want opinions

I think as a coach I'd get the other coaches that aren't him involved. Ask them if they feel as you do, and if so go to the commish or board as a group, probably after the season is best.

As commish, if you came to me as a group I'd use it as an excuse to shake up the league (or get out of being commish if the board was being ridiculous).

Momo'sDad said:

True indeed, Rocketech. But that's not supposed to happen until you get down to those final roster spots. The top group of players ought to be on the All-star team without dispute. Leagues that play parent politics at the front end of the roster will typically be knocked out of the competition early. Whenever it happens, those doing the voting usually regret it.

I just witnessed one of the wackiest All-star votes in our league's history. I know it's only 10u rec softball, but it has me strongly considering whether the selection process ought to be changed.

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I have seen drafts where both the A & B all-star teams were picked before the actual draft day! Of course everyone denied it but all the parents knew. The managers would get together at a local restaurant the night before the draft and decide who would go where. We even had the "B" manager of the all-star team push a few kids up to the better "A" all-star team because he didn't like the parents. So a few kids who clearly deserved to be on the "A" team were displaced. It was a joke. I confronted the league president and he did an "investigation" and found no wrong-doing. Then I went to the Vice President and he actually was sympathetic and they made some major changes to the process the following year. Still not perfect but better than it was. I don't miss rec leagues at all.

One thing about having all the travel soccer girls together is that it makes it easier to play both sports. My son Eric's travel soccer coach was also his LL coach back in the day. He drafted the soccer players so they'd be available for soccer games instead of causing conflicts between the two sports. I don't consider it bad. I consider it smart from that standpoint.

if year round travel soccer is so important to them, why are they playing rec league softball? this coach and your son's probably did not realize the scheduling headaches they possibly caused, because there was an entire team that the rest of the league had to work around their schedule. They also almost screwed up opening day for our division and 12U division, because they had a tournament (Date for Opening day was set in Jan, opening day was april 11). Also, he is shortchanging some of the other kids on his team, prior to games, he had two practices scheduled a week, because his soccer clique really didn't need more, rest of the girls seemed not too interested in developing.

They are violating LL rules. At the 9-10 level, the teams must be chosen by the draft. There are no return players and teams have to be re-drafted each year. No exceptions can be made at the local level.

played the team again, managed to keep it cordial. I told our team to have fun. pitched 3 new pitchers (well one had pitched one inning earlier in the year). only lost by 5, mainly because his players got all out of whack (eyes big, salivating almost) when I pitched all my developing pitchers (slow, good number of lollipops, etc.). Even some of other coach's parents were joking about the monument they would build for this coach for his team's dominance of LL softball for a few years (one of the parents of the younger girls he basically barely developed).

had to laugh, top of the 6th, last inning, 2 outs, bases loaded, one of my mediocre hitters at the plate (and they still had last at bats if needed), in middle of at bat has to call time out to huddle his infield to discuss defense.

My older daughter also informs me (she goes to school with many of these girls, but plays in majors) that these girls talk a lot about how they always win, they are the best. Had to be very stern with her not to come back with comments about how great it is they can beat her baby sister's team, or for the one girl about her baby sister striking her out the first time she ever pitched. Not the girls fault really, kids will be kids, and are cruel, but in balanced league, you don't get these issues, or at least as much.

Basically i am telling softball reps and board of LL that if they do not make major improvements to draft specifically to prevent his shenanigans, I will not coach, and probably will move to different league (he moves to majors next year, my older daughter will be in that division). tired of BS in this league

It was not so much returning players, but this player's dad is an assistant (best pitcher in division, coaches granddaughter is probably 4 or 5th best pitcher), this family (4 girls, one age 11, allowed to play down in minors by league, all good players, all but 7 yr old probably all stars) wants to be with me, etc. This league is more and more becoming about placating certain families. when i wanted "special considerations" (allowing my league age 5 yr old to play 8u coach pitch because tball was a joke to her after two seasons), I was told if I would have to take a team, same this year (now league age 7) for her to play minors. Meanwhile, each year in 8u, I got 5 yr olds with no experience or 1 yr of tball placed on my team who were "league approved", when I said this was not wise, I was told "cannot ask parents to sit through more than 1 year of t ball, too excruciating", I almost blew gasket, since just one year prior they were asking me to have my daughter play 3rd year of tball unless I coached. Again this year, family with 4 girls, 3 all star caliber, kept together on another coaches team, even thought he league was scrambling (like until night before draft) to find 4 coach for the division (with 42 registered girls on draft day, they knew 3 teams would be disaster), even though that family would be core of pretty good team in their own right. Before draft started, all coaches were asked to identify potential pitchers (along with input from softball division rep), but somehow one of top two pitchers in division did not get flagged as pitcher (guess who drafter her). then, after getting family of four and this pitcher in first two rounds (yes, the family of four were all picked in one round, he did not give up 2-4 round picks), he gets more picks in rounds 3-5. basically after 6 or 7 rounds he was done, had all the girls he wanted3 of the top 5 pitchers in the division, avoided anyone he didn't want, and sat back and watched us go through the leftovers.

sorry for the rant, just cheeses me off to no end. It is supposed to be about ALL the girls, not just a select few. I cheer and congratulate and give pointers (not really coaching, just eye on the ball, be alert, be ready) other team's players as well as mine (especially ones I had in 8u). Basically he rigs it so his GD is always a winner, damn everyone else's kid. His older daughter and mine used to swim together, when my older DD beat her out for a slot in a championship meet (via a time trial, completely objective), they basically threw a fit and moved to different team next year, claimed coaches favored my DD because she got the slot (admittedly, coach likes our DDs and vice versa, but stopwatch don't lie)

bmakj said:

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Your posts have shown at least 4 serious LL violations being committed by your league 'with intent' - i.e. they know, they just don't care.

If you are serious and they don't want to change, just go ahead and report them to the local district president. And then up the line.

LL HQ and management is a pain in the A%%, but they do take mismanagement and breaking their organization rules extremely seriously. It is about the only time they will truly get involved at the local level.

Two leagues around here lost their affiliation. One ended up with an entire new board and many ex-board members on multi-year bans. I have seen directives to redo drafts along strict LL lines and even had a section head come in one year to run it to make sure it was done as prescribed.

As I said, LL is a pain in the A$$ but you do have remedies. This is also particularly effective if you are in a LL that REALLY cares about baseball (which is most LL's). If softball if threatening their imaginary path the LLWS, then they will pull make softball pull their heads in.