14u Rec playing time problems
Had an unpleasant confrontation with a parent last night regarding her daughter's playing time and what position she has been playing. I've got 12 kids on the team with 6 or 7 that are clearly better than the other 5 or 6 (like most rec teams). My assistant and I made a decision that we would rotate the lesser 5 or 6 through the bench and the outfield, except when a game gets out of hand one way or the other (and I'm not talking 10 runs, more like 7 or 8 either way), then we would rotate the whole team through the bench / outfield.
This has worked pretty well up until last night as we got behind in 3 of the 4 games we've played (see my pitching problems thread) or had 1 or 2 players missing. I'm just not sure how to keep everyone (ie parents) happy with 12 girls to try and play and try to win a few games at the same time. We have very little margin for error. I do have a spreadsheet that I use, but I never know who is going to show up, I try to enforce arriving 45 minutes before game time, but inevitably 2 or 3 come strolling in at 15 minutes till (the daughter of the parent that confronted me being 1) .
The confrontation was very discouraging to me as the mother was very accusatory ("you don't pay attention to my daughter enough") and offensive, as she and her husband we questioning my coaching ability ("and how many games have you won?"), which clearly has nothing to do with this situation. I told her I was doing my best with 12 kids and if she thought that her daughter should be playing over the 2 older girls I have been rotating at 2nd base that she should show it in practice and in the outfield, she missed our last practice on Sunday, no call no show. I also tried to explain to her that it was one game and pointed out that she had played the infield in 2 of the 4 games already. Last night was a hard fought close game and I thought it was important to get a win under our belts for the overall confidence of the team. Interesting to note, my daughter told me the girl in question wasn't even aware whether we had won or not...must not have been paying attention.
This is a rec league but functions as a pseudo travel team as we play other towns in our area, it's pretty competitive. I'm not even sure where to begin to straighten this out...any help would be much appreciated.
Had an unpleasant confrontation with a parent last night regarding her daughter's playing time and what position she has been playing. I've got 12 kids on the team with 6 or 7 that are clearly better than the other 5 or 6 (like most rec teams). My assistant and I made a decision that we would rotate the lesser 5 or 6 through the bench and the outfield, except when a game gets out of hand one way or the other (and I'm not talking 10 runs, more like 7 or 8 either way), then we would rotate the whole team through the bench / outfield.
This has worked pretty well up until last night as we got behind in 3 of the 4 games we've played (see my pitching problems thread) or had 1 or 2 players missing. I'm just not sure how to keep everyone (ie parents) happy with 12 girls to try and play and try to win a few games at the same time. We have very little margin for error. I do have a spreadsheet that I use, but I never know who is going to show up, I try to enforce arriving 45 minutes before game time, but inevitably 2 or 3 come strolling in at 15 minutes till (the daughter of the parent that confronted me being 1) .
The confrontation was very discouraging to me as the mother was very accusatory ("you don't pay attention to my daughter enough") and offensive, as she and her husband we questioning my coaching ability ("and how many games have you won?"), which clearly has nothing to do with this situation. I told her I was doing my best with 12 kids and if she thought that her daughter should be playing over the 2 older girls I have been rotating at 2nd base that she should show it in practice and in the outfield, she missed our last practice on Sunday, no call no show. I also tried to explain to her that it was one game and pointed out that she had played the infield in 2 of the 4 games already. Last night was a hard fought close game and I thought it was important to get a win under our belts for the overall confidence of the team. Interesting to note, my daughter told me the girl in question wasn't even aware whether we had won or not...must not have been paying attention.
This is a rec league but functions as a pseudo travel team as we play other towns in our area, it's pretty competitive. I'm not even sure where to begin to straighten this out...any help would be much appreciated.
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