Of course I'm questioning a coaches philosophy, but what should the team goals be for a high school baseball team?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Win a state title. Done.
It varies greatly based on the state of the program.In a rebuilding year maybe the goal is to make the state tourney. Maybe it is to finish top 3 in your conference. I think varies based on where the program is in the building cycle.
Interesting topic...
I think a staff has to create an environment where there are set expectations regarding effort, attitude, behavior and citizenship. But I don't consider those as team goals. I think goals have to be tied, at least in part, to concrete accomplishments (wins !).
But this can be a slippery slope. Goals should be a reach but obtainable. As Wahoo stated, it may depend largely on the current state of the program. I will add that it also depends largely on the talent pool and the mental makeup of the group. Even then, if you try to set obtainable goals, you may be conceding that it is OK to lose at some point. I struggle with the notion that a team can enter a game with any part of the thought process being "it's OK to lose this game". So, it really isn't as easy as it may appear on the surface, for me anyway.
I coach at a fairly small public school (700+) where our average opponents are schools at least twice our size and those are schools in our league. We played a non-conference and tourney schedule with ten teams that were three or four divisions above ours. We are far more susceptible to up-and-down cycles of talented players. We also had a particularly large group of seniors graduate last year, so this year's team had very little experience playing varsity level baseball. Would it have been realistic to set the same goals as last year? No. ...winning every game or winning league? No. Were we willing to concede that it was OK to lose any game? NO!
These were our goals this year...
- win every league game the second time through
- qualify for playoffs
- upset at least one team in a playoff run
We just finished the regular season friday night and it took a top ranked 24-1 team 11 innings to keep us from goal 1. Goal 2 was accomplished and goal 3 is TBD.
Lastly, coaches can and should make a difference but sometimes the gap in talent and/or competitive desire is too wide to close for lots of wins to be the goal.
Showcase, what is it that is happening that you don't agree with?
I think the goals should go much deeper than wins and losses and championships. Batting average and ERA goals are nice but there is more. For example, the team needs to be able to hit to the right side to move a runner over %40 percent of the time. Pitchers need to get the batter out with 3 or fewer pitches over %60 of the time. I don't know if those are realistic percentages for either "goal" but those are things that help get to the wins and championships. Just my .02 cents.
Let me say that we have a very good high school program year after year. I believe that the teams goal should be winning the state title.
The main issue I have is that he is just way to nice. He has said that it's not about wins and loses but how he wants to build future relationships with players.
And before someone says something about my kid not playing, that's not the case. He bats second, starts in right and is the number two pitcher on the team.
Originally Posted by cabbagedad:
Interesting topic...
I think a staff has to create an environment where there are set expectations regarding effort, attitude, behavior and citizenship. But I don't consider those as team goals. I think goals have to be tied, at least in part, to concrete accomplishments (wins !).
But this can be a slippery slope. Goals should be a reach but obtainable. As Wahoo stated, it may depend largely on the current state of the program. I will add that it also depends largely on the talent pool and the mental makeup of the group. Even then, if you try to set obtainable goals, you may be conceding that it is OK to lose at some point. I struggle with the notion that a team can enter a game with any part of the thought process being "it's OK to lose this game". So, it really isn't as easy as it may appear on the surface, for me anyway.
I coach at a fairly small public school (700+) where our average opponents are schools at least twice our size and those are schools in our league. We played a non-conference and tourney schedule with ten teams that were three or four divisions above ours. We are far more susceptible to up-and-down cycles of talented players. We also had a particularly large group of seniors graduate last year, so this year's team had very little experience playing varsity level baseball. Would it have been realistic to set the same goals as last year? No. ...winning every game or winning league? No. Were we willing to concede that it was OK to lose any game? NO!
These were our goals...
- win every league game the second time through
- qualify for playoffs
- upset at least one team in a playoff run
We just finished the regular season friday night and it took a top ranked 24-1 team 11 innings to keep us from goal 1. Goal 2 was accomplished and goal 3 is TBD.
Lastly, coaches can and should make a difference but sometimes the gap in talent and/or competitive desire is too wide to close for lots of wins to be the goal.
Showcase, what is it that is happening that you don't agree with?
Originally Posted by showcaseNOVA:
Let me say that we have a very good high school program year after year. I believe that the teams goal should be winning the state title.
The main issue I have is that he is just way to nice. He has said that it's not about wins and loses but how he wants to build future relationships with players.
..Food for thought...If you have a team capable of winning the state title and a core of players who want to accomplish that feat, then I agree it should certainly be ONE of the goals but not THE goal. Let's say the team has a fantastic year, wins league, plays exemplary ball all year, develops great work ethic, learns to deal with adversity, kids grow together as a group, player skills develop nicely, they do things to make the school and community proud but then go deep into the playoffs when they run into a good P who can do no wrong that day and shuts them down in a great semi-final game. Is the season a failure? You failed reaching your only goal, right?
Just sayin'...
Just sayin'...
I helped open a new school 6 years ago and our teams goal is the same every year no matter how young or old, no matter how many titles we win, no matter how many guys go to college (for baseball or just to further pursue education), the goal is the same "Play the game the right way" wins and losses are not very important, if we win or lose and dont play the right way they get a lecture, if we play the right way win or lose, i tell them i am proud of our efforts and insist we have to work a little harder. Sometimes you dont have the talent as other teams so all you can do is "Control the Controllables" and play the right way and give your best effort, if you have done that then you can't do anymore, sometimes you just get beat. I believe if you play the right way it usually takes care of itself after that, we as coaches set the examples, explain what the right way is, we keep it simple (KISS is the best way) and i must say it must work as we have won 5 out of 6 championships and have sent 95% of all seniors to college or military.