High School Softball- why do it?

. The other girls learned how to practice, how to compete, how to dress, how to act. I had attempted to teach all of those things but until they could actually see it at practice every day it really didn't resonate.

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That was a good post, thanks!
Regarding the quote above-if the other girls didn't want to learn, were irritated by the girl trying to lead, and the coach insisted that she was responsible for discipline and did nothing to back her up, -That would be more like DD's HS experience.

DD was on a new TB team this past summer. She loved the team and had a great experience, but they didn't win very often due to a shallow talent pool. If HS was the same, I wouldn't have had to ask the question in the first place.

My girls have played comp ball for 6 years now and rec ball before that. Our family has become a bunch of SB junkies and have for the most part enjoyed the ride, travelling all over the country meeting great coaches, players, parents and fans of the game. We live pretty close to the HS fields and routinely are down there putting in work. The girls have always wanted to play for the school and with their classmates in front of the home town fans, earning letters, getting in the local news rags, etc.. We've followed the HS program (and the turnover) for years now and had hoped that they would get it figured out in regards to the coaching staff. My kids have played their Freshman & Sophomore years so far at primarily the Varsity level (swinging to fill in gaps in the JV roster when needed) and this year's season just finished. It could not end soon enough, the available talent pool was considerable but it was worse than watching a slow moving train wreck. Our two years with this coach were "learning lessons" for sure and we've tried to make the best of it. Girls were told before tryouts not to bother coming, a couple were cut immediately or told "well, you might get a chance to hit but you'll never see the field", several more quit along the way during the first month and then a little more than halfway thru the season 12 girls walked off the field during a practice as the coach was cursing and telling them to quit and that this was her job forever. Her behavior was horrific matched only by her lack of game management skills. Important note here is that the girls walking off the field did so in protest of the bullying, demeaning and abusive behavior of this coach and went immediately to seek help from the AD or the school's admin (neither which was available). I could go into much more detail but the bottom line is she was finally placed on leave, the AD at the school is also now on leave (softball's issues were only one straw that broke the camel's back) and we have a hopefully clean slate to work with moving forward. This type of coaching is hard to imagine at the travel ball level. On a side note...she did coach a local club team for one season last year which resulted in every kid on her team (16U) telling her that they would not play for her again and not one kid in the organization at 14's would play for her either. Strange thing here though, many of her club players from last year HAD to play for her if they wanted to play HS softball....and many tried. It was miserable. I'm jealous of those of you out there with a strong school program, decent coaches and the support of the School's administration. Lucky you are, enjoy what you have and realize that not every place is so fortunate. It's not as easy as finding a different club team that suits your style or budget, you can't just transfer to a different school. Last year when I wrote something on these boards about our experience with this coach I had a lot of support but also took some heat from those saying it was "helicopter parenting" or just let the coach, coach. There was smoke and then there was fire, now we replant and hope something new can grow in time to salvage the High School experience. For the girls in a broken program that simply play the game because they love it....they deserve better.