Coaching Middle School?

So there's a local middle school looking for a HC. I have reached out to the AD expressing interest, and now I'm reaching out to you, the DFP community: what do I need to know? How do I present myself as a viable candidate?

I know, I'm not giving you details on my experience and such, but just go with it - I don't want to limit opinions and advice.

Just remember that some of these young ladies are here for the social and fun aspects. You are helping to shape their minds, you are a extinction of their academic life. IMO, these young adults won't remember wins and loses, but they will remember that coach, that took the time to be mentor. There are several fine people on this site that have coached HS & MS sports, Amy & I believe Cannoball are two good posters to listen to.

Pack a lot of patience because as stated some r just there for the social experience. Local school has 1 coach and 23 girls. Make sure it is really something you want to do.

I would go in as if it were a true job interview which it is. In other words, be prepared for anything. If it's at all possible, research the school team and it's history. If it's done well in the past but fallen on hard times, let the AD know what plans you have to return it to it's former glory. If it's still doing well, tell him/her your plans to maintain or raise the level of play. Have short, medium and long range goals for the team. Have practice plans ready and be able to explain the hows and whys of them. Let the AD know that you are there for the girls and you're going to try your hardest to make them the best softball players they can be. In other words, you are going to further develop their skills in throwing, catching, fielding and hitting. Remind him/her what a great accomplishment a great MS team is as a feeder to HS level team. Research what certifications are required to coach in a school system in Ohio. I know you have to have a concussion certification now and I'm sure there are several others that are a must such as First Aid, CPR, etc.etc. If that's the case, make plans to get them and explain to the AD or present those certifications to him/her so your bases are covered. Also, I believe you have to have an FBI background check done as well. Other than that, present yourself as someone who is honest, earnest and wants nothing but the best for the girls you would be given the responsibilities for.

Just be aware, if this a public school system, most Ohio school districts if not all of them, must offer these jobs to teachers in the school first and if no one is interested, then to the entire district due to their union contracts. If they can't find an interested party in house, then they are able to open it up to outsiders.

I'm sure I'm missing things but I know other members will fill them in.

Edit to Add: This is all under the assumption that you have verifiable coaching experience and could easily get good referral letters from the previous players/families should you need them. I know you do and can so it's a non-issue but you never know who is trolling

nanotech14 said:

You are a extinction of their academic life.

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Nano, I've got nominate this for year's best malaprop.

My DD is a 9th grader who played 2 years of middle school ball and loved it.

Three quick observations of her experience - 1. There were 12 teams in the league, and there's a huge gap from top to bottom. Top 3-4 teams had as many as 6-9 travel players on them and could've survived as low-end travel teams. The bottom 2-3 teams were not even good rec teams. Some had no travel players.

2. It gives them a taste of high school ball in that they're representing their school, taking a bus (or van) to games, and many are sitting a lot of bench for the first time since that's not so common in rec or travel.

3. For the good teams, the ones w/ some tradition, there's the possibility that some travel players will feel more pressure to perform than on their travel teams. The ones who play travel play 50+ games a year, and they all run together. In middle school, at least on the team my DD was on, she felt a sense of school pride that was just different than TB. She didn't want to let down her school mates and her teachers (who were her coaches). She had a reputation to uphold.

None of that is advice on how to run a team, just some things I noticed as a parent.

Bring lots and lots of patience. As has been stated, you will most likely have players who have never played before but want to be there with their friends, to full fledged club ball players. My daughter also found out the hard way they will come to tryouts, commit to the team and then not show up at the first practice. It made it very hard for her to field a team because several of the potential players she hadnt selected initially for the team had hard feelings and now didnt want to play.

Then you will have the parents who know better than you and continually want to tell you how to coach and how and where their child should play. Being as it is middle school ball, you will probably also have less experienced umpires. Know what rule set you are playing under, any modifications that may have been made to the rule set and study them.

Comp makes a good point about the parents.

Your players will either be rec players or travel players, and both are accustomed to playing all the time. More importantly, their parents are used to their kids playing all the time. So then you're in a no-win situation unless you're very direct about it from the start.

If you give equitable playing time, the parents of the good players will say they didn't sign up for rec ball, let's try to be competitive and win like everybody else, that my daughter who plays on the Elite Vipers didn't sign up to watch crummy rec players play ahead of her.

And if you play to win, like a high school team would and like all the other good teams in the league do, then you'll be accused by the parents of the bench-sitters of taking winning and life too seriously and that everybody should get a chance to play.

BuckeyeGuy said:

So there's a local middle school looking for a HC. I have reached out to the AD expressing interest, and now I'm reaching out to you, the DFP community: what do I need to know? How do I present myself as a viable candidate?

I know, I'm not giving you details on my experience and such, but just go with it - I don't want to limit opinions and advice.

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Some possible questions to be prepared to answer.

Softball Coach Interview Questions

http://www.nfhs.org/articles/ace-that-coaching-interview/



https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140713232746-33469656-interviewing-tips-for-a-coaching-job

I remember being asked questions like "What would you do, if you only had 8 players?" Hmmm. I should have ran at that point.

I would ask a lot of questions, myself. Like - "In the past, have we had to have cuts?" "Are there school activities and dances, that I should know about and plan around?" "What if we run into a lot of rain? Can I use the gym?" "What is the equipment budget?"

It seems to me, that there are not many people that apply for these jobs. Ask if you will have an assistant coach. Many of the MS programs here, do not.

At my DD's middle school, about 25-30 tried out. Even one travel player didn't make it, mainly for bad attitude, but still a show of pretty good depth to choose from.

And then we played one team where the coach told us that only 6 tried out and then he found 6 more that he talked into playing from his PE class because they were athletic and brave.