Firing a Coach

My daughter's 18 U all stars head coach asked me to be a third string coach. His first speech to the staff and the girls was about that he values everyone's opinion even if he disagrees and that he plays no favorite.

We had our first tournament. I kept track of all the batting averages and errors. My daughter (who is 16) was batting .570 (7th in line and tied for second highest) and the 3rd position was batting .000. When I showed this, he refused to change the order until parents wanted to see what the kids batting averages were before the last game. He then moved the 3rd battter down to 6th. My daughter was kept at 7th and was forced to bunt the entire game. She only played one inning in right field but has a great glove. She and I kept quiet to respect the head coach.

After we lost 8-2 and our 4th straight lost, which knocked us our of the tournament, our girls questioned why they lost. The head coach said too many errors. (only 2 errors were made, I kept the book)
I said that our team had many 15 and 16 years old and were out played and over matched playing against teams that were stacked with 18 and 19 years old. I continued to say that we did our best and in the future we will be more competitve but we are young right now. The coach disagreed with me.

At the next practice, I was released as his 3rd string coach. Then I requested my daughter be made a sub not a DH or EP. He refused, so I pulled her. 24 hours later, another team grabbed her from another city.

Was I wrong? What do other coaches do?

Welcome to the board!

It sounds like you've gone to a better place. Hope your DD gels better with the new team/HC than the last HC.

As for the last coaches' batting order I have no idea but maybe he knew his #3 hitter was really good based on his past experience w/ her and was just having a rough tournament. I don't know I'm just guessing. But parents demanding batting order changes based on a few game sample is generally a recipe for disaster.

GET OUT. GET OUT. GET OUT NOW.

You did the right thing. If the HC will not use the stats (I assume they were correctly logged) as an important tool in helping the girls on the team play to their potential, the team will not go very far and usually one or two players will be blamed for the losses.

My DD has played on a couple of teams that the HC never pulled or even corrected girls that were making multiple errors every game. The HC would never change the batting order even tho the girls from the 7th spot on down in the order were the ones actually getting the hits and the RBI's on the team. The PC never talked with the pitchers, caught the pitchers, or even watched the
pitchers warm up before the game. A team where the girls aren't corrected for errors, demoted for lack of hitting (everyone has a bad day but a player who consistently fails to deliver has to be moved down in the lineup), or the pitchers are forced into pitching pitches that the PC wants even if the pitcher is off on that pitch that day (happens all the time with girls) the team is being set up for failure over and over.

You will see the team divide with the girls who make the errors and never come out or fail to deliver at the plate and the girls that are making the plays (and their parents) start to resent each other as friction builds over the HC's failure to deliver wins.

My DD has played on a couple of these teams. One at 12U (could have been one of the best teams in the state) that broke up after a month. One at 16U that we stayed on for a year in the hopes that things would eventually get better and the coaches will realize their mistakes as they mature in coaching (didn't happen and that was a really long year).

After a while, all these things start to eat into the player's self confidence as she starts to question why she isn't getting recognized for her play and others are ahead of her even tho they are consistently playing poorly. You can only dig in and try to show your value to the team for so long before a player says "It doesn't matter how well I play, I will never advance on this team"
and starts to slack off in practice and games.

At that point a lot of girls quit the sport.

The HC and his AC's have to get the girls to believe in what they are doing as coaches. This means communicating the goals of the team and each players role on the team. This goes a long way to solving problems. But, the coaches have to actually do the things to help the team improve. If they just talk the talk, girls will see right thru them.

The HC needs to communicate with the parents to let them know what the HC envisions for the team but not the reasons for what the HC does as far as positions played and the batting lineup order. But again, the HC will start to lose the parents support if obvious problems are not addressed on the field and improvements made by the team.

Oh the joys of softball. No pain, no gain. What was that commercial on Saturday afternoons, the "Thrill of Victory or the Agony of Defeat". I still see that ski jumper crashing off the course.

Jabber13 said:

Oh the joys of softball. No pain, no gain. What was that commercial on Saturday afternoons, the "Thrill of Victory or the Agony of Defeat". I still see that ski jumper crashing off the course.

Click to expand...

I always remembered the eggs and frying pan commercial. " this is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?"

I can't believe that parents would go up to a coach in the middle of a tournament and ask to see their kids batting average(most know already anyway). You don't say if the third hitter struck out 8 times or if she hit a bunch of HH balls that were caught. Maybe it was his kid, or maybe he's coached her for 5 years and knows she's a good hitter just had a couple of bad games. With all that said, he shouldn't have taken it out on your kid. I keep score for our team. If the coach asked me a question I will answer and will sometimes say number 12 for the other team has 3 triples so far, but I would never suggest the batting order. IMHO you were wrong to do it during a tournament.

Nothing will surprise me after today. I had a parent go on a rant before our 8:00am game at 18U ASA Nationals screaming this is Bulls**t because he did not like the batting order and his DD and some other regulars were not starting. Literally screamed that he was over it, he was done and so was she. Out of respect for his DD I did not do what I should have, which would have been to immediately remove her from the team and send them both packing. This took the whole team out of the game mentally and we lost our first elimination game 5-3. In decades of coaching I have never seen a parent this off the hook.

JMO but I agree with canyonjoe here. Not enough information on what went on. The things that stand out. 1st tournament game with 4 losses - only one score listed at three runs. That barely would give enough PA to generate a decent sample set, especially for BA. Just to illustrate (and not picking on anyone here), if you daughter was "force to bunt the entire game" that would reduce the sample set for her by 25% making a stat like BA virtually worthless.

I have always had an open door policy with stats. In fact I print the out often and anyone can ask to see them at any time. However, I dont allow someone to demand a lineup change because of their interpretation. Asst coaches and I will discuss, no one else. Actually this policy has been my friend for years because it typically reinforces the decisions.

I would think that at the end of it all, if your daughter and you are happy with the change, then it was a good one.

Third batter had 10 at bats, 3 fly outs, 6 ground outs , 1 K.
I never suggested the batting order. I had the number of singles, doubles and triples marked too.

as for the scores:
Game 1: 12-0; Game 2: 10-2 : Game 3: 10-4 Game 4: 8-2

The best part about TB is that there is always another team available.....if you are not happy with your DD's current situation, make a change!