I thought I was a little harsh in my original post. The 16U rec league age group is the worst. You've got one group of kids who just aren't interested any more in playing the game. You've got another group of kids who would love to play travel ball, either for lack of talent or lack of parents willing to make the sacrifice (and I'm not saying it makes sense to play travel ball even if a kid has the talent for it).
So, you've got a very tough job. Perhaps no one told you that you had signed up for the worst job in softball.
But, here you are...if it were me, I would have told the parent, "Your kid isn't showing up for practices and games. If she shows up for practice and all the games, I promise she'll get one inning in the infield. But, if she doesn't, she'll play the outfield."
If you are coaching rec league anything, including rec league church adult softball, if you are out only to win games, then you have already lost.
What do you want these girls to get out of the season? For a rec league, you should be making the "good" girls play positions that they haven't played before so that they can increase their chance of playing on the HS team.
What do you think sounds better to a HS coach from one your better players:
1) "I played SS every game for my rec league team."
2) "I can play any position you want. I know how to play them all. I usually played SS, but I also played 1B, 3B, OF and even caught a few games. I'm a really good all-around player."
thanks for posting again. and I understand what you are saying. Some of the generalities that you mention about this age group, etc definitely apply. There are also a few things about the situation that I think are unique. I'm more than willing to spread the wealth and let kids play other positions, when the situation is right and when it makes sense for the TEAM, not for an individual player. And I don't think it's appropriate to attempt to bully the coach into playing your kid at a certain position by being belligerent.
This mother came at me, trying to bait me into an altercation and with an inflammatory posture..she was out of line. We've played 4 games for god sake, what does she want? We're still trying to figure out what we have. It's been difficult. A couple of the other players told me the player in question was threatening to quit in the dugout during the last game and didn't even know if we won or lost. She's got no interest in the team, only herself apparently. Wonder where she learned that from?
Where did you see me say that I am only out to win games? I don't think you could infer that from what I've posted either. Yes, I want to win, but I'm 1-4 right now and making moves with positions, the lineup and in game that look to the long term for the most part, not necessarily to win that particular game. I'm not sure what rec leagues you guys play in, but our league is extremely competitive, there's around 20 teams and most of them put quite a bit of emphasis on winning. Most of the teams have 2-3 travel players, I don't have any. The HS programs around here are large and don't take any rec players...period. So this is it for most of these girls. Maybe it's a unique situation, I don't know.