Building a U14 team from scratch

I am the head coach of a new 14U team. I searched everywhere including this forum to get advice on how to get the team put together, what to expect, how to run practices, how to handle the players, how to talk to the parents, how to make the lineup, etc, etc...

So I decided to Journal my journey and recently decided to share it here. If it helps 1 person, that would be great, but just writing it down helps as well. Feel free to comment and give advice (I do need it)! First I'll give some background, catch up the last 7 weeks and then try to journal regularly our journey.

Background: I have only been coaching for 3 years in the local Little League program. First year as an assistant coach for my sons LL baseball team, 10-12 year olds. Interesting, but a little too laid back for me. We had a fun time, and ended up middle of the pack in the end.

We skipped a year because my son didn't play and then the following year I signed up to coach LL Softball Majors with my 11 yr old DD. I was surprised when I got the call and I was going to be head coach. In LL there is a draft, where you pick players from the pool, most players are rated from last year or at a rating session. I did as much homework as I could by calling parents I know, talking with the other coaches and asking my DD about classmates. We had a good mix of players including a 10 yr old that never touched a ball or bat in her life and had a hearing disability. We had 12 players for the first several practices, until one girl broke her arm while rollerskating while walking the dog, dog pulled her forward! So anyway we did end up winning the title, 1st place softball majors. The biggest thing I go back to was the batting order. I batted the girls from smallest jersey # to largest jersey # to start the first game and rotated the lead-off hitter to the bottom next game. We did this, well for 11 games, then I went to a competitive line-up. What was great about this was we learned to win in a less than optimal lineup. When pool play and playoffs came around we were even better.

The following year neither of my coaches were coaching, so I put my name in again and was head coach again with 2 new coaches. This year my DD was 12. After having coached in the league now for 1 year, I had books and notes from all players and even got the skinny on all the new 10yr olds from the age group below from a neighbor. Being an Engineer by education, I am an over-planner. We drafted heavy on 11yr olds and only took the best 10yr olds. I did the same thing with the line-up and many of the parents really appreciated it, no other teams did this, they went competitive right away even though it didn't matter early on. LL has regular season (means nothing), Pool Play (position for tourney), and tournament (means everything). I also learned to play the hot pitcher and we even moved a very short 10yr old into #3 in the batting order because she walked 80% of the time. We got hot right as the tournament started, even though we were seeded last. We lost the first game of the championship but came back to win the second (double elimination).

How did we go from LL to Select ball? It was one of my coaches that suggested it. LL did not have a Seniors division this year (13-15 yr olds), not enough interest to field more than 2 teams, so there was no path forward. The LL did nothing to encourage kids to even tryout next year, they said nothing. Not only that, there was no energy/attention to the softball part of LL. So one of the other coaches suggested we create a tournament team, it took a few weeks to sink in but the more I thought about it the more I thought it could work.

First Steps to a Select team:

Since I had a neighbor that played 10U, I asked her dad and he gave me the contact for the president of the local club. I emailed him our idea of taking some of the better 12 yr old athletes and creating a team. To my surprise he wanted to meet right away.

The meeting went good, he told me about the club, the various commitments required, indoor/winter practices, and much more. They were very open to the prospect of having another team and they new that they would have several 14U girls that would tryout without openings on the other older14U team. They would even setup a scrimmage to give our girls a chance to go through the tryout drills before hand.

The biggest problem for me was our family was going on vacation during the scrimmage and the tryouts, we would be back in time for the make up tryouts but my other coach couldn't make the make-up, we would be tag teaming this critical step, and obviously writing this after the fact, it made things extremely difficult.

So the first thing we did was contact the best players; from this year and last to see if they were interested, understood the commitment, and could make the tryout. I contacted mostly former players/parents (from last year's LL team) and the other coach contacted current players/parents from our team and others. These were 12 yr old girls or 13 yr olds that could not play in our local LL anymore because the Seniors division was non extent. All good athletes, many in other sports, just never did or could make the commitment to softball longer than a short LL season.

