JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
Tryouts happened, again while I was returning from vacation. My other coach was there and he was overwhelmed by the number of girls that tried out (we had 37 between the tryout and the makeup date in the 14U age range). So probably around 30 for the main tryout date. So to break it down about 10 of the girls were from the other 14U team, 8 or so from our invites, and about 12 others.
When I returned, we got together and went through the girls that tried out. We naively thought these girls wanted to be on our club team, most did not, but we didn't really know that. We called and offered 5 girls spots on the team 3 pitchers and 2 catchers/infielders. None accepted on the spot and in hind sight, our offers were too vague and open ended. We called and offer 4 of the core girls spots, that makes 6 with our 2 DDs but we still needed pitching and catching.
My wife and I really hadn't really discussed her being a coach but she was a catcher in college and even though she was traveling I texted her and told her she was now a coach. It was another bullet point to try to convince these girls to play with us "we have 2 female coaches, 1 a current college pitcher and 1 a former college catcher/3B".
I brought my DD to the makeup tryouts hoping we'd see more pitchers but still uncertain how we'd get out of the offers we have out there. There were about 7 14U girls there, and the other 14U team was pretty much done with their team. One girl stood out, I called right after tryouts and it didn't look good. Our college pitcher/coach, suggested I move quickly on the next 2 pitchers on the list before they accept other offers.
With all the bad news we also added another LL player right away that was at the makeup, mostly to lift our spirits and move forward. So now we had 7 players, all from LL (1 had select experience previously). We continued to call the others that we had made offers to but most couldn't decide. Eventually all but one moved on with other teams or we decided to mutually rescind the offer.
We learned the hard way there are:
- Families that tryout everywhere hoping to get on the best possible team, they will even accept offers knowing that they are "last resort" for them, just to have it in their back pocket.
- Families that have been on a team, are testing the waters, but when push comes to shove, they go back to their team
- There are even girls that go to tryouts for practice or maybe to boost their ego and get calls
We had all of these.
Had I to do it again I would (and will next year):
1. Ask lots of questions, probing about their tryout, teams, other tryouts, etc. with experience, some good people skills, and enough time on the phone with the parent you're pretty likely to get the whole story figured out.
2. Call the parents of the kids you're interested in after tryouts before you make an offer. Don't call with an offer assuming they want to play for you.
3. If you get to the offer, make time based offers. I think 48 hours is reasonable. Follow up in writing on email. And follow up again after you call when the time frame is up. With good questioning in #1 you should know if they wont even be able to answer your offer in 48 hours because X team has tryouts next week, etc.
4. Get the player fee asap, it seems many teams are getting more strict on this because of all the non serious actions going on. Some, I've heard are even moving to a deposit at tryout that you get back if you don't get an offer but loose if you get an offer and decline.
A couple of things to note:
I would not attend a tryout with a deposit that I lose if we get an offer and decline unless the team was so well known and good that we had already made our decision to join before tryouts. A policy like this will really choke down attendance at your tryout. Would you rather see 30 girls you might get or 4 you definitely will get?
48 hours to make a decision is not enough when tryout season is 2-4 weeks. i know coaches want clarity quickly, so do families, but the reality is that a girl may want to try out for three teams with vastly different dates. You have to find a way to creatively navigate the free agency period offer wise. Blanket rules like 48 hrs are a big turn off.
For every family that does the things you mention above there is a coach that has promised things and not delivered. So you have to understand when they want to get a few options on the table and then decide. In this situation they are the customer....and the customer is always right. But you do retain the right to refuse service