Coach adding to the schedule without discussing it with parents

[UB40]

DD plays for a local travel team. Tournament schedule was set in late March. Today coach announces, to the girls first (before mentioning it to the parents) that there will be league play this summer as well. The league play will be doubleheaders on Thursdays, games beginning at 5:30pm, and at least an hour's drive away.

Is it common for travel teams to add more games at last minute, without consulting the parents, especially for weekday evenings. If this is common, then I would like to know.

 

[SiB57]

Depends on the team and age, I'd guess.

On my team I know that I have to check every game, every makeup, every practice, etc, to make sure I have enough girls to play (yes this is a theoretical travel team, but C level at best.) They're doing too much other stuff, and there is zero chance I could ever start a weekday game at 5:30, I'd never get the parents to get their kids there on time.

The team one level above us doesn't ever check, including adding at least two tournaments to the schedule after the season started. They had a couple of girls drop because it was too much of a time commitment, but the 11 or 12 that are left are almost always there.

Now adding a whole summer league is a little different, that might cause me pause, too, since it's essentially adding another season that you weren't planning on. And as a coach I would never do that because if I told them my team was playing Fall, winter training, Spring and then off for a couple of months of the summer (other than tryouts, camps, optional practices, etc) then I wouldn't add a whole season without asking and would be annoyed if a coach did that to me.

 

[Hube111]

Travel season for DD 16U team is June and July and changes addition to the schedule routinely happen. From where we play to when is fair game to change during that time. But this is all laid out when you join the team. In June and July your #1 priority is the team. We had 7 tournaments in 7 weeks and they just added another on the back end in July, so now we have 8 tournaments in the 8 weekends, with 5 of those overnight stays in hotel. Then we get the whole month of August off. This all works because it was communicated when joining the team.

One way to think of the added league games is you are getting more for you money, assuming the league is included in your normal fees. More games means more experience and hopefully improved skills for your daughter going forward. I feel you on the drive though. We are an hour to every practice.

 

[UB40]

Now adding a whole summer league is a little different, that might cause me pause, too, since it's essentially adding another season that you weren't planning on. .

This is a 14u B team. The league plays five weeks, not including playoffs, and there are four weekend tournaments while the league is happening. It actually goes over a six week period, no games played the week of July 4. So it is not a matter of adding another season, it is just adding games during the already established season.

 

[justAdad2]

my dd has 12 tournaments in a 13 week period. if they added mid week games i would probably lose it.

 

[SiB57]

Adding games in during an existing season would be fair game for most of the teams in our league. I wouldn't do it without checking first because of the lack of commitment by most of my players (DD being the exception of course!) but we're a young 10U team which is still figuring out if softball is what they want to dedicate their time to. By 14U B, softball would need to be the priority for all the players and I would doubt that what you're experiencing is uncommon. The 14U team in our league wouldn't think twice about it, and would add extra games in a heartbeat if they could.

 

[bmakj]

DDs new team this spring added a league schedule (started in late March, ends mid June with playoffs) after she had already decided and signed up for rec as well. and for league games, couple of players could not play, because these were on other league teams rosters (teams who did not do tournaments). making for a very busy schedule this spring!

 

[UB40]

One way to think of the added league games is you are getting more for you money, assuming the league is included in your normal fees. More games means more experience and hopefully improved skills for your daughter going forward. I feel you on the drive though. We are an hour to every practice.

Absolutely, more games the better. My question, is it common in travel ball to suddenly add weeknight games to an established weekend tournament schedule, especially without discussing it with parents first. If this is a practice that is so common in travel ball then I will just accept it, but if this is out of the ordinary, I want to talk to the coach.

I think parents should be brought into the loop of whether the team is going to join such a league before a final decision is made.

 

[FP26]

We never made any changes to the schedule without conferring with the parents/players first. Sometimes changes were necessary for various reasons, but we always asked for input first.

A friend of mine ran into an issue with a change on his DDs team. She was the #1 pitcher at the time. They were given the schedule, and scheduled a family trip based on openings in the team schedule. A week prior to this trip, the coach notified the players at practice that a tournament was being added. They already had reservations made and informed the coach that their DD would not be available. The coach got upset about it, and the young player moved to a different team for the following year. I can understand that changes may be necessary for various reasons, but there are better ways to handle it than what happened with my friend and his DD.

 

[_MIA_]

If it is possible for the schedule to change, as in dates added, then the coach should say that up front imo. Fixing a schedule in stone 4 or 5 months in advanced is probably not practical but if the possibility of changes/additions are not communicated people are going to make plans.