New LL manager- Drafting

I don't see that there is any possible way that this draft is going to go well for me. I'm so dejected about it. Help me at least see it differently.



Help?

This is rec league. The whole point of rec league is for the girls to have fun, and to develop all the players. Helping the worst player on your team develop, and making sure she has playing time, is more important than your win-loss record.

As long as you have daddy (or mommy) coaches, the draft can never be completely fair. I don't think I have ever run across anyone who really likes the way any draft has ever been done. There are ALWAYS politics involved, which makes somebody unhappy.

OTOH, if it were not for the daddy (and mommy) coaches, you wouldn't have a little league at all. With no rec league, no players for the TB teams and the HS teams.

The way I see it: you say you have a great coach, and your DD is a good pitcher. Fine. Just have a good season. Your DD won't always get the best catcher. So what? That means your coach needs to teach one of the girls on the team how to not drop the third strike, or at least throw it over to first in time.

DD #1 played LL softball for 2 1/2 years. She got a 1st place LL trophy once, and a 1st place LL end-of-season trophy once.

DD #3 has some 2nd place trophies, and last fall ball her team tied for 1st, but no trophies for fall ball.

So what?

The best comment about rec ball play was something a girl once said after losing a close game: "We had fun, and when you have fun, you've already won!"

I wish I could go back in time and slap myself in the face for all the rec ball fretting I did. My best advice for anything related to draft/playing time/all stars in rec is this....develop your daughter(s) as fast as you can and jump to TB where you get to choose the situation you play in....until then....

1st, I try my best to keep myself, and more importantly, my kids from this type of situations. THIS IS FOR THE KIDS. I can get high strung over the type of actions you mentioned, so, knowing my weaknesses, I try to avoid it.

Sounds like a small community. You probably have all 3 coaches phone numbers. Call them. Ask if a meeting can be had before the draft.

In a rec league, all efforts should be made to have equal teams. Again, it's about the kids. The kids don't benefit on the stud team, or the team getting smoked all year.

Personally, I'd look for another venue for softball. If you're DD is one of the best in the LL, she's probably ready for TB.

Good luck to you.

There can be some benifits for rec ball, esp. for pitchers and catchers.

All the pitchers on DD #3's TB team signed up for rec ball (and all the catchers too. One girl does both).

That means, the pitchers all get more circle time, and can try out new stuff in a low-stress environment. The catchers get to have practice catching both good and bad pitchers.

And, they get to hang out with their friends.

All the internal BS is YOUR problem, not hers.

All good points Bob. But you need to go through it without the fretting over drafts\all stars\playing time\expectations of coaching ability etc. If I had the ability to do this I would have enjoyed our local league a lot more. Basically if I knew two years ago where my girls would be ending up I would have chilled out and not cared one bit. But back then I had no clue what awaited them so i was bummed out by a few things in rec.

Now I have a daughter playing rec along with her TB and it is so much more relaxing knowing that her true home is the TB team and I don't care who's team she is on in rec, where she plays, whether she gets picked for all stars etc. I am actually contemplating asking the coach to throw her in the outfield so other parents don't get upset that she gets to play pitcher or catcher every inning but their daughters have to take turns just getting in the infield. It is a lot more fun when you don't give a crap.

As a coach, as long as you only care about developing players then that is all good too. Get wrapped up in fairness and who wins and it gets unfun quickly. I like my rec league champ trophies as a coach but the real joy is when you see a girl you taught get better.

If you fear that your team is just going to be gawd awful and routinely lose 12-0, then try to discuss it as tactfully as possible with those in charge, or the other coaches. There is merit in having the teams be competitive. But if you're just worried that you'll have a mediocre team with no chance to win the championship, then I wouldn't care. My motivation for coaching wasn't to build a good team per se, but to take what I had and make it the best they could be and foster their enjoyment of softball.

The last rec team that I coached was 10U. I think we went 1-11. And I was actually the 'commissioner' and picked the 4 teams - with the approval of the other 3 coaches. But, most games were close. The teams were comparable, but we just didn't have a pitcher. I think of those girls are playing travel ball 6 years later, and a couple of others are on their high school teams. It didn't scar them or the parents. I enjoyed that season. But, as I said, the games were usually close. If the average losing margin had been 10, then it might've been different.

I guess this is easier for me to give my advice, because I never coached. One time someone asked me to be an assistant coach for a rec ball team. DD #3 threatened to boycott the team if I did such a thing.

Go in to the draft assuming that you're going to get 100% screwed and then be happy when you only get <=99% screwed. Get the draft out of the way, then worry about developing ALL your players and making sure they have fun. If that translates to winning some games, great! If it doesn't, start a collection here on DFP to buy them plastic trophies that dwarf the ones the league gives out.

Welcome to life as a manager...i have been there and done that on both sides.

IMO everyone simply has to pick a pitcher round 1 end of story if that is your DD too bad...as long as she is a top 4 pitcher which you are admitting she is, if you do not do this and a team winds up without a real pitcher it is simply not going to be anything close to even teams.

Also make sure EVERY girl that wants to pitch throws at least ten pitches during evaluations, so everyone knows what's available.

Be leery of girls that don't show but managers decide they will take on a lark in round 3.

In the end you need a #1 pitcher and if possible a #2 pitcher, then someone who can catch after that I would take the best hitters you can get.