up post….sorry for misunderstanding the original. I just think too many people sell this generation short because they view them through the prism of their own era and experiences. Just as it’s problematic comparing Ruth to Aaron because they played under different circumstances, likewise today’s generation deals with a different set of parameters than yesteryears. Bottom line: they were both great ball players and today’s generation is every bit as fine as those of the past.
P PGStaff10,000+ posts
quote:
You want to see soft? Give the older folks a remote to the tv, dvr, and stereo and watch them whine, wipper and have a complete nervous breakdown.


Golfman,

You have just described me! Anything technical and I call in the young people.

I do think each generation changes. I know we had it tough (didn't know it at the time). Our parents had at tougher and their parents tougher yet. Things like electricity, running water and indoor bathrooms made life a bit easier.
Last edited by PGStaff
TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
Reality check here, most likely most of our kids here have it relatively easy compared to many.

There is a HS in Florida where most of the studentscome from homeless families.

Do you guys know about the Giant's football player who had to work to put food on the table because his father was blind. After class, after practice each day he went to work until 12am everyday. Then turn around and do it all over the next day.

Could your kids do that?

I have to chuckle when I hear parents say how hard their kids work and how tough they are; they attend school for 7 hours a day, go to bb practice and then come home and "have" do their homework.
Last edited by TPM
S sptsnt0010+ posts
My son was cut as a freshman. He was 4 foot nuthin' and had no speed. He was hurt, angry, and in not so good a mood when I met him on the basement sofa that night.

He ended up volunteering to be the team manager that year, and the next.

His junior year, he had grown to about 5'9", and had improved enough to make the team. Didn't play much, but this is a state championship caliber team. No shame in that.

This year, he's a senior and is 6'2", has realized his best chance to play is in the OF, and hit .400 for his summer team, which the varsity coach helped with.

Sometimes, it just takes time and patience.
WklinkWklink500+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by sptsnt00:
My son was cut as a freshman. He was 4 foot nuthin' and had no speed. He was hurt, angry, and in not so good a mood when I met him on the basement sofa that night.

He ended up volunteering to be the team manager that year, and the next.

His junior year, he had grown to about 5'9", and had improved enough to make the team. Didn't play much, but this is a state championship caliber team. No shame in that.

This year, he's a senior and is 6'2", has realized his best chance to play is in the OF, and hit .400 for his summer team, which the varsity coach helped with.

Sometimes, it just takes time and patience.


Good story.
S sptsnt0010+ posts
Thanks, guys.

This is not a perfect world and it is not a fair one.

It'd be nice to say we all get what we deserve and what we work for, but that's just not always the case because there are always other human beings involved in the equation, and humans have proven to be quite fallible.

The real point to my son's story addresses the issue of "givingup" on the sport when some guy you just met for the first time says, "You're not good enough for my ballclub". That statement hurts everybody. It hurts the coach, the kid, his parents......

If you love the game, you'll find a way to be a part of the team. Go to practice and chase foul balls, grab a rake after practice and rake, keep score, high five the guys who are doing well, keep your face in front of the coach.

This same coach told me something awhile back......

He said there is no justification for a lesser player playing in front of a more talented player, no matter the hustle. What DOES matter is when there's an opening or an opportunity and the coach is trying to figure out who to put in as a pinch runner or a late defensive fielder in a blowout game....it's the kids who are there because they HAVE to be there to satisfy their love for the game.

Luckily, my kid is that kid. He had 5 ABs as a junior (productive ones, but only 5). In the regional chanpionship game, they opened the game up by 6 runs in the 6th inning and the coach was looking for a pinch runner late in the game for the catcher. My son was in no way the fastest OR the smartest baserunner on the bench, but he got the call.
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