Young coaches

Bring it up to the head coach, if he is a good head coach then he will at least be more aware of this incase anything happens in the future.

In the other part i don't feel it matters what age you are to be a coach, although typically the older you are the more knowledge you have and the more maturity you have beucase you have been around longer and think about things such as the consequence of what you say and do and the "People" around you.

Bob, I can't say what the young coach did was right because it definitely was not.

But let me ask this question.. How is a guy supposed to get into coaching if he can't coach someone only a couple years younger? Ever heard of a graduate assistant coach?

Well the fact that one of our posters was killed by a line drive, the behavior is unexcusable. I would be ticked if a coach hit a ball at my kid like that without warning. we have had two people die in the last two weekks being hit by baseballs. I dont care about his age, but his behavior is out of line.

Had a similar circumstance with our son. This happens especially if your son is one of those who are considered "very talented". I think it is their skill level draws the attention of coaches and they want to feel like they had a hand in it.

But for whatever reason which to this day I cannot figure, the coaches always migrate over to the ballplayer who has more skills and talents. there is just this need to "fix things". It drove me crazy. I call them the well-intentioned tinkerers.

After spending countless hours, dollars in pro lessons, we had some young, wet-behind-the-ears very young new coach take over a JV team. It didn't take long to see that the new coach felt he needed to compete rather than coach. We finally had to remove our son from the program. We then moved him to a coaching situation where a more seasoned coach was in charge.
JMO

Something similar happened at a Florida School. A player was struck during pitcher fielding practice after the coach got mad and took a full swing at the pitchers grouped at the mound, hitting one in the eye. The coach who was also a veteran college umpire, was fired. The kid had surgery on his eye and got a mid six-figure settlement from the school board. He quit baseball. The coach won't be the last moron he runs into, sadly.

I love the title of this post. Sorry if I come across as defensive of young coaches, but this is about the third time on this site that someone has blamed a situation on him being a young coach. It has nothing to do with age. Keep in mind EVERY SINGLE PERSON learned the game from someone older than them. Blame it on the teachers of these kids. Blame it on them being idiots. Just stop blaming it on he is young. I have seen/ played for "this coach" I do not hit fungos at kids. I am 25, I am not an awful coach. (Atleast I hope not) I think I am better than some 50/60 year old coaches. I also think I could learna lot from some coaches that are 50/60. But every year I have to prove myself as a good coach to all our parents because I am young. Every year, there is a parent that absolutley knows more than I do about the game because he is 20 years older than me. Maybe in some cases they are right. But quit belittling people because of age. If you look at me as an equal in the coaching world, watch a game and then think I am a terrible coach. Thank you for atleast giving me a chance. But just because so and so is 55 and this his 30th year at a school DOES NOT MAKE HIM A GOOD COACH. It just means he has not screwed up enough to be let go and has a great passion for the game. Good coaches come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. Parents have a tendancy to forget this. Just as a I have a tendancy to not see that "Johnny" is the best player on the team. Thanks for letting me rant for a minute. By the way any coach that hits a fungo at a kid is an idiot. But I have seen a time or two, a coach hitting fongos and the kid not paying attention and the kid taking the ball of his body. Then, tells people coach was hitting fungos at them. So sometimes there is another side to this story.

BOB

What makes you an authority on the proper age of coaches?

Bob:
There is no doubt the young coach you mentioned acted in an improper way and put a kid at risk, but I think that speaks more about that Coach rather than his age.

My son, #24 is a high school senior and has spent his high school career playing for a JV coach who is now 28 and a varsity coach who is 30. The JV rarely loses and the Varsity is deep in the state playoff most years, in a fairly competitive region, playing at the highest school classification. They both know the game very well and in my humble opinion would never act the way you described. They run a well respected program that is known for its sportsmanship as well as success on the field.

Although they are young they have hired assistants who are older and rely on them to help make the right decisions.

The JV coach has been a mentor to my son and has probably had the biggest impact on him other than his dad. I think the JV Coach's youth was an asset, because my son could relate to him in ways that I, his Dad, could not.

The Varsity Coach has impressed me with his professional approach to the game and his direct and honest approach to the players and parents. 24 looks up to him as well.

I don't doubt your experience with that young coach was not satisfactory, but just wanted to share a more positive experience that my son had with his young coaches.

