Having the worst HS season!

We are very fortunate to have an excellent high school program in my daughter's district. They're 3 games into the season due to crappy weather and have hit 16 home runs. Long standing tradition of winning teams and championships. There are always a few disgruntled families but most are happy. Folks around here seem to understand that school ball is different than travel. For example we have a sophomore Big 10 committed short stop playing catcher because we didn't have a catcher...you play where it's best for the team and since we have another Big 10 committed short stop that's a senior...it's a no brainer. We've got another Big 10 committed freshman on JV and I doubt she's thrilled with it but she's doing her part and filling in where needed when she's asked on varsity. School ball is what you make it.

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Strike2 said:

Although I'm sure there are some out there with good experiences, I don't know a single parent or player who is happy with HS ball. This includes those who make the starting lineup. Unlike travel ball, where you choose the team and the team chooses you, HS ball puts a bunch of competing interests together and rarely does anything to reconcile, control, or even monitor those differences. I see players who are cornerstones of good competitive teams who ride the bench. I see players get asked to work on a specific position with their travel team with the promise of starting, do so, and then ride the bench when the DD of some favored parent shows up. I see players who are widely known to be excellent at one position being forced into doing something completely different, with all the pressure of playing with and for comparative strangers that situation often brings. Then there's the politics, the favorites, and the scapegoats. I wonder why so many put up with it when competitive ball is so widely available.

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Strike2, you're using the experiences from in your own pond to cast a wide net. You are completely wrong!!! I'll use my DD as an example.

Freshman year: There was a PAC 10 committed junior pitching on varsity. My DD played in the same summer program as her. She was a very good pitcher. DD played on the soph team. No JV, only Fr, Soph and Varsity. DD shared circle time with another good pitcher. There were two other average pitchers who got some scrub innings. The won every game except one. The soph coach was a tool but the players knew the game better than she could teach it. The team had a great season.

Soph year: The school split and her school got a new Varsity HC. The team had mostly high-level travel players on it. Most of the other teams in their conference had mostly high-level travel players on the teams. There were very few gimmie games in conference play. The HC played her travel ball for the same organization my DD and 3 other players did. She played D1 college ball. The HC put the best players on the field. There were no seniors on the team. They were a 1st yr varsity program in the toughest conference in the state. They took their lumps but put it together at the end of the season. They won the State title with no seniors on the team in the toughest division for the largest schools. Something no other team in any sport in the State had ever done. DD got food poisoning at the tournament and missed the first day and half of the second day. She pitched the final 2 innings of the championship game to secure the 4-3 win.

Junior year: The team picked up where they left off. The pretty much rolled through the season rarely losing games. DD did a lot of pitching and got the ball for every tough game. They ended up losing the game before the State Tournament by 1 run. DD had an ERA of .36 for the season and averaged over 10K's a game.

Senior year: DD twisted her landing foot ankle at the start of the season running bases. The other pitcher stepped up and did really well. Again, they pretty much ran over everyone they played. They ended up losing in the post at the end of the 2nd round of playoffs.

DD's HS HC was great! She put the team first. She had some disgruntled parents but the AD had her back. She was a tough coach without being a yeller or screamer. But she wasn't afraid to get in the face of one of her players. She sat the front line players against weaker teams. She wasn't afraid to push her players and do the unconventional. The kids loved her and would do anything she asked of them. She never had to resort to doing team punishments, the kids understood what was required of them and they worked accordingly. Did the coach do some things I didn't agree with? Occasionally. But I never said anything to any of the other parents.

On a scale of 1 - 10 my DD would give her HS experience a 9.5. She is still friends and in contact with several of the girls who were on the team.

DD's experience at HS so far has been positive. Coach has been at the school for a very long time and is old school. He detests travel teams and is vocal about that. He had 5 pitchers tryout for Varsity and now DD and one other Freshman are the starters. I know all of the pitchers from travel teams in our area and think that he made the right call. The team is decent from a fundamentals standpoint but the lineup has gone cold recently. Coach won't bat freshman and some of the parents are chirping that he should let my DD hit. She's got a pretty good bat, but I am happy as is. Are there things to bitch about? Sure but what can ya do? DD has a devastating change up that was called maybe 3 times last game.. We lost 5-3 and should have won. Only 6 weeks left till travel starts.

Coach has been at the school for a very long time and is old school. He detests travel teams and is vocal about that.

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A coach who doesn't how much he doesn't know. It's the travel coaches who teach and train the players on a year-round basis.

Sparky Guy said:

A coach who doesn't how much he doesn't know. It's the travel coaches who teach and train the players on a year-round basis.

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Exactly. I guess they think these kids are born throwing 60 and hitting spots

Our season has been a little tough so far. Our conference is all private schools who recruit like crazy, except our school does not give scholarships for SB recruits since it is not one of their perennial strong sports. We only have 2 TB players as opposed to most of the other teams in our conference who are stacked 1-9 and have at least 2+ legit travel pitchers. While sometimes tough to watch, the thing that I love about DD’s team is that they all get along extremely well, will always cheer each other on, and there is no drama. Even though they are 1 game below .500, the games they have lost have been very close. I just keep reminding myself that this school is more about the academics than softball which is why she decided to go there, and that is what will help dd achieve her goals in the long run.

Sparky Guy said:

Strike2, you're using the experiences from in your own pond to cast a wide net. You are completely wrong!!! I'll use my DD as an example.

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I'm glad your individual experience is good, but you're calling me completely wrong while offering only your own personal experience with your own kid at one HS as rebuttal. It is MY experience, and I qualified it as such. My sample is from my "own pond", but spans several years and a half-dozen high schools throughout the state. It isn't inconsistent from what many others write here. Further, it has nothing to do with success, or even my own kid...many of the schools in my area draw from a large pool of experienced players and are very good. Heck, at my kid's HS, any one of the parent coaches watching from the stands could do an effective job with what is an area all-star team to work with. It's how the teams, and those players, are handled by coaches benefiting from that deep talent pool that makes people unhappy.

If your kids have any aspirations of playing college ball they better figure out how to survive school ball. Yes, they may have some choice of what school they ultimately decide to go to, but after that its either live with the coach and teammates or transfer to a different school. Everything that has been mentioned about how bad school ball is goes exactly the same for college ball. Your kid may be asked to play a different position, they may be asked to do something different in their swing, or the way they throw. They may not get the playing time they want, they may have teammates they cant stand etc etc etc. High school ball is just a primer for what college ball will be.

Comp said:

If your kids have any aspirations of playing college ball they better figure out how to survive school ball. Yes, they may have some choice of what school they ultimately decide to go to, but after that its either live with the coach and teammates or transfer to a different school. Everything that has been mentioned about how bad school ball is goes exactly the same for college ball. Your kid may be asked to play a different position, they may be asked to do something different in their swing, or the way they throw. They may not get the playing time they want, they may have teammates they cant stand etc etc etc. High school ball is just a primer for what college ball will be.

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Really good point. Politics don't go away at the collegiate level.

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