There are some good school ball (MS and HS) coaches out there, but there are also a lot of hacks....and maybe 0.0001% of school ball coaches know what IR and BI even are. My DD played MS basketball and her coach had NEVER played basketball before, never coached before, he played soccer in HS and decided he wanted to coach, so the AD made him the girls basketball coach....it was painful to watch.
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There are some good school ball (MS and HS) coaches out there, but there are also a lot of hacks....and maybe 0.0001% of school ball coaches know what IR and BI even are. My DD played MS basketball and her coach had NEVER played basketball before, never coached before, he played soccer in HS and decided he wanted to coach, so the AD made him the girls basketball coach....it was painful to watch.
- Feb 7, 2013
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True that many school coaches are teachers who happen to also coach sports. For example, my HS Varsity soccer head coach was a gym teacher who knew enough about soccer "to be dangerous" but he had a very good D1 player as assistant coach and very talented group of players, many who went on to play in college. We won our division, going undefeated but it had very little to do with the HC's soccer expertise. We only played school ball as a team for about 4 months in the fall. Now it seems that HS sports are year round endeavors. For example, in our SoCal school district, students are required to take P.E. or play a sport their freshman and sophomore years. JV/V tryouts are in September and the players will be practicing together most of the school year with the official HS softball season starting the end of Feb through the end of May. In general, the coaches are very experienced and there are some very good Varsity teams that are nationally ranked.
My guess is that softball in CA is more competitive than the most of the country and your teams are made up almost entirely of TB players. In our area it is a mixed bag with a couple of teams lucky to have two or three TB players, with the rest REC. And to make things worse, when some teams are going to struggle, some TB players decide not to play, which makes the team even worse....
You are in an excellent position with having 17 players. We in College like to carry 15 -17 players. Here is why I think you should keep them all even though it will be hard on you the Coach. You are dealing with 7th and 8th graders, young yes but enthusiastic. I think the best question is for you to ask yourself, what is my role as a coach of this age group? Are you a paid coach where the executive has sat down with you and explained that the mandate is to win or are you a coach who is responsible for the development of the players to the best of your ability so that when the player gets a chance to showcase their Softball abilities to a College Coach the player can be confident in their own ability. Having 17 player is no cake walk, managing expectations, both the players and the parents is extremely taxing. Coach are you up to this? Please note any coach can make cuts and bring the team down to an easy to manage number but when you get older will you be able to look back and think about how you helped every player or only the ones who were the best. For what this is worth Coach, I believe in you and your ability to make the right but hard choice here. You are the most important coach of the age you are coaching right now. The skill development, the emotional development and the confidence of these young ladies is in your hands. This is a very big and important task. You have my greatest respect. Regards, Coach George Edwards , SAIT Trojan Women's College Fastball , Calgary Alberta Canada.
- Feb 7, 2013
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Coach George - we are not talking about college where you have big rosters or 17 plus players. This is 7th grade, middle school ball. Using your logic, if 50 players showed interest in MS softball, you should keep all the players for the sake of player development for all the kids. I can tell you first hand that there is diminishing returns when adding more and more players to the team after you reach 12 or 13 players. Right now DDs 14u travel ball team carries 17 players, mostly 8th graders and it's too many players, with the bottom 3 or 4 getting very little playing time and we play a pretty full schedule, tournaments, friendlies, scrimmages etc. How many games in a week do you think they play in middle school? IMO, recreational softball is where all kids who want to play softball, get a chance to play. School ball should have tryouts and cuts as needed.
I appreciate all the input. I'm leaning toward keeping them all, but I don't know yet. The AD says cut, but I'll talk to the 8th grade coach and see what she thinks.
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How many players showed up at tryouts? How many have skills? Is there a clear dividing line of talent that makes a cut easier?
- Nov 29, 2009
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I'm with the AD on this one. Keep it to where you know the players who are on the team will receive the benefits of YOUR full and best efforts within the time constraints you have coaching the team. While you want to be THE coach every kid remembers, you must understand and not feel bad that you can't be that coach for every kid who shows up at tryouts. If you try to be you'll stand a good chance of failing all the kids.
When the DD played HS ball they would have 120 to 140 kids show up for tryouts for the 3 teams. The varsity HC would only keep 16 or so on the varsity roster. JV would have 18 and freshmen would have 21 on the roster.
I know all but 3 of the girls. 7 are TB/Select players, 7 play rec but are good enough for our local Select squad. But you make a good point - this was the interest meeting, it may turn out that not all of them show up for tryouts (though that would surprise me). I also know of one girl who was not there, but her folks said she might decide to try out. She plays rec too, pretty good bat and smart.
I really don't know which way I'm going to go.
Let's assume that we will have cuts. What are the criteria I'm considering, and which is the most important-least important?
- Sep 29, 2014
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So it sounds like you have maybe 15 girls that can play and 3 you have not seen (for all you know they are just as good). I think at this point I would lean towards keeping all the girls that can "play" in other words if any of the girls have literally never played talk with them and their parent and explain that this is not the environment to learn the game and that you know the people in the rec league and really want them to learn the game at that level, get better and come tryout next year for the 8th grade team. For the rest I would take Coach George's advice and while it makes the job harder for you take all the girls, unless you see some clear line of demarcation within the group. If it is obvious to everyone that two or three girls just are not at the same level as everyone else I would go ahead and cut them, giving them the same advice as the new kids go play rec and come back next year.
Bottom Line: I would not go into tryouts with a preconceived notion but just evaluate the girls. Again this is not a gold/elite team this is 7th MS it is going to be as much as social event as an athletic one. Once the team is announced though I would make it very clear in writing to the parents that given the size of the team playing time is not guaranteed and will be earned, that being said be as generous as possible while trying to be competitive.
This is your mission Buckeye, should you decide to accept it, as always, should you be tarred and feather by a parent mob, the DFP members who recommended this action will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Buckeye
