High School Coaches

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Jul 16, 2013
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Pennsylvania
The third party was someone not involved with the HS program in any way. The problem I see about a coach bad mouthing a kid is, it takes years to build good reputation and it takes only one bad story to bring it all down. When negative things are said about a kids character by a coach, it holds value even if they are not true. For example, a coach calls a pitch and the pitcher misses her spot, will it be right for the coach to tell someone that the pitcher is pitching her own game and not listening to the coach? Being insubordinate to a coach in a game situation is not what a kid want to be associated with.

I have been a travel ball coach going on on 8 years. During those years I have had several players leave other teams to come to my team, or want to come to my team. Over the years I have become either friends or acquaintances with nearly all the other travel coaches in the area. In some cases when these players try to come to my team, one of her previous coaches will reach out to me with some advice or information. I will listen to their thoughts, but I rarely utilize any of it. I know which coaches I can trust and which ones have agendas. Before any player joins my team, I know them just from watching them play, how they interact with their teammates, coaches, umpires, etc. If one of these coaches told me "Sally pitches her own game and is not listening to the coach", it would mean absolutely nothing to me. Rumors or innuendos are just that, and do not factor into my decision making in any way.

Normally the majority of problems I see are parent related, not player related. I have never kicked a player off of any of my teams for any reason. And I have never prevented a player from joining my team because of anything that SHE did. I have however, turned down a few players because of how her parents act. That is one of the huge differences with high school ball. There are two players in particular on DD's team that would never be permitted to play for my travel team. And it doesn't have anything to do with them. They are both sweet kids. But their parents are problems, pure and simple. They create a ton of drama for the high school program, and I don't want any part of that in travel.
 

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