What would you do?

Rocketech1 said:

He is talking about 1st year 12U. 11 & 12 year olds need to development softball fundamentals just as much (or more than) playing in tournaments. If they can travel to a tournament, they certainly can travel to a practice field. This is not a 16U college showcase team....

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Not always the case. I have a team that draws players from 3 different states. And not just across the border. We're talking a 2+ hour ride to come to practices during the winter. We can not have full team practices once the season starts. We hold weekday workouts for the local players who can make it from my team and other teams in the organization.

My DD is playing on a 16U showcase team. We have some kids that have to travel almost two hours to practice. We occasionally have a practices, but were playing 3 or 4 day tournaments every weekend. It takes a lot of time. The coach recognizes that to get a wider pool of talent, you cant expect somebody to drive 2 hours to and 2 more hours back from a practice. Coach expects players to go to hitting lessons or pitching lessons and practice some during the week on their own. I think he hopes dads will hit some ground balls and work on defense also.

Last year, we had a team were the coach had a lot practices and got super mad if somebody didn't make it and would penalize players with playing time. I remember she had a practice in late October, and the field didn't have lights. I took off work early to drive 1.5 hours there so we could make practice in very poor dusk lighting conditions for a one hour practice. It was so dark that a girl on our team, missed a fly ball and got hit in the eye. The girl probably had a concussion but played that weekend. My DD the pitcher and 1b took a few ground balls and caught a few balls all practice. I normally had my DD hitting and pitching lesson on that school night. But the coach thought practice was a higher priority than the lessons. So I though how silly is this for my DD to take an entire school night in the fall, me take off work early, drive 3 hours, miss hitting and pitching lessons before a showcase tournament just so she could take a few ground balls in a dark conditions. The coach didn't get it. Sorry, this post made me vent.