Player calling a coach after tryout

Standard practice after a job interview to send an email: "Enjoyed the discussion, particularly impressed with the team's approach to managing replication and storage. Thank you for the opportunity..."

Good practice for later if nothing else.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this, it is much appreciated. As I mentioned this coaching and management staff is really squared away and the head coach emailed me and my wife the next evening to ask what my daughter thought of the team and to invite her to call back tryouts. I let my daughter respond directly to the email to share her thoughts and accept his invitation to callbacks, which will hopefully convey her desire to be on this team to him.

Fingers crossed she can have another good tryout now.

I sort of had that experience once a few years ago as a coach. Not from a player but from a parent.

The girl didn't have a very good tryout, especially hitting, and she didn't have enough raw athletic ability to overcome that. When I made my preliminary list after the first day of tryouts I either put her on the bubble or the no list (can't remember which - sucks getting old).

Later that evening I received an email from the girl's mom saying she knew her daughter didn't do well, what can she do to improve. I gave her a couple of quick pointers in the email. The second day of tryouts that girl was back and it was clear she was trying to incorporate what I'd told her. She also had a better tryout. I ended up taking her, and with some work she wound up being a very good player.

If she hadn't performed better the second day I would not have taken her. But she brought her performance level up enough to become a contender, and the fact that she was interested in getting better and being part of that team showed me she was coachable. It did work in her favor.

At 12U, half the battle is getting girls to come out of their shells and perform. If your daughter can call a coach and express interest I'd say she has a bright future ahead, no matter where she lands. That's one of those intangibles.

My younger brother got cut from the JV BB team after tryouts his freshman year. Due to weather, the tryouts were indoors and my brother didn't stand out among the other athletes. He was crushed, but talked to the coach about being a practice grunt/scorekeeper/equipment manager just to be able to help and work out with the team to improve his chances for the next year. Fortunately for all parties involved, the coach agreed and my brother was the starting C/P/3B and #4 hitter before the season was halfway over and he eventually ended up with a partial D1 BB ride. Happy ending, right? Nope, he liked the BB and social aspects of college far better than the academic side and lasted only year! Several lessons here!

Kinda had it happen this year. Held tryouts, thanked the kids for coming out and that we would get back with them. 2 different parents emailed and told us that they had attended several tryouts and ours was probably the best, not because of what drills we did (although 1 did comment that he thought the drills were great), but because as we were evaluating we talked to each girl on the field and were involved. Funny thing is, it wasn't anything planned or worked out between the coaches, it's just what we always do...

So this week I have had something like this happen.....

First on Wednesday, I did a private tryout for a talented kid (10U player mind you). We were working some drills and I took the time to do some instruction during the tryout to show her a better way to do some things. When I got home that night, I had an email from mom where the kid typed in a note how she was so excited to meet me and was glad I took the time to show her some things that she hadn't learned yet.

Last night I did a tryout for a pitcher/IF but brought 5 of my girls with. We did some drills, gave them all some girl time during the drills and at the end of the tryout which dad and I knew was an offer (this was more a formality as I knew the kid from her previous team), the young girl came up to me and said "Coach I really liked you, your coaches and your team. If you have a spot for me, I would love to be on your team." That was a great thing for her to say and took a lot of courage. I said yes of course and then she ran off to run bases with my team.

That;s why it's amazing to be a softball coach. You seem extraordinary things all the time.

Thank you everybody for your thoughts and input. My DD did have a good call back and was invited to join this team. She was like a kid on Christmas morning when she got the invitation, so I guess she was playing it little cool and not getting her hopes too high.

Anyway in regard to this post, the head coach did tell me that she called DD back because of her skill level and potential, but chose her because of her heart and "want to". She didn't mention DD's follow up note specifically, but commented that it was obvious that she really wanted to play for the team.

My daughter has tried out for some Gold / Elite teams in the past. She always after everything is over and coaches seem to winding down on their talks, goes over to ask for feed back of her try out - negative or positive. She accepts either so she knows what she has to work on. She just turned 15 and tried out for a 18U team for the experience so when she is a little older she knows what to expect. Most coaches love the fact she is looking for feedback from them to know what to work on to get better.

Out in Left Field said:

Results from TB tryouts down the street:

Zero turnout at 10u, sort of a transition to medium at 12u (25), and then gazillions of kids for 16/18u, probably enough for six teams. The popularity of softball is waning....or they can't find coaches, or something. I can't imaging having to pick kids and get them to agree at the young ages. What a nightmare with all the choices out there.

Personally I don't think it is appropriate to provide instruction at tryouts, even individual tryouts. I can understand trying to see if the player is coachable, but at some point, the player gets coaches trying to prove something to them and their parents at every tryout, and it gets old.

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I always ask my kids what they learned at a tryout. Don't want a coach making changes just to "put his stamp" on a kid, but if they aren't teaching at tryouts, they probably aren't teachers and I'm not interested. YMMV

If a coach doesn't know a player, what you label as bluster is likely their attempt to see whether they're easily coachable. I'm looking for a lot at tryouts that most coaches won't look for and I get that, but I don't want a player leaving our tryout feeling that all they did was go through the motions like some sort of boring combine. For example, most 12u coaches only care about how fast a player is, but I want to see if a player knows how to take a proper (read: aggressive) lead-off.