HS coach In need of Advice

2nd year coach here. My main catcher came to me today and told me she got a job and needs to leave practice an hour early some days. I've never had to deal with this. I don't have a lot of depth on the team. My coaches wouldn't of settled with me working a job. If I worked it would be around my practice schedule. I feel that it's not fair to the team that she can leave practice early and still expect to play. What are your thoughts?

Do you have team rules already established with specific consequences? Example: missed practice results in not playing, showing up late x number of poles, poor grades results in suspension. Develop your rules and apply them consistently. There are life lessons that kids need to develop that will help them after softball regarding responsibility, teamwork, etc.... In my opinion this is just as important as learning the game. I am convinced that most successful people had an extracurricular activity that taught them life skills outside of the classroom.
If you allow her to play without some type of consequence, the team will begin to slowly unravel. Why is she playing? Why do I need to practice, I have a hair appointment,.......

I would look at the kids circumstances. Is she from a poor family or has something happened, sick parent or sibling. Then decide how to approach it.

Robert Pannell said:

2nd year coach here. My main catcher came to me today and told me she got a job and needs to leave practice an hour early some days. I've never had to deal with this. I don't have a lot of depth on the team. My coaches wouldn't of settled with me working a job. If I worked it would be around my practice schedule. I feel that it's not fair to the team that she can leave practice early and still expect to play. What are your thoughts?

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I don't have an answer for you, but I wanted to point out that a lot of high school coaches like to practice EVERY DAY, including Saturdays. Our HS team practices 3 hours a day 6 days a week until the season starts and then we practice 3 hours a day every day we are not playing a game. If someone really has to have a job, that does not leave a lot of time to play softball, work, study, and get a good nights sleep. TB teams manage to stay sharp practicing once or twice a week for a couple of hours, so I am not sure why HS coaches think they need 15-20 hours/week of practice...

I think the reason we do practice that much other than building team chemistry, but we are / I am working with a lot of girls that don't have much experience. Giving them opportunities that are not available to them because TB or competitive ball is not available to them. That's coming from my rural exp.

How often do you practice?

5 days a week 3hrs until school starts then 2hrs after school.

I've settled on 3 early departures or late arrivals = 1 missed practice. They need to make up 1 additional hour before being able to play the next game. Same goes for a player missing practice.

JAD said:

I don't have an answer for you, but I wanted to point out that a lot of high school coaches like to practice EVERY DAY, including Saturdays. Our HS team practices 3 hours a day 6 days a week until the season starts and then we practice 3 hours a day every day we are not playing a game. If someone really has to have a job, that does not leave a lot of time to play softball, work, study, and get a good nights sleep. TB teams manage to stay sharp practicing once or twice a week for a couple of hours, so I am not sure why HS coaches think they need 15-20 hours/week of practice...

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There are many HS Varsity teams that practice 2hrs/day 5-days/wk.

Good TB teams have players that practice outside of practice. They take ownership for their skill development. Practices are opportunities to show the coach how they are progressing.

There are several HS teams that have a LL-like rec-component to them .... and many of the kids aren't touching a ball, glove or bat outside of a team practice.

Different animals.

Robert Pannell said:

5 days a week 3hrs until school starts then 2hrs after school.

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that is a whole lot of practice, hard to fault any kid for missing an hour here or there with that schedule, especially for something as positive as a job.