A few days ago, I posted about Hendrix and the assistant coach, Neil Groat.
Neil graduated from Hendrix in 2004. He is either 27 or 28 years old.... a young coach.
That young coach helped turn a 4-22 college team into a winner. The head coach isn't much older.
Young has nothing to do with anything.
Of course we are also hearing one side of a story. Bob, in doing a bit of checking on the HSBBW, I found some of your first posts commented on issues with and not being too thrilled with the Arkansas staff, then it seemed like one JC staff, then one Big East staff.
It is hard for me to figure out whether this is the same or different? I'm not sure why you would post this here. Has your son worked through whatever happened with the Head Coach and the "young guy."
Seems like that is where to start. If he did, what happened?

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...671001772#4671001772

Dad04 and all, when I was Player Agent of our community softball league a 10U REC BALL coach (DID YOU HEAR THAT 10U! rec ball) got frustrated with his team. He went into the batters box to "show the girls" proper hitting.

He hit a screamer ldr into a 9 year old girls cheeck as she was diving to get out of the way. Broke her jaw, lost her teeth, quit the sport, sued the league.... won

Your son's coach was no less an axx.

It took our league a few years to recover from that jerk's one angry swing.

Show the HC this post.

So I just checked the coaching staff of the NAIA where your son is playing. The assistant coaches graduated high school in 1987, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2001. Two of those graduated from high school in Mt.
Seems a bit tough to imagine your son played in high school against anyone who graduated in 2001???

BTW, looks like your son is having a fine year on a good NAIA team. The HC has been at this a long time with a great record, 885 wins over 21 years and many NAIA world series appearances. I would imagine he knows what he is doing.
Why bring this stuff here?

I don't believe that age has anything to do with maturity level. My son just finished his freshman high school season and both of his coaches were young. One was just out of college and the other had graduated from my son's high school last year. Both coaches were good coaches that kept the players focused on learning the game and improving.

The 18 yr old coach was outstanding. He established his authority early and the players knew not to try to take advantage of his youth. He instructed our catcher who was very poor in technique when he caught for our summer team. With this coach's instruction our catcher improved tremendously where only the wildest of pitches got by him. He learned to frame pitches and was regularly throwing out runners trying to steal on him. My son loved pitching with him behind the plate. This 18 yr old was able to see this boy's potential and brought it out of him.

After the season I talked to the coach and told him that he is a gifted coach and that I hoped he intended to make coaching his profession.

This assistant is a volunteer...and yes he is around 24/25. I do think they have to start somewhere...but along with the job title should come some expectations and sense of maturity and responsibility for their actions. The paid coaching staff is excellent, and the program is very successful do to the head coach and the head assistant coach. That is not the issue here..
nor is the coach's numerical age...the maturity level and carelessness and lack of responsibility for the safety of the players IS the issue. And isn't this a place to bring issues you want to vent about. It's better then punching the guy in the nose for endangering a players safety and well being.

quote:

nor is the coach's numerical age...the maturity level and carelessness and lack of responsibility for the safety of the players IS the issue.

So wouldn't the proper title be "Immature coaches" rather than Young Coaches?

Like I said, why bring this here?
The coach has been there 21 years,with over 800 wins and a bunch of world series appearances.
What did he say?
They have 5 coaches listed on the website. Are you saying there are more, and all of them including the HC "improperly" concluded your son was at fault???

i should add that this has been resolved with a meeting with the coaches and the team---the assistant was reprimanded and did apologize for his careless behavior and all is well as they prepare for post season play.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Sanders:
i should add that this has been resolved with a meeting with the coaches and the team---the assistant was reprimanded and did apologize for his careless behavior and all is well as they prepare for post season play.

Well, that is a somewhat important "detail."
So again, my question: why bring this here. The team and coaches have dealt with it.
In the first post we learned your son was "reprimanded." Now we learn the coach was "reprimanded." Lot of "reprimanding" but it seems like a closed issue with the coaches and team.
Now we post all of this on the HSBBW where it gets posted many times how coaches "lurk."
Why bring this here???
I just don't understand.

I too looked back at some of your old post..I believe CoachMay called you "every coaches nightmare"...You seem to need to be right and don't let up until you are deemed the winner...but then again I haven't met someone in your profession that doesn't. So go ahead and have me found guilty for talking about an issue...put me away for 40 years...I give up.

quote:

I believe CoachMay called you "every coaches nightmare"

He did???????????????? My son isn't playing anymore so the coaches don't have any worries at all.

All I wanted to know was what you wanted to get accomplished by bringing a college team issue to the board, especially one that has been resolved, where the team is doing very well, the coach is so successful and they are so close to once again getting to the NAIA world series.
It won't bother me at all if you have a reason. I am just not sure what it was and asked the question along with providing some reference to information about the success of your son, his team and the coaching staff.