Starting lineup locked at the beginning of the season??

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jun 3, 2015
92
0
My daughter's HS coach told her that the starting lineup has been locked for the season.. He basically told her that there's nothing she can do to earn a spot even though the season has just started. My husband and I are a bit confused about this..I thought the best players were put on the field and that can change. We have always told our daughter to work hard, hustle and earn her playing time. We have also taught her to to speak to the coaches herself if there was an issue and to find out what she needs to work on to earn her spot. Her hard work has earned her a scholarship to play college ball next year, but it's not enough for her to earn playing time on the high school team. What do you tell your kid? I feel bad that she's going to be sitting the bench her senior year when she should be having the time of her life.
 
Last edited:
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Just another example of a HS coach that's a dumba$$. Any coach that "locks" the line-up is doomed to failure from the very beginning unless his entire team is comprised of TB players that went to the USA/PGF Finals game and started there on those TB teams. The sad part is I've seen it in the past from several HS Coaches around here and their Seasons not only didn't end well, but it discouraged other players from staying the course and returning in following years. Today those programs are a shell of their former selves and an overall joke around here. Now those very same coaches are begging the TB players to come to tryouts and few, if any, are actually showing up because they don't want to be known as being a part of "that," team that sucks no matter how much school spirit they have.

As for the best players being on the field? For whatever reason, whether they're his favorites, his AD's favorites, Mommy is President of the Booster club or Daddy's on the school board, the "best," will be on the field in the HC's eyes. Thus, it begs the question, "Best for what?" because it's usually apparent to most others it's not about talent or hard work. I've seen way too many HS programs around here that were, and are continuing to be ruined by politics.

What do you tell your kid? Tell her life owes her nothing. Whatever she achieves, whatever she gets out of it, is earned through hard work and even then, sometimes she'll still get the shaft. Sometimes life just isn't fair and there's nothing she can do about a certain situation. The only thing she can control is how she reacts to it. How she reacts to it will determine her true character so she should think long and hard on how to go about it. That means she can either give up in the face of adversity or continue to work hard and improve; not necessarily to break the HS line-up, but to achieve her long term goal of breaking her college team line-up.
 
Last edited:
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
What coach said might or might not change, I would tell DD to keep doing what she is doing and see what happens.

This might be a preemptive strike by coach to try to eliminate complaining.

Once the games get going hopefully the coach has a brain in their head and adjusts.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
As a coach it would be a lot easier to just pick 9 players and say that's my lineup and then not bother thinking about it the rest of the year.

Instead I spend hours stressing over a couple spots (let's be honest, a few spots are pretty well locked down because nobody is going to surpass the person in that spot any time soon) while also trying to figure out how to get the bench players as much playing time as is reasonable.

I don't think people here give enough credence to the idea that coaches (especially HS coaches, it seems) are going to do whatever takes the least amount of effort. It's often not more complicated than that.
 
Mar 4, 2018
126
28
My daughter's HS coach told her that the starting lineup has been locked for the season.. He basically told her that there's nothing she can do to earn a spot even though the season has just started. My husband and I are a bit confused about this..I thought the best players were put on the field and that can change. We have always told our daughter to work hard, hustle and earn her playing time. We have also taught her to to speak to the coaches herself if there was an issue and to find out what she needs to work on to earn her spot. Her hard work has earned her a scholarship to play college ball next year, but it's not enough for her to earn playing time on the high school team. What do you tell your kid? I feel bad that she's going to be sitting the bench her senior year when she should be having the time of her life.


Ask your daughter if she wants to play spring ball with her travel team. No way I would have put all the time and effort in to play high school softball if I was riding pine all season, and have no chance at cracking the starting lineup.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
A lot of schools are that way. Then people on here get bent when you say that HS ball is a joke. You're not alone!
 

TMD

Feb 18, 2016
433
43
I have a couple thoughts/questions here.

Your daughter is a senior - has she been on the team in previous years? If so, is this something new/different this year? Your daughter has a scholarship to play in college next year, so presumably she is skilled.

The coach says the starting lineup is locked for the year. I agree that's pretty short-sighted and likely going to bite him on the a$$ at some point. That said, is it possible that he is trying to motivate the girls to work that much harder? Yes, that's a bit counter-intuitive given the "there's nothing she can do to earn a spot" comment, but you never know with some coaches.

I assume that he does sub girls in during games...or maybe that's a bad assumption. Either way, all your daughter can do is continue to work hard and control the things that she can control - namely, her attitude, effort, and energy. Try to be a positive senior leader for the underclassmen despite the circumstances, and if/when she gets the opportunity to play, be ready to light it up. That will only help her next year when the bench will be much longer and playing time not a certainty at all.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,478
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top