During my vacation and before tryouts my other coach called me and had added a 3rd coach to our roster, a current college pitcher that was giving his daughter private lessons. She was a friend of the family and a local HS player a few years back that did quite well. She had gone away to college and was now back in town attending a college locally. This was good news. At this point we had about 6 girls we felt would commit and the local club said they would have at least 6 from tryouts, we had coaches and a college pitcher/coach, things were looking good.

Take aways:
- Keep all your info from previous teams and contact info.
- Make contact with players, parents, coaches etc.

Tryouts

Tryouts happened, again while I was returning from vacation. My other coach was there and he was overwhelmed by the number of girls that tried out (we had 37 between the tryout and the makeup date in the 14U age range). So probably around 30 for the main tryout date. So to break it down about 10 of the girls were from the other 14U team, 8 or so from our invites, and about 12 others.

When I returned, we got together and went through the girls that tried out. We naively thought these girls wanted to be on our club team, most did not, but we didn't really know that. We called and offered 5 girls spots on the team 3 pitchers and 2 catchers/infielders. None accepted on the spot and in hind sight, our offers were too vague and open ended. We called and offer 4 of the core girls spots, that makes 6 with our 2 DDs but we still needed pitching and catching.

My wife and I really hadn't really discussed her being a coach but she was a catcher in college and even though she was traveling I texted her and told her she was now a coach. It was another bullet point to try to convince these girls to play with us "we have 2 female coaches, 1 a current college pitcher and 1 a former college catcher/3B".

I brought my DD to the makeup tryouts hoping we'd see more pitchers but still uncertain how we'd get out of the offers we have out there. There were about 7 14U girls there, and the other 14U team was pretty much done with their team. One girl stood out, I called right after tryouts and it didn't look good. Our college pitcher/coach, suggested I move quickly on the next 2 pitchers on the list before they accept other offers.

With all the bad news we also added another LL player right away that was at the makeup, mostly to lift our spirits and move forward. So now we had 7 players, all from LL (1 had select experience previously). We continued to call the others that we had made offers to but most couldn't decide. Eventually all but one moved on with other teams or we decided to mutually rescind the offer.

We learned the hard way there are:
- Families that tryout everywhere hoping to get on the best possible team, they will even accept offers knowing that they are "last resort" for them, just to have it in their back pocket.
- Families that have been on a team, are testing the waters, but when push comes to shove, they go back to their team
- There are even girls that go to tryouts for practice or maybe to boost their ego and get calls
We had all of these.

Had I to do it again I would (and will next year):
1. Ask lots of questions, probing about their tryout, teams, other tryouts, etc. with experience, some good people skills, and enough time on the phone with the parent you're pretty likely to get the whole story figured out.
2. Call the parents of the kids you're interested in after tryouts before you make an offer. Don't call with an offer assuming they want to play for you.
3. If you get to the offer, make time based offers. I think 48 hours is reasonable. Follow up in writing on email. And follow up again after you call when the time frame is up. With good questioning in #1 you should know if they wont even be able to answer your offer in 48 hours because X team has tryouts next week, etc.
4. Get the player fee asap, it seems many teams are getting more strict on this because of all the non serious actions going on. Some, I've heard are even moving to a deposit at tryout that you get back if you don't get an offer but loose if you get an offer and decline.

Team

So 1 of the 5 offers accepted, a pitcher, we were at 8, with 1 pitcher and no catcher. This was a pretty down time for us (2-3 days), we knew we could develop some of our LL players that had pitched and even caught, but we also knew how key these positions are! Luckily the other 2 pitchers I called after the make up tryouts accepted after a few days. They both live 30+ minutes away but decided to make the commitment to get in more competitive leagues/situations, and I think they liked out mix of players and coaches for development. Pitching is good now, and we were at 10!

