What would you do? Please read

[Twins Softball Dad]

I'm not going to bore you with all the details of the story but I really am looking for some insight of what some of the other parents would do. My twin daughters were in one league for many, many, years as we lived in a different school district but went to a different school due to my divorce. We moved them over to the school district where they have been going to school since kindergarten. We have a 12u gold team,purple, and black. Gold being the best and so on. Tryouts were a sham because the upcoming Coach from 10u has a pretty good team and wanted to keep his team intact so he had them opt out of all the tryouts to keep them on the middle 12U team. Now this is my girls last year of 12u and will be on the gold team with only 1 pitcher! Question is their old team is asking them to come back, it would only be for one year as they will age out to be 14u . Again the gold team that they have made will only have one pitcher due to the politics of the school district. And they will only be able to play this one year on this other 12 U team. I hate to bail on the school district they are in now but there's no loyalty at all to the girls or their teammates. You want to have the kids have fun but everyone on this board knows a team with just one pitcher and I mean literally only one pitcher cannot carry a team throughout tournament season and losing is no fun!! Would you leave?? Thank you

 

[softballphreak]

How do your DDs feel? I'm guessing they want to stay with their team. In this situation I would replace "losing is no fun" with "trying to help our team with only one pitcher win".

I've seen teams with no chance win simply because they wanted to. And it sounds like your DDs may be valuable to their team.

 

[Cowdogz]

A little adversity can be good for a kid.

 

[Twins Softball Dad]

I would agree with helping the team however my girls feel betrayed as they along with all the other girls trying out found out by the younger kids that the Purple(below gold) team was already set. The talent on the purple is no where near the 5 girls on the gold but they have 4 pitchers. ALL opted out of moving up. with us only having 1 pitcher the head coach has already commented that the number of tournaments we can play will be very limited. Since it's for the school district going outside to get a pitcher is not allowed. My girls are old enough to know pitching is key and they feel along with the other girls let down by the system. The pitcher we do have is the number 1 pitcher out of all the kids and she has made comments on NOT having a backup to her. I just don't know what to say or do.

 

[PA SB Dad]

It's not unusual for a coach coming up from an age group to want to keep his team together. That is not politics, it's just the way it is. He put the time and effort into developing those players and he (and the team) have every right to stay together if that is what they want to do. I see nothing wrong with opting out of tryouts if he does not need any players.

One pitcher for an entire season is tough. We went through that last year. We had one very good, consistent pitcher, and a group of kids who were just learning (12U at the time). We still played a tough schedule, including PONY Nationals, because we believed it was the right thing to do to get better. What the girls learned was that we were inexperienced and as a result very inconsistent, and if they wanted to be the best, they had to work hard and focus on getting better. I did not lose a single player from that team at tryouts, and in fact had to make some tough decisions about who to move up to 14U and who to leave in 12U.

If the intentions of the coach and the players are clear, you can still have a "successful" season even if you are not "winning" a lot of games. 12U is still a developmental stage, and using the opportunity to develop additional pitchers will only help your organization in the long run.

 

[Twins Softball Dad]

Thats the problem there are NO available girls to even work with in regards to pitching. I would be ok letting him keep his team but the player draft rule clearly states the top 6 must move up, 2 of the top 6 were pitchers. He protested and got the board to make an exception for this year when it had not been done before thus keeping his pitcher down. I appreciate the responses. How do you get the girls to act like a "gold" team when they know at least 4 of the new players they we will have to pick up have never played Tourny ball EVER?

 

[CoachKevin]

Well this doesn't sound like a TB Organization, more like a Rec Team that plays Tournaments. What does the School District have to do with this Organization?

 

[JAD]

Again the gold team that they have made will only have one pitcher due to the politics of the school district.

Is this TB? Rec? School? How does school districting effect TB or Rec? How many games do you play? Tournaments or single games? One good pitcher can carry a team that only plays one game a day. TB tournaments with 3-5 games/day are were you need 2-3 pitchers to survive.

 

[softballphreak]

If I understand this correctly the "gold" team (your team) was suppose to get (or possibly get) one of the pitchers who, by rule, should be moving up?

 

[PA SB Dad]

Personally, I don't know what a "gold" team is at 12U, unless one of your colors is gold. Just as your DDs have the ability to opt out of the team and go somewhere else, so does this other team. Would you prefer that your organization lose the entire team? Or keep them within the organization and let them stay together? Tough call, but that's reality. Anyone has the ability to go elsewhere if they are not getting what they want/need from a particular organization. Your energies are better spent on things other than this issue at 12U unless your DDs are really exceptional and can play for a good A team somewhere.