Switching teams III

There are enough situations/teams in youth sports with daddyball coaches and/or parents who believe their son's are not being utilized properly (some right, more wrong) where this is just another day in the life of youth sports.

Here we go again


Who judges the talent? The coach or Mommy/Daddy ?

TR,
The coaches evaluate the talent. The mommies and daddies and players decide what team to play on. Simple enough.

D-man,

Any non-coaching parent of a talented pre-HS player has been through this as you obviously know. In your case, it worked itself out. There are so many rec teams now that want to 'go select' but it's still daddy-ball in 90% of the cases (as it has been with my middle son's team). At some point, the coaches have to move in one direction or the other. If these teams continue to retain rec-level players (especially coaches' sons) who play in front of better players, it's only going to drive the better players away from the team. I think these guys just love telling people they have a select team.

In our case, this year was tough as well. It was our 3rd year with the team, and my son has established a primary role within the team. Well our team still retained a couple rec level players that were way over their heads and overmatched against every pitcher we faced (both batted under .100). Of course they were both asst. coaches' sons. Asst coaches and head coach were great friends and they'd been together since t-ball. My son and one other kid were the most athletic kids on the team and among the few that make plays regularly. This other kid's parents lobbied the coach to give their son more time at SS which was fine by me since I'd been asking the Head Coach to move my son around a little if he could. I don't want my son limited to just SS at age 11. I'd like for him to get some OF play especially. Of course the two asst. coaches' sons played OF because there was no where else for them. So the coaches rotated my son and this other kid at SS and the rest of the game each kid would sit the bench. So the coaches sat one of their two best defensive players for half a game every game for about a month, while the two asst. coaches' sons played every inning.

The head coach finally asked me what was bothering me (was it obvious?) and I was diplomatic but basically told him what I was looking for in a team for my son. Among my list of grievances was the issue with the asst. coaches. I told him they can run the team any way they want but if their intentions were to run the team to the benefit of their kids only, then we'd be looking for another team next year. There was an immediate change at that point (especially since there were rumblings from parents of other good players that they weren't happy with what the asst. coaches were doing in favor of their own kids, costing us games. The two asst. coaches announced after the season that they were leaving. Unfortunately two of our better kids also left the team because of the coaching approach.

So, these things usually work out. But not all for the best unfortunately.

This is a commom problem everywhere in sports. Most times you ususally get the Dads who offer to help coach whose kids are not the top players. It is not a mistake that they are coaching. Our program is going thru that right now. We have two year contracts and this upcoming season will be the final year of the contracts. Going forward I will have assistants whose kids are among the top players on the team, or if they are a qualified coach they will need to be able to separate the Daddy from the Coach.

D-man I think you may have opened Pandora`s box
good luck

Yea ECTB Dad, I hear you. This is why it makes me nervous. I never expected it to turn out this way. We were looking at other teams. But my son likes most of the players on this team so we will see. It may have just delayed the issue, started the team to implode, or it will just work out fine.
You never know.

quote:

Originally posted by Doughnutman:
Yea ECTB Dad, I hear you. This is why it makes me nervous. I never expected it to turn out this way. We were looking at other teams. But my son likes most of the players on this team so we will see. It may have just delayed the issue, started the team to implode, or it will just work out fine.
You never know.

Egos, egos, egos, too much egos from the parents will not help the kid grow. If your kid is a little leaguer, please don't push it in the game, push him at practice. If the coach won't play him at SS, practice him everyday as a SS at the backyard with you. I always say, practice is the most important thing in youth baseball. Imagine how many ground balls hit to the SS all season long, I can practice all these grounders in a day or less. During a time of my son's travel team season, the coach reluctant to pitch him. My son ask me "why don't they let me pitch? I want to pitch." I told him "hey, you can practice pitching with me, if you pitch better than me, I will let the coach know." Later that year, during the regular season game against a upper age group. The coach wants save their pitchers for the weekend tourney. He let my son pitch that game, my son showed off his unique fastball and a power curveball which learned from me practice after practice. We shut out the older age team 6:0. The coaches were stunned. After that game, my son became the teams #2 pitcher. So, what do I lose for not pitching all those other games? One game can change the coach's perception of a kid. You just need to get your son ready for that game, that's all.

Doughnutman

Not sure if I agree with you deciding to have your son quit the team because your son did not get the time he wanted at SS, but it sounds like it turned around to your liking.

My son was coached by the same two dads for three years and their sons shared the SS position. My son had played that position before on another team,(we moved) but these coaches would not give him a chance to prove himself there, so he was stuck at 1st.He played this position for 3 seasons. And he had his share of sitting the bench also. Though he expressed his disappointment at times to us that he was not allowed to play SS at all, we always encouraged him to to do his best where he was at(1st). He also worked hard outside of season keeping up his skills. We told him that if it was meant to be by the time HS rolled around, that he should be playing SS, it would all work out, which it did.

XB Coach,
Everyone has an ego, even the players. To rehash some things from Switching Teams I and II. We were told that no coaches kids played SS and it would be open competition. It was a major part of our decision process and we had other offers. We showed up and one of the coaches kids was at SS. They didn't hold up their end of the bargain. We gave them 2 months and my son won the position at every practice. His practice time went down to 10 minutes of infield, maybe 1 game a tournament. Also, my son wants to play SS and he had earned it over and over again in practice and games. It didn't matter.
He was very frustrated and so was I.
We left.

Then the other coach left and we were asked to come back the next day. Not the best situation in the world. We shall see how it goes.

These are the Days of our Lives.(cue corny sountrack)

Doughnutman:

I agree with you. But let me ask you one question, how much better your son play SS than the coach's son? If both played at same level, or coach's son is just a little bit weaker, your son has no chance to play SS. That's is the untold rule of LL baseball.
If the coach's son make errors everyday and still play at SS, hey, you better find a new team quick.
This team has no future. You look at the best traveling team in the country, their coaches' sons are always among the best players in the team, maybe not the only best players in the team. If you move to the next team, look at the coach's son first.

D-man this should be a interesting season for
you and your son.Does his team play this weekend?

Xb Coach,
There wasn't much comparison between the two SS. Both are good. One of them just had a couple of advantages physically and the other had them politically.
All travel teams are doomed, it is just a matter of when. The only constant is change. Nobody plays with the exact same kids and coaches from age 6 through HS. Players come and go. Coaches come and go. They join other organizations. We have 40-50 teams in every age group in Phoenix. Probably 5 or 6 at 13U that are very good and can win any tournament. It is early in the season and a lot of shifting around goes on until everyone gets a good fit due to playing time, position, batting order, travel time, coaching, $$, etc. I don't know anyone who takes it personally. Everybody knows everybody in the youth baseball world.

ECTB Dad,
Not this weekend. Next weekend in Tucson. Toys for Tots tourney. It should be very interesting. At least we have 2 weeks of practice to get used to the situation. I know the kids are taking it better than the parents. They always do.

quote:

Originally posted by xbcoachoh62:
Doughnutman:

I agree with you. But let me ask you one question, how much better your son play SS than the coach's son? If both played at same level, or coach's son is just a little bit weaker, your son has no chance to play SS. That's is the untold rule of LL baseball.
If the coach's son make errors everyday and still play at SS, hey, you better find a new team quick.
This team has no future. You look at the best traveling team in the country, their coaches' sons are always among the best players in the team, maybe not the only best players in the team. If you move to the next team, look at the coach's son first.

You find the best travel teams in the country and you're likely to find that they have paid coaches and no children on the team.