Parent Coach at HS Level

There will always be obstacles.  Plenty of them.  All types.  That's one of the beautiful things about sports.  Encourage the player to do his best to overcome them, no matter what they are.  Work to be the absolute best player you can be and try to leave no doubt in a coach's mind that you should be on the field.  If the player has done EVERYTHING he possibly can and still doesn't earn the spot, at that point, he won't feel cheated because he knows he is the best player he can be.  Until then, neither player nor parent should waste a second of thought or energy entertaining excuses.

Rob_Heitz posted:

...a parent of mine whose kid got cut from freshman ball (very good player) is claiming daddy-ball is in play.  

Does the dad coach have nine sons on the team?

I haven't seen a high school situation with a son playing for his father where there weren't parents crying daddy ball. I also haven't seen a high school situation where the son wasn't one of the best players on the team.

Will the son of a coach get a little benefit of the doubt freshman and soph year? Possibly. But dad knows his son's ability and upside.

It's very common for a high school coach to have played college ball or at least been a quality high school player. I've never understood why parents don't understand in most cases through heredity the ability will be passed down to the son. In fact, the kid often more ends up better than the dad.

I was asked to be a middle school assistant. My son begged me not to do it. He said he was tired of hearing he plays short and leads off because his father is the coach. I declined the position. My son played short and lead off. He did the same in high school until he played center and hit third.

Re: 9th grader who is a good player being cut

Each time a kid moves up the ladder the funnel gets smaller and smaller. A great pre high school player may not be so great as he moves up the ladder. Everyone but the parents see it.  The parents then have to grasp for excuses.

Rob_Heitz posted:

How common are dad head coaches (not previously a coach or admin in the school) in HS ball with a kid and/or entire travel ball team filling the spots on the roster?  Anyone had a good or bad experience with this?  Not directly affecting me yet but a parent of mine whose kid got cut from freshman ball (very good player) is claiming daddy-ball is in play.  I am trying to keep them positive but I think that they are in a bad situation for the next 3 years as their district tends to hire parent coaches for 9th grade and allows them to stay on as assistants through varsity (so I am learning)

I would say around my parts, it's almost unheard of in public schools.  Most head coaches are teachers at the school.  They only one I know of is a retired teacher from another district, who was hired as a head football coach.  But his kids went to a different school and have long since graduated college, which is why he could retire. 

However, we do have dad's that act as volunteer assistants.  They seem to be well vetted and have good experience to give. 

We also have the teacher/coach/dads who coach their kids.  In one instance dad/coach suspended his kid from the team for breaking rules.  Not sure if that was "daddy ball."   

I have experienced on my own staff many times.  Lucky for me the parents I had coaching were D1 players and there sons went on to play Division 1.  I honestly do not have anything negative to say about it because they were all very honest about their sons to begin with.  One parent actually was WAY more hard on his kid than I would be. 

On another note I had a friend apply for a Jon opening at a new school and made it to the final 2 and lost the job.  He was asked about what he thought about parents coaching and he said absolutely not.  Little did he know that the gated community that would feed the school had 2 ex mlbers whose kids were to be playing on that team.

What I have learned is there are dad's and then there are dad's.

Our program has not only the Principal's son, but also a counselors son, the football coaches son and the JV baseball coaches son is on varsity. To everyone's credit, I haven't seen any of them get favored son treatment - interestingly enough not one of them is a regular starter on JV or Varsity. From my observations, if anything I think these kids may get treated harsher than the rest of the players. Equally talented players seemingly get MORE playing time to avoid the appearance of favoritism. 

There are 2 head coaches in our area who have sons who are players.  In each case the kid is decent but not outstanding so you can bet there has been plenty of grousing among the other parents as the players have gone through the system.  I've even heard grousing from the coaches. 

I coached my daughter in HS. Regardless of a what I might have done or her abilities, there was nothing I could do about those that accused me of daddy ball.

It's funny that it's always the parent of the kid that was cut or the kid sitting the bench that complain about daddy ball. It's never the parents of the kid that's batting leadoff and starting shortstop. 

I can say that the coaches I've worked with who had kids on the team were rougher on their kids and held them to a higher standard. I know there are some bad apples out thereally but it gets old. Really old. Quick. 

PW posted:

It's funny that it's always the parent of the kid that was cut or the kid sitting the bench that complain about daddy ball. It's never the parents of the kid that's batting leadoff and starting shortstop. 

I can say that the coaches I've worked with who had kids on the team were rougher on their kids and held them to a higher standard. I know there are some bad apples out thereally but it gets old. Really old. Quick. 

I was "fortunate" to get to experience daddy ball at its finest on my son' Varsity team.   I've stated it in other threads but the coach's son is 5'-6" and played shortstop all 4 years on Varsity and batted first in the lineup all 4 years.   He was a decent player but didn't have the arm to get it to 1B half the time nor the range to cut off balls that were more than 4 ft on either side of him.   Coach also was caught cooking the score book to inflate his sons performance.   It was so apparent how deficient this kid was on SS that it was embarrassing when playing other teams, especially in the playoffs.   Watch Domingo's video on "Coachs kid" and that explains it almost exactly. 

Yep. Like I said. There are a few bad apples. Nice of you to agree with me. Thanks.

If a parent is a coach then it's daddy ball.

If the coaching staff have no kids on the team then it's politics.

While these things do happen at some point you need to look in the mirror and realize it may be you.  You may not be good enough.  Go read Cabbagedad's first post and that should be enough.

I've never seen a talented player with a good attitude and strong work ethic be a victim of anything more than a team having too much talent.

Our HS coach seems to be very fair. His own son is a junior, a good player but not great. So he put his son in the JV team, while promoting 3 sophomores to Varsity. No parents question his judgements whatsoever.