Because of the handoff at tryouts, I learned during the makeup that the organization had committed to a date and wanted us coaches to communicate to all girls that did not make it, by the next day. Because of our situation and open offers, we communicated to all the rest that they did not make it. This was hard and something I did not enjoy, we agonized until 2am that night and I did not sleep well for a week after.

A few days later and knowing that we wanted one more player, a catcher ideally, we decided, and my other coach called, a player I had rejected 2 days before (we decided he should call since I originally told them no), and explained the situation and made an offer to a good select catcher. Her dad, asked a lot of detailed questions but eventually accepted. So we had:

4 Players with select experience - 3 pitchers and a catcher
4 younger players from LL this year
3 older 14U players from LL the year before

We all felt it was a pretty good balance and if we could add one more select player down the road we'd be in great shape. We did it! We had a complete team and a good set of coaches! Most of the girls from LL, although not polished in the fundamentals, were all good athletes with lots of up side but just had never had focused on softball until now.

Next up, get the team/parents together, get the coaches planning, start practicing, and get into Fall Ball to see where we're at!

Parent Mtg & first practice

After assembling the team I sent the complete roster via email and planed a parent meeting about 2 weeks out knowing that many were busy with the last days of summer, traveling, etc. Out of the blue I received a call from one of the parents, the select catcher we had added last to our team, very strange, lots of questions about philosophy, who was coaching what, our coaches backgrounds, etc. I didn't think much of it at the time but they were definitely questions one would ask before joining the team.

I found out when another team had it's parent meeting and attend that meeting, really helped with my planning. Here's what we decided on:
1. Introductions
2. Philosophy/Strategy
3. Expectations (from everyone)
4. Overview of the next 11 months
5. Fees and equipment
6. Other (paperwork, assistants, etc)
7. Team activity - Planned a scavenger hunt for the girls to talk parents only
8. Parents/coaches only - Communication rules, position strategy/playing time, Q & A
9. Dynamic stretching and throwing progression

Item 9 got us all on the field together before a full fledged practice to see the dynamic and get everyone started on the Fall season. One thing I will recommend for anyone going into this like us is to have and always perform a complete throwing progression before every practice and game, they were challenging at first but really started paying dividends about 4 weeks later. Also have the coaches carry an extra ball on each side of your line, after an overthrow instead of making the girls go get it, toss them the extra ball and keep them throwing.

The next week we had our first practice. Which was as follows:
1. Dynamic warm up
2. Throwing progression
3. Review basics of hitting then 2 hitting stations
4. Infield and out field drills to see where we are in a little more detail.

We had 2 more practices before Fall Ball where we broke out pitchers and catchers with 2 coaches and the rest of the team with 2 coaches and at the end we came together for full game situations, rotating pitchers and catchers and all other positions. It was slow and tedious but needed.

One other important aspect of our team is out 5 keys for success; Hustle, Attitude, Intelligence, Concentration, Overcoming Adversity. We are lucky enough to have a coach that is trained in Organizational Development (and really good with people skills) and covers these after every single practice and game to make sure we relate what happens on the practice and game field to our continued growth and success. "What's an example of hustle we saw today", as an example. I highly recommend this but I've seen it before where something is handed out and never addressed again, we use it every practice/game and it's becoming important to the girls.

Fall Ball

After 3 practices ever as a team we head into our first Fall Ball games. So much new for the girls (positions, coverages, hitting signs, etc.) I was a complete nervous wreck. First game turned out to be a good situation for us, newer formed team, that really struggled with pitching. By the middle of the game we were swinging at almost everything to keep the game moving as their pitchers could not find the strike zone early and we ended up winning 20-1. Second game was a more organized team that has been together for awhile, well coached, and disciplined. Maybe it was playing them the first week but I knew this is a team we would like to measure ourselves against (aspire to be at their level). We played a decent game but could only muster 3 hits and 4 runs, we lost 13-4. Pitching a catching looked good, fielding was okay, and hitting against good pitching needs work.

