I have a son who will turn 13 in 2 weeks. He has played for 4 teams in the 5 years (10 seasons)since he started at age 8. The one team he was with the longest (5 seasons) we left this year because he had learned all he could from those coaches, and he wanted to see better competition. The team we have joined seemed to be a good fit, and he has very much blossomed as a first baseman. He climbed up in the batting order from 7th to 4th, and now plays almost every inning of every game. Here is the problem, most of the other players on the team are melting down every game. Crying in the dugout, tanking plays, throwing helmets, etc.
All 4 coaches have sons on the team and the head coach's son is the worst. He is batting .005 for the season, yet stays no lower than 8th in the order. above players who are better hitters. These dads are stressing their players out. I spoke with a couple of the players between games at a tournament this weekend and they said that they felt the coaching staff was too tense, it's become all about winning and they were afraid it was going to get worse when the team goes to Cooperstown in July, which will run about 4 grand per family.
I want to look for a new team, but I have received other advice that as long as the competition is good, my son should stay where he is at. His goal is to make his high school team. He has stayed above all this and continued to hustle out the grounders, and dive for balls. He has kept his great attitude and I am very proud of how he has handled this.
Any advice?
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