High School Softball ,No Thanks I'll pass

sluggers said:

No idea where you get this stuff...the states I am most familiar with (Illinois, Texas, and Michigan) can hire anyone they wish to coach. It turns out (surprise!) that most people aren't willing to quit their regular job and show up at 3:00 PM to coach a bunch of "wonderful" teenage girls and then be abused by a few parents.

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While that might be the case in some places, I know that my son's baseball coach just left to coach at a bigger school and one of the hardest parts of the replacement search was finding a certified teacher and baseball coach. They can hire anyone they wish to be an AC but the HC has to be a certified teacher and teach in the school.

I too have seen teachers who have no clue teaching softball. It is like worse than rec ball in some cities/counties. A couple of my TB players played on their local school teams (MS and HS) and wanted me to come see them play. I did and was shocked by what I saw. Coaches that had not taught DTS or even knew what it was! It was the parents on the sideline yelling for the girl to run and for the catcher to throw. Then the coach would join in yelling at their team appropriate girl to do the same. Horrible base running, horrible hitting instruction "Keep your eye on the ball!" "Swing Level!", etc, etc. There was one high school whose coach also had a TB team and she knew what she was doing, but the rest were clueless.

Dropped Third (3rd) Strike, or uncaught third strike.

coachtucc said:

Most schools are forced to higher a teacher due to union rules. I have been coaching for 10 years (HS and Travel) and cant find another HS job even though I interview every year. I am always told that they hired someone within.

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A smart high school teacher will get an "assistant coach" or two who know what they are doing to help with the team....

This is my first post on this site but I've been following it for a few months. One thing that drives me nuts is the condescending attitude of some of the travel ball coaches/parents towards high school teams/coaches. Let me start by saying I have done both. I am currently a high school coach at a very successful high school. We have players who travel the country in the summer playing at the best tournaments available. A 2012 senior played in the WCWS this past spring. All of these players love playing high school ball. They get a ton of media coverage (radio broadcasting games and newspapers writing feature articles on players. There were probably 300 fans who drove 180 miles to watch the last state tournament. They have state championship rings and memories to last a lifetime.

I'll be the first to admit that top travel ball teams have superior players. Our problem is we have to take the players in our school. We can't advertise for a power left-handed pitcher or a power-hitting short stop or any other position we need. But that is also why I love the challenge of coaching in high school. There are good years and bad years, but my job is to turn the bad years into good years with only a month's worth of practicing.

I also can't believe how much teaching I have to do to some of the players who have played travel ball. Typically their base-running needs a lot of work and the individual skills needed to play their defensive position is lacking. My biggest mistake is assuming these players are well versed in the basics. Some are great fundamentally and other... not so good.

I really enjoy reading the various posts. I learn something every day from this site.

I'm glad to hear there are high schools with good coaching - ours is not one of them.
The head coach is not a teacher (quite the opposite). he's a friend of the AD and coached football with the AD in the past. He coaches Freshman football now, freshman girls basketball and Vrsity softball. He does not understand the game, though he thinks he does. he makes fun of the weight of some of the girls and then denies it to th people he said it to. he picks an easy schedule before the season starts to make sure they have a reasonably decent record. he messes with their heads, has run good players out of the program and creates drama himself.
he announced 5 captains on the team this year because the three he wanted didn't get enough votes- the reason he gave was it was a tie. 12 players vote for 2 captains- how do 24 votes result in a 5 way tie? (especially when a couple of seniors did a informal poll and found most votes going to the same two players.)

I hope he's gone by the time DD#2 gets there!

My issue is this: is the coach being paid to coach team? If so, shame on AD at that school for wasting tax payers money. If coach is volunteer, not much can be said. Speak by either transferring schools or just play TB. If your DD is an elite player a college coach will find her, either through TB or HS.
My DD HS team isn't very good, but the varsity coach knows his stuff. JV coach is clueless.

I was just told this morning about a large HS, in Tucson, that charges $300.00, to play softball. You use the glove and bat that they give you. I had never heard that before.

My big brother attended and played JV hockey for a prestigious college. He was not recruited to play hockey, but chose a college based on academic programs with the hopes of walking on. He played JV all four years and loved the experience.

In high school, he played club hockey in addition to playing for his high school team. His high school team never won a game the entire four years that he played. He wrote his college essay about his experience with high school hockey, and was admitted to his top choice. The experience truly did shape who he is today (in a positive way) and it got him into college to boot