I'm at a bit of a crossroad.

YOCOACH said:

You have a choice, 1) fight a more than likely losing battle on a daily basis, 2) threaten to resign if they don't follow through with your recommendations and be willing to do it, or 3) just resign and get out of the way of an organization that is too set in their ways to make a necessary change to grow. Your choice.

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4) Know you should do 1,2 or 3, but do nothing.

Forgot that choice

dadofadirtlover said:

4) Know you should do 1,2 or 3, but do nothing.

Forgot that choice

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Good call!

BuckeyeGuy,

It really sucks that you're in this position man. Maybe someone will create that "magic attitude adjuster" app that can alter the mindset of the idea logs blocking the progress of the girls. Until then, we're stuck with em I suppose..

When you lead a horse to water and it refuses to drink, it's time to find a new ride.

Will you still be coaching middle school ball this year? If so, that's another good reason to get out.

From the cheap seats, it appears to me that your organization has one fouled up leadership flow chart!

There are too many people in this game in need of help who would welcome your efforts. Fighting an uphill battle is a waste of your time. If you spend enough time coaching or doing any other community service you come to the realization that you cannot help everyone. Do what you can, and if they are not receptive move on. I see this all the time with players and parents with respect to college recruiting. Some just do not get it. Move on.

reagansdaddy said:

Will you still be coaching middle school ball this year? If so, that's another good reason to get out.

From the cheap seats, it appears to me that your organization has one fouled up leadership flow chart!

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Yes, still coaching MS.

rant
So the thing is that I was organizing everything: getting the local ASA umpire schedulers involved to elevate the instruction we give our HS kids, plus making sure our 12U and 14U divisions had ASA umps while letting the HS kids work the 10U and 8U games; undoing the damage to our reputation with the local HS coaches and actually getting them to open their fields to us (which they hadn't done in a few years because the league didn't respect the fields) AND getting them to agree to host the evaluations for the 12U's AND getting them to agree to help with my Coach-the-coaches clinic, which they didn't want to do - I got them to trust me, and by extension trust the league again; working on adding diamonds; getting the gear squared away now so that we can order new stuff in the off season and actually have it ready for spring; reaching out to last season's coaches and getting as many as I could lined up for this season - and to whom I made many promises about how the league was changing. Add to that the usual stuff of team assignments, scheduling, uniforms and such, and I was pretty busy. It was a lot of work and a lot of time spent on my end, which I was and still am happy to do, providing they let me make the changes I want to make.

Now, I have no idea what is going on with anything except that the gear is all pre-bagged for each division and stored neatly, the extra gear is all sorted and ready to be bagged depending on how many teams we end up with, and I feel that the passion I invested in the league was wasted.
/rant

And yet, I don't want to let the girls down. They deserve more than same ol' same ol', and what kind of example am I setting if I quit?

If you walk away they will certainly notice. I have been in your shoes, it's incredibly satisfying to see a league grow, prosper and improve. There will always be frustrations. I can't believe you are doing all of that work yourself for 700 softball players. We have league directors, scheduler, equipment guy, fields people, player development director, they are all defined volunteer position. My job is mostly to orchestrate and make sure everyone does what they are supposed to. You need to recruit more helpers and if the Association president undermines your authority it's going to be tough.

Oh, as a general rule. There's no such thing as opening registration "too early". With online registration there is simply no reason not to. Get it going, get word of mouth out there.

riseball said:

There are too many people in this game in need of help who would welcome your efforts. Fighting an uphill battle is a waste of your time. If you spend enough time coaching or doing any other community service you come to the realization that you cannot help everyone. Do what you can, and if they are not receptive move on. I see this all the time with players and parents with respect to college recruiting. Some just do not get it. Move on.

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I was getting ready to add a response, but riseball nailed it. It seems clear to me that you are trying to help the organization. And it also seems clear that they are willing to let you do as much work as you want provided it is on their terms. If they are not interested in your help, find someone who is.

sluggers said:

a) The crazy parent who thinks there 8YOA DD is the next coming of Jenny Finch.
b) The crazy coach who thinks that a 12U rec team should be ran like a D1 college football program.
c) The other crazy coach who "mothers" a 12U rec team to death.
d) The parents who never pay the "exorbitant" fee for their children being in the program.
e) The board member who is trying to "take control" of the organization...and I use the term "organization" loosely, since I've seen better organized riots.
f) The treasurer who just can't figure out where the money went.

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Wow you nailed our organization on the head right there. Our board is a left wing/right wing sorta deal and now the one side decided to start member term limits and guess which side is the first to lose 3 members.
Also our meetings always have to be at a bar so alcohol can be absorbed. Always seems interesting that a board for kids organization must include alcohol.