All High School Coaches Are Bad

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
They should give a basic quiz to all of the fans in the stands before the game.

Anybody who fails the quiz is given a muzzle and made to sit in the corner. I can almost guarantee that I could put some basic strategy questions on there that would leave at least 3/4 of the fans muzzled..Most fans/parents don't know wth they are talking about...sorry. Doesn't make them bad people and it actually can be advantageous in terms of just enjoying the game instead of seeing all the screwups.

I agree. It’s 10x worse in youth soccer. I’m a referee and it amazing how little the average parent/fan understands the game.

You would think most Americans would have a pretty good understanding of softball as most have grown up with baseball/softball in some way but some people never cease to amaze.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
Is there evidence that this is in fact true? I've not seen any stats.

My DD had 3 different HC in four years of HS SB. And they won league two of the 4 years, had one season canceled due to Covid and finished second her senior year.
So they had turnover even though the team/coaches were successful.

That’s a relatively small sample size though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Is there evidence that this is in fact true? I've not seen any stats.
The numbers I'm going to give you are limited to my time as a coach/schools in my area, so it may not be representative of the entire country (or even region on the whole).

Our varsity program started in 2017. We've played 34 different schools in varsity games during that time. Less than a third have the same coach they did when we started. Two of the schools don't exist anymore (one had at least two different coaches during the time). At least three others don't have softball anymore, but they also had coaching turnover. In one instance, I'm pretty sure they don't have a team only because they couldn't find a coach. They also have a new AD, and it's possible he killed the program (baseball is gone, too). There's also a couple schools we've only played at the JV level or had scheduled but always had games canceled (weather/COVID). A few of those have had turnover, too.

What's interesting is how much some of these programs have changed. Most of the schools with coaching turnover have gone downhill. A couple of them had teams that crushed us a few years ago. Now they're a joke. Yes, players change and everyone has down years, but there's a team being bad because their ace pitcher graduated and a team being bad because the new coach doesn't know how to coach.

Of the schools we've played, I can think of two that had coaching changes that weren't detrimental. One has improved quite a bit, but they also did get better players. The other appears to be the same.

The moral of the story: If your HS program has a dedicated coach who cares and does their best and the situation isn't a total tire fire, you need to hang on to that coach because Patty Gasso ain't walking through that door any time soon. The mediocre coach who builds a program and puts effort into it is worth so, so much more than parents realize because the alternative is almost always someone who will do it for a year or two and probably run the program into the ground in the process. That does not mean coaches should keep their jobs forever. It doesn't mean someone who's been doing it for 20 years is good or qualified or not out of touch. But just be careful what you wish for. It's hard to find good people for what amounts to about minimum wage pay.
 
May 21, 2018
567
93
How do you have a "state" title if the whole state doesn't participate?
Good question. Our school belongs to SIJHSAA which stands for Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association.
From what I can tell this encompasses most schools south of Interstate 70, although I don't know how the actual boundary is set up. So essentially if you win "state", you are winning "half the state" championship or maybe "one third of the state" championship. IESA seems to be the organization for the rest of the state.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Good question. Our school belongs to SIJHSAA which stands for Southern Illinois Junior High School Athletic Association.
From what I can tell this encompasses most schools south of Interstate 70, although I don't know how the actual boundary is set up. So essentially if you win "state", you are winning "half the state" championship or maybe "one third of the state" championship. IESA seems to be the organization for the rest of the state.
Totally makes sense 💁‍♀️similar to presidential elections🥳
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top