The bigger news that week was a call from our select catcher's dad. I had mentioned some of the clues in posts above that something wasn't right. He called Thursday and we setup a time to talk on Friday. Basically his DD needs a more competitive team, and our team was too "green" for his DD. He had already found a team "not in our leagues so we don't have to worry". He also offered to have her play this weekend's game and the rest of Fall ball if needed. He said he wanted her to play in college and she needed more development too. I listened to what he had to say, he was very complimentary of our coaches and what we are doing, I said I would call him back. Our coaches quickly agreed that we needed to cut ties immediately and move on as a team. I called him back and told him. As I write this we still believe his DD is with the team that beat us 4 days before, he mentioned the city and was seen talking to their coach while we were playing them.

So 2 days before our second Fall Ball doubleheader, we had to move our backup catcher (my DD) to catch our #1 pitcher. Not only had she never called pitchers before (our #1 has 4 pitches), she was honestly a bit afraid of the speed. One of the advantages of having LL players is that they have played almost everywhere (recently) so they are pretty flexible and adaptable. Recall my wife (and other coach) played catcher in college so she worked on the signs and some drills with her immediately, and agreed to meet 1.5 hours before the game with our pitchers to get started on the process. Our coaches and players did great and the second week of Fall Ball we ended up losing the first game 3-2 (with #1 pitcher and new catcher) and won the second 10-6.

Third week of Fall Ball we were playing our measuring stick team again from 1st week (above) in the 2nd game, so I planned our #1 pitcher and best defense. We lost the first game 11-2 but beat (what I viewed as the best overall team in the league) 8-5, I was very proud. After 3 weeks we were 3-3 and had beat a very good team.

Last 2 weeks of Fall Ball it seemed many of the teams were back to their mid season form and we were still struggling mainly in the field and at the plate. We lost all four, two were clearly due to unearned runs; 5 in one game and 8 in another. Here's where we finished up;

Hitting - Our Team:
AB: 186, Runs: 83, Hits: 64, SO: 40, BB: 52, Err: 12, EBH: 14, PA: 238, Avg. .344, OBP .538

Hitting - Our Opponents:
AB: 190, Runs: 82, Hits: 60, SO: 41, BB: 55, Err: 21, EBH: 12, PA: 245, Avg. .316, OBP .555

Pitching - Out team:
W/L - 3-6, IP 40, AB 190, Runs 82, Hits 60, SO 41, BB 55, Earned Runs 55

Overall we are very proud of our team, we assembled a group of LL players and put together a team that competed with select teams. The stats show what we saw on the field, the girls kept up. When we look at team stats, the only area that stands out is errors, we gave up 21 and our opponents gave up 12 (all in 10 games).

Things I'd recommend to a team like us going through this for the first time:
- Definitely play Fall Ball - It was great, forced quick learning curve of the important items. For us we don't yet have position players and seeing the girls at different positions in game situations really helps us to get us there.
- Keep good stats - Next thing you know 5 weeks have passed and making sure what you think you saw really happened.
- Always have a backup plan - Think about what could happen (like us losing our #1 catcher) and at least give it some thought. Where are you vulnerable and what can you do now to mitigate the risk. ( we could have easily brought our #2 catcher into the first game and practices to catch our #1 and went through pitch calling signs).
- Celebrate successes big and small
- Team bonding - Create opportunities to get them together as much as possible, it helped.

First off, you may want to try and form a 14U team. There is no U14 in softball.

Thank you. Cant seem to change the title but I'll get that right from now on.

Karchify said:

Thank you. Cant seem to change the title but I'll get that right from now on.

Click to expand...

Sorry, pet peeve of mine. The whole "U14" or "Uanything" comes from soccer, which is only half a sport. In softball, the U comes after the number.

And now, the rest of the story?