I personally like when the player refuses to wear the wristband as it's designed, and gets tossed from the game... followed by coach for losing his mind on the ump.
been in the softball world for awhile now and the number of 'happy' families is a much smaller number than you'd think. Seen every aspect you can think of. From the clueless coach, to the daddy ball coach, to the outright liar coach, to the different rules apply to different players coach, to...
like real estate: location, location, location. harder to recruit, harder to train, etc. etc. Plus even if say PSU or Mich were attractive to a talented girl from say CA, does she really want to travel all that way for MI or PA weather???
The west coast and southern teams have been far ahead...
Quite the problem to have:12U and unmotivated players.
biggest thing I know that can help you is have a organized plan for practice. Every Time. have it all laid out from intro, stretching, thru infield, throwing, hitting etc. Not saying it all gets done, but it will help you stay on course...
mediocre coaching aside, Playing is better than sitting. So playing every minute of JV should be more beneficial than bucket sitting on varsity.
And being on a legit travel team playing higher level competition all summer, is better than either.