I'll have a player missing a week of spring break, he has an opportunity to travel with the Park City Wind Ensemble. He wants to know how this will impact his playing time. He is a Jr. Any thoughts or recommendations.
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What are the rules and expectations that you have in place for your team?
Is he not going to go if it impacts him negatively?
There is more to life than baseball.
This used to be a problem with my son's HS team (players who had commitments--usually family trip related during spring break week). Parents didn't want to change plans, as they had invested $$ for planes, cruises.
As a result about 2-3 years ago, commitment for spring sports during vacation week was addressed in student handbook. Case by case, but now player would miss a couple more games on his return, or not be allowed to try out. Juniors could generally miss practices for college visits though if they informed coach in advance.
As other poster mentioned, what boundaries did you set?
Our policy is the player sits one game for each practice missed and two games for each game missed for any unexcused absence (illness, death in family, school required activity, etc.).
This is not for a vacation or just because. This looks to be part of a school sponsored function. At our school making the enseble is a big deal. Itbis very competitive.
I would not penalize the young man and make it an excused absence. With undertanding that if his back up out performs him in this opportunity, that there is no guarantee that he will keep his starting job.
We talk about players playing multiple sports. I believe this should be extended to other opportunities such as music, and the arts. We should encourage our young people to expand their horizons. We had a very good baseball player move to our district. But it was not for sports, but for our orchestra. He eventually ended up getting an almost full ride to a big D1. But it was not in baseball.
March is a time for big music festivals where high level ensembles gather to work with composers and university concert band directors - a student in a wind ensemble traveling then is a very big deal for the musician. And it is school sponsored event. My opinion is the coach should allow that opportunity with no penalty.
BishopLeftiesDad posted:This is not for a vacation or just because. This looks to be part of a school sponsored function.
No penalty then for school related functions; our freshman are required to take a fine arts course. Many are in band and chorus. The concert has regularly fallen on game day. No penalty, but in all cases coaches should know well in advance when a player will miss a game and/or practice. Communicated by the PLAYER, not the parent of course.
Tough one because it's HS and you ll see varying levels of comittment. Most have no desire to play sport at higher level, and that's ok. We had a player or two miss a few games for academic competitions.
Imo it's more frustrating during summer ball when we had kids, esp P skip a tournament because they wanted to go to the beach. We had 3 do that one wk and that didn't go over do well w coach or rest of team. Everyone wanted to go on a vacation, but most realized they made a comittment and wanted to be there to be seen by colleges. In our case none of the three went on to play at next level. Some had the talent, just not the desire.
I guess each school/summer team needs to prepare for this by putting expectations in writing at start of season. That way favoritism is taken out of equation.
Coach, did you setup the expectations ahead of time? If so what was set out regarding this? If you have set the expectations then just follow your policy. If you have not, you are going to be unpopular no matter what you do.
At my kids HS the policy is very straight forward regarding these things. If its an school academic related activity, illness, or injury there is no penalty. If the Park City Wind Ensemble is a school related academic event then there would be no penalty. If the PCWE is not related to a school activity it would fall under the missing practice/games policy. Over spring break the policy is miss a practice or game, sit two games for every missed event. In essence if you skip out of town over spring break, your season is over. After spring break if you miss a practice for a non excused reason (school activity, injury or illness) you sit the next game. If you miss a game, you sit the next two games. There is a little leeway in there that provides some coach discretion. For example if your older sibling is graduating from college (non-excused, but you provided the coach with enough notice) and you can't make a game or practice that day, the coach can elect to play you in the game but not allow you to start the game.
If you don't already have a policy in place, I would suggest you set one and communicate it up front. As a parent I like to know about the policy. I also like that our coaches enforce it on everyone regardless of the circumstances.
Coach Morgan posted:I'll have a player missing a week of spring break, he has an opportunity to travel with the Park City Wind Ensemble. He wants to know how this will impact his playing time. He is a Jr. Any thoughts or recommendations.
Coach, what do you consider your role in your players life to be? Are you there to pick up a check (wow what a check!), enforce the rules and move onto the next years class? Or are you trying to help these boys mature into responsible and well rounded young adults?
The player came to you, he could have had his parents call. He asked you well ahead of time, he could have waited until the weekend before. He's hoping to partake in something that will make him a more well rounded person, that is a school function, and that will give him another High School unique experience.
It sounds to me like he is a respectful, considerate, and consciousness young man who showed you that he respects you and the game. In my opinion you should be proud to have him on your team and in the field as an example to others, even if he missed a week due to another school event.
If it is a school activity and he noted you early enough ( not in the last week) I don't really have an issue with tha.
CaCO3Girl posted:Coach Morgan posted:I'll have a player missing a week of spring break, he has an opportunity to travel with the Park City Wind Ensemble. He wants to know how this will impact his playing time. He is a Jr. Any thoughts or recommendations.
Coach, what do you consider your role in your players life to be? Are you there to pick up a check (wow what a check!), enforce the rules and move onto the next years class? Or are you trying to help these boys mature into responsible and well rounded young adults?
The player came to you, he could have had his parents call. He asked you well ahead of time, he could have waited until the weekend before. He's hoping to partake in something that will make him a more well rounded person, that is a school function, and that will give him another High School unique experience.
It sounds to me like he is a respectful, considerate, and consciousness young man who showed you that he respects you and the game. In my opinion you should be proud to have him on your team and in the field as an example to others, even if he missed a week due to another school event.
When son was in HS, he had to go out of town for his sisters wedding (told well in advance). When he returned he had to sit out for the specific period of time within the rules (not a school function, not a college visitation, etc).
I do believe that if this is a school run function, more than likely its allowed within the team rules.
If the activity is connected to the school it's ok. If not, no. One of my son's high school teammates missed a week for a robotics competition. The coach told him he would treat the situation as if he was sick. He wouldn't play again until he made practices. The kid went to college for engineering with a concentration in robotics.
When this coach came in the baseball program, like most teams at the school it was a country club. The players got spring vacation week off. The new coach had games and practices scheduled. He told players it was ok to take off. Just be sure to turn in the uniform before leaving.
Starting the second year the kids got off Thursday through Sunday. Most of the kids worked out on their own, often in groups with teammates.
TPM posted:There is more to life than baseball.
^^^^^^^^^^
This. Sounds like a pretty important opportunity.
I'd probably dismiss him from the team for being the kind of wienie who would rather toot a flute than play baseball.
Man MMA tournament though...
One of my favorite high school moments was during my daughter's high school chorus concert. The director turned to the audience in the middle and said "we have to pause a few minutes, we have several wrestlers in the next group, and we just ran to get them from practice so they can perform with us. Thanks for your patience."
Iowamom23 posted:One of my favorite high school moments was during my daughter's high school chorus concert. The director turned to the audience in the middle and said "we have to pause a few minutes, we have several wrestlers in the next group, and we just ran to get them from practice so they can perform with us. Thanks for your patience."
At one of the local powerhouse football programs two of the players participate in the band's halftime show in their uniforms.