Team meals...what could go wrong? :)

[redbirdone]

So, first tournament is coming up and I just know that at some point this weekend one of the coaches or parents will say "let's all go out to eat."

Am I the only one that dreads the "team meal" that takes place during a tournament? I don't mind the occasional one that is well thought out and planned. But the ones thrown together last minute or day of need to stop - "oh, we have a 3.5 hour break between games? Let's take a group of 35 to a restaurant in a busy mall area on a Saturday." Or the unplanned ones after the last Sat game at 7:30PM - "let's all go to the busiest area in town and get a table for 30 right now during peak hours." Never mind the two hour wait and then another two hours in the restaurant. Let's see, we have...

- The nightmare of 12 separate checks and who is with who
- The parent who argues about being charged for something their kid ordered but they didn't approve
- The parent who complains about the included gratuity being added to their check automatically because god knows they would try to stiff them if it wasn't
- Non-drinkers judging drinkers
- Siblings acting like over tired, hungry siblings act after being at the field all day and waiting forever for a table
- There's always one parent rude to wait staff so you wonder if they spit in just their food, or everyones


So lets hear your team meal horror stories...

 

[ANNASDAD]

No, you're not the only one ! Nothing else really to add, you covered that pretty well. Oh, when you somehow get stuck sitting beside or directly across from "the" mom, you know, THAT mom !

 

[Terror Coach]

i actually enjoy this part of travel ball. It isn't that hard to call ahead and make sure a place will have seating. You do your checks by using the players number. And the girls love it. I have never seen a parent do any of the things you mentioned. We did go out once to a place the one dad was all about. He had to go to this place. Well everyone received their food but him. They forgot his order. He took it well. We had a good chuckle.

 

[CoogansBluff]

And the girls love it.

In general, yes. But there probably are some on the team that don't love it so much, would rather wind down, get some time away from team, keep their own schedule (since these meals sometimes compromise bed time), but they go along. And that's their responsibility to handle, but my experience in travel ball is that there are a lot of things we assume are unanimously popular (roller coasters, swimming, ice cream, prayer circles, etc.) that aren't. People compromise when they are in the minority. Hard to get 12 girls (or adults) to agree.

As for me, I don't mind the team meals, as long as I don't feel pressured to go each and every time. Some teams and coaches over-do the social/togetherness thing. Those coaches/parents are typically extroverts who think introversion is a character flaw. It's important to respect personality types that need to have time away to process and recharge, IMHO. It's OK to do that. Doesn't mean you don't like your teammates, or that you need to come out of your shell, or that you won't be able to function on a college team.

 

[redbirdone]

In general, yes. But there probably are some on the team that don't love it so much, would rather wind down, get some time away from team, keep their own schedule (since these meals sometimes compromise bed time), but they go along. And that's their responsibility to handle, but my experience in travel ball is that there are a lot of things we assume are unanimously popular (roller coasters, swimming, ice cream, prayer circles, etc.) that aren't. People compromise when they are in the minority. Hard to get 12 girls (or adults) to agree.

As for me, I don't mind the team meals, as long as I don't feel pressured to go each and every time. Some teams and coaches over-do the social/togetherness thing. Those coaches/parents are typically extroverts who think introversion is a character flaw. It's important to respect personality types that need to have time away to process and recharge, IMHO. It's OK to do that. Doesn't mean you don't like your teammates, or that you need to come out of your shell, or that you won't be able to function on a college team.

Very accurate post that says a lot that I could not properly say. It's not that we don't like our team or teammates, but sometimes we are exhausted from 10 hours at the field plus the 3-4 hour drive there and just want to go to bed without some big 3-4 hour production called dinner.

 

[Terror Coach]

After 10 hours at the field, and facing a 2 hour drive, not a chance I'm stopping for a team dinner. That is just crazy. Saturday night when the team is staying in a hotel is when I like to get everyone together.

 

[YOCOACH]

We plan dinners for Friday nights, breakfast Saturday/Sunday mornings and dinner Saturday nights when we're out of town. We always call ahead and give the maximum number that may attend during the week before. We let everyone know what the arrangements are and that they are not required to attend either one. If they want to come, great, if not, no big deal. Half of the girls end up swimming or goofing around on Friday night, most meet for breakfast both days and Saturday is almost always the entire team and parents. They have a blast at every away tourney! Not requiring the parents to make it allows the girls to actually do what they want to do without putting undue pressure on the parents. On Sundays, when we have a large break, the girls will pretty much split up into three groups as to where the families will go to eat. Some will go to one place, others to another or some will just stay and eat concession food and hang out. No pressure and everyone ends up at the fields on time for warm-ups.

 

[4KidsDad]

Great description redbirdone. You've pegged it.

I thoroughly enjoy the social aspect of the sport and connecting with the girls and (most of) the parents, but it just can't happen at a team meal in a busy restaurant. Yelling to speak to the 3 or 4 people around you doesn't make for very good conversing or connecting.

Now. . . adult beverages in the hotel parking lot on Friday or Saturday evening. . .

 

[Sparky Guy]

If I was doing a team meal it would be on Saturday night. I would have one of the parents find a buffet place. Call them and let them know they have a large group coming in. Most times the place would have a separate room for the team. Everyone got what they wanted to eat. Spent some time together outside of the fields. Worked well. A couple of times the parents just wanted to grill at the hotel. That was fine too. I always tried to make sure the cost was reasonable. Often times it was entire families attending the tournaments and that can get very expensive.

 

[InsidePitch]

I've never been a fan of the team dinner and the last one the food and service were marginal. To top it off, the Joe Cool dad was telling us about his second DWI on his third pint.

I enjoy an adult beverage but wait until I'm safely back at the hotel before having more.