Rebuilding High School Program

IndyHScoach said:

Why 4-20? Small school 2A in a small conference-do play bigger schools as non-conference schedule (I like that part, I believe play better teams to get better, to a point)

I was not here last year, but what I have gathered from different sources are the following factors:
1) Three different coaches in four years (last year coach left a week before season)
2) Parents are frustrated and it has been well documented how parents effect a program
3) Unrealistic expectations
4) Coaches only work during season (3 months a year- I plan to be a year round coach for those that want the work, definitely not mandatory)
5) Not many TB players- hope to change that some

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IHS,

Having been in your postition almost exactly to the circumstances you've described...you'll have one major advantage. You're a teacher. If you're public, you have the benefit of union/admin support.

Absolutely, positively necessary if you hope to accomplish anything positive and long term with the neglected HS & feeder program. As you've described above in your 5 bullet points, you're inheriting a seriously damaged softball culture. All of which, you were not involved with.

It's a trememdous amount of time & effort relative to joining an already established program. But, the reward has the potential to be exponentially greater to all involved in the journey.

If you're interested in any other perspectives, feel free to PM me.

Chris

[MENTION=16048]IndyHScoach[/MENTION], my suggestion is simple. Keep it about the girls, all of them. And follow your state rules. My oldest quit HS ball after her Sophomore year when some issues arose around treating some non mandatory off season stuff as mandatory. Most states have rules to protect the kids whether we agree with them or not. Not following them can put the kids in a bad spot where seeking a resolution just makes them look bad. It was a tough time. Please don't be that coach.

Be careful regarding being a year round coach. In Indiana high school coaches can have no contact with their players outside the season with regard to coaching, lessons etc. What you can do is spend your time working with and coaching younger kids that will be coming up into your program. That will build your program

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ang2bmd said:

Be careful regarding being a year round coach. In Indiana high school coaches can have no contact with their players outside the season with regard to coaching, lessons etc. What you can do is spend your time working with and coaching younger kids that will be coming up into your program. That will build your program

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Yeah I have coached other sports and understand the rules as they are. But you can work within the rules and help the players out with weight work and conditioning as well as open fields and cages so they can do individual work. I appreciate the reminder, I will work with our AD do make sure that I stay within the rules.

No doubt that the physical skills are very important, but don't forget the intrinsic learning as well.

Great advice, work with the future of your program.

Like ang2bmd mentioned, your state may allow only so many days of contact during the off-season as the HS team coach. Depending on Indiana's state rules, there's the possibility that you can HC a summer HS-aged travel team through a local organization not affiliated with your HS.

Suggest contacting Coach James if your uncertain, as he'll be your Indiana sensai on this.

Chris

Get new uniforms.

OK...I made that sound dumb on purpose. This is an interesting thread and the advice is outstanding. Obviously, this will take years and the focus on developing the younger players is the long term answer. I also really liked the points on culture and the things you can do to improve the players you have to work with now and get some short term success too. As I read your description of the current state of the team, it made me think that another way to see some improvement right away would be to recruit some better players/athletes within your school. If the team is always losing, and there is turnover at the top and drama with the parents...I'm sure there are several girls who have decided to not play...it ain't worth it. You may even have some travel players who are not playing school ball. If your school's team is a joke compared to your travel team...and the team loses all the time...that could be pretty demotivating. We have a good school program, with a good feeder system...and we have good players hanging up the cleats every year. Maybe trying to build some excitement around the team, make it fun...do new and different things...enhance the visibility of the team within the school/community. I would be willing to bet there are 2 or 3 very athletic girls or experienced players floating around that would probably not join the old team...but maybe they would join the new team. Maybe you don't get an ace in the circle...but a speedy CF, a solid 3B/SS, a good leadoff hitter can make your team better right away. IF you get 1...you'll get 2. So...this sounds stupid...and it's just one idea...get cool new uniforms...have a couple girls parade them around school or find a way to show them off...encourage girls to become part of the "new softball team"...the future. And win a few more games...and teach your 5th graders about brush resistance.

Following up on something SB45 said, what are the other sports at the school like? Is it a "sports school" or are the others in the same situation as the softball program? Is there an "it" sport at the school?

When we were starting up the softball program, the other sports were also just getting going, and mostly nobody knew what they were doing (I didn't, either!). But my goal was to make the softball team the team that mattered most at the school, and I told our girls it was going to be the most important sport. We had the advantage of being the only coaches that were interested in practicing/playing every day, making contacts to fill a schedule, promoting the team in-school through announcements, etc. We fronted the money (and still haven't been paid back entirely) to get t-shirts made that we sold to raise money, but the real effect was that students and staff were now wearing a shirt that had the word "Softball" on it. No other sport had that since our school/the sports were new. For the spring season, I bought a WWE Women's Championship belt (the expensive, nice ones) and it got passed from player to player after each game (much cooler than giving out game balls).

Everything we've done has worked. We're a small K-12 school, about 130 girls total in 9-12, and we're far from a "sports school" and softball is not exactly important in our area. This past spring we started a 13U rec team for the junior high, and we have overwhelming demand to start a 10U team for the younger girls. Those kids have seen the high school girls, and they want to play, too. This fall we started an after school "softball club" for the 6th-8th graders (every teacher has to run a club one day a week). That club will turn into the team with more frequent practices in the spring. We have close to 20 girls who joined the club. And, most incredibly, I expect to have enough demand with the high school girls to start a JV team this year. Having 25-30 girls out of 130 who want to play is pretty incredible (my apologies to the soccer team, whose athletes we do our best to woo to our side ).

Most of these girls have not played before joining the club or one of our teams. They want to play softball because we've made the softball team the cool thing to do (it doesn't hurt that we won half our games in our first season). So if the rest of the sports at the school aren't much, you have an opportunity. Make your team visible. Make them important. Make the home games into special events. Make it clear that you care about your players and you will go above and beyond for them. The students talk, and some of those girls who play softball but didn't want to play for the old coach will notice.