The Commish needs help

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Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
So, we have a 14U rec division that is really for the MS players who aren't good enough for travel ball. We have 4 local MS that participate along with 1 from a different district. We split the girls into school squads.

Anyway, just had a coach freak out on me because he signed up to coach, but not to "head coach." He was all in a panic:

"Ray, this was definitely not communicated. I found out this morning when I read your communication to a parent that had inquired. Quite honestly, this is really messed up and unfortunate for the girls. I signed up to be an assistant coach for a reason. I have zero experience with the nuances of softball and enlisted as an assistant so I could learn along side my daughter.

I have zero equipment, zero email address for girls on the roster to even communicate with them, zero rules on fastpitch, and no experience to teach girls how to pitch. How am I to reach out to parents without email addresses? And now I am being asked to begin practices today. How can I be bumped up to head coach without being communicated with first?

This is very unfortunate because, due to the lack of communication and organization, the girls are now going to be impacted. I can not be headcoach of this team and I am not sure how the league is going to now plan to rectify this.

Bottom line is that its sad for the girls that just want to learn and play the game."


So, he's already given up without even asking me what I'm going to do. But he has clearly stated that he is not the head coach, yes? I apologized to him for not communicating more clearly, and I told him that it was not a disaster, that we'd find a solution. This is what he sent to the team, without cc'ing me:

Team Shanahan ..... my name is Brandon Shoaf and my daughter is enrolled with yours on the Shanahan Middle School rec softball team. You may have received some info a few days ago about practices beginning this weekend.

So there has been some circumstances happen that has created a lot of confusion regarding our team. Our original coach was assigned to another team just a couple of days ago based on rosters being re-arranged. As a result, the league has defaulted to me with no communication to take over the team.

Having said that, I am not in a position to take head-coaching duties. I enrolled to be an assistant based on my work schedule and also being an assistant for my son's team. At this time, we need to see if anyone is interested in volunteering for this duty. There are 2 assistant coaches assigned to help as well (myself included).

We are scheduled for practice today (5:30pm) and Sunday (7:00pm) at Shanahan. However, due to the communication issues within the league, we do not have our equipment or even the rules for rec softball. Kinda messed up :)

Is anyone interested and available with softball skills/background to be the coach?? Your help would be very much appreciated!! If you are, I can put you in touch with the league commissioner to get all the equipment and information we need.

I want to ensure the girls have a positive experience with complete transparency to the current issues with the team.

Thank you in advance.


I got this from a parent asking me what we're doing. I told her he never should have emailed the team.

We had another coach registered with the team, and I was working with him to take over when I was forwarded that last email. It is completely handled, it took about an hour. I'm going to crawl through the internet and strangle that guy.

OK, had to vent. Done.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
Learn something new every day:

Last Thursday, I got a call from one of our travel coaches telling me that there was a baseball team on the varsity softball diamond. Turns out the AD told baseball, "No, nothing is scheduled on the field." without checking with the HC. Once that fire was put out (sent the baseball guys packing), got a call from another travel coach with the same problem at a different HS.

Interesting politics involved here with leagues competing for field time.
 
Aug 12, 2014
644
43
The competition for fields here (Denver) is huge. Our softball team has been stuck on grass fields a bunch of times for practice. And I mean all grass - just a backstop in the middle of a park with no dirt at all.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
It's slightly ridiculous here, but not that bad yet. I'm hoping to get access to 2 more HS next season, which would mean 3 more fields for us, 2 with lights. Fingers crossed.
 
May 9, 2014
474
0
Umatilla, Florida
I recently volunteered to be on the board of my dd's travel team, and I help out with the babe ruth league when I can and my sons pop warner football league. I think it's really sad that most parents have an us against them attitude with the organizations that their kids are playing in. If we all just step back and realize that these organizations are run by volunteers in their spare time, and most are doing their very best to make your kids experience a good one. If we can communicate with respect for one another and look out for one another like a community organization should, and help out instead of sitting back and complaining! People are so quick to pass judgement! Instead of passing your judgement why not help out, think of some solutions to the problems you see? I'm all for venting! Come on hear and vent away! But be a compassionate, respectful parent to these people that are taking their time to help your kid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
Most of my parents are pretty awesome, or at least non-intrusive. It's only a few out of almost 700 that wish to be difficult, so I guess I'm lucky in that. When I tell people I'm the commish for 68 rec teams, they kind of stare at me funny and then offer sympathy lol!
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
OK, back from the dead!

The league is going mostly ok, just a few hiccups (one 10U team decided to wear their own uniforms, another 10U coach is not exhibiting proper rec behavior).

Now I'm dealing with All Stars. I'm not going to trigger your cringe reflexes with my stories, just asking for input:

I have 12 12U teams, 16 10U teams, and 14 8U teams that we usually do an All Star thing for. Let me explain how we do it, then you can tell me how crazy we are and how to fix it:

Our AS season runs the last 3 weeks of our regular season and then 1 week past that - games on Sundays.
We select AS players about 3 weeks into the 7 week season. Coaches choose 2-3 players.
We end up with 4 8U teams, 4 10U teams, and 2 12U teams, plus 2 teams from each age group from another league
Practices are squeezed in between regular season games and on Saturdays
Rules are a combination of the 2 leagues, but generally in favor of the less-aggressive "other" league (their 12U still wear shorts and don't slide, among other oddities).

So, players are selected before we can see who is really deserving of being selected, they have to play and practice while still dealing with their regular season team, and the rules are sufficiently different that coaches and umpires are confused.

On top of that, any change that I suggested this season was pretty well squashed by my counterpart from the other league, which is about 1/3 the size of ours.

My thoughts for next season:

Only 2 teams per age group, period
Players selected in the last 2 weeks (1 week?) of the season
Teams practice after the regular season ends
Teams play in a local rec AS tournament (there are a bunch around here), entry paid for by the league

I want more ideas to float to my coaches, so bring it on!
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I think you are going to need to change your selection process if you go down to 2 Teams, with the amount of Teams you have an individual Team might not deserve 1 player on the Team where others might deserve multiple.
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
I think you are going to need to change your selection process if you go down to 2 Teams, with the amount of Teams you have an individual Team might not deserve 1 player on the Team where others might deserve multiple.

Good point. We could theoretically hold tryouts. I know the coaches like that idea, saves them from explaining to little Suzie's parents what she wasn't selected.
 
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