DD Getting frozen out of High School ball. Any options during that time

[Westwind]

I think there are more politics than most parents will ever know.

Had a front row seat for it for seven years. Would have been eight but covid cut it short.

It’s either politics or spectacularly bad decision making and player evaluation. I don’t miss it to be honest. Keep in mind that comes from the perspective of a parent whose kids started varsity as freshmen and played every inning at their preferred positions.

 

[ang2bmd]

I'm just going to count my blessings then. We seem to have a coach that values both commitment and talent. We have an extremely talented nationally ranked program so the competition is fierce. My dd had both talent and timing on her side this year as a freshman because her preferred position was open with no incumbent. However she also went into tryouts and worked every drill at every position with 100% effort. She would have played anywhere he needed her and it showed. Its makes me sad that others have to play in such political programs.

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[jacman]

Perhaps let your DD guide the situation. What are her desires and concerns about playing? Even if she rides the bench most of the year, she might value the time with friends on the team, or at least representing her school, traveling to away games. Sometimes such difficult experiences build character that pays dividends in unexpected ways. And who knows? Maybe something turns around and it becomes a great season for her.

It's clearly a difficult situation. There is a small number of coaches I've come across I wouldn't want near my kid, or anyone else's. But some of the toughest situations for us have also borne surprising good results. I appreciate the careful thought you are giving the whole picture. I hope it works out well.

 

[Long Baller]

This comes from a PC I know who used to coach at an elite private HS. He said one time he did not start a kid on the baseball team because the kid would not do what the coach had asked (baserunning-wise) over and over. Coach benched him a game. Next day, Coach was called into the AD’s office where he was met with the parents of the player. Dad was a big-time CEO and trustee of the school. It was either his kid started or coach was gone. Coach wound up quitting.

While I do agree it’s probably not very frequent that the politics happen, I have seen it happen at private schools where a lot of donor money comes into play.

This exact thing happened at my DD's school. Private HS with a reputation for winning sports teams. The school just graduated out a very talented pitcher going to a D1 college. The upcoming Sr. and Jr. pitchers thought they were going to walk into the starting slots. The Sr. pitcher was just OK; she could beat bad teams but got lit up by good teams. The Jr. was awful. The incoming freshman class was strong, with three girls from high-level travel teams that became varsity starters. The incoming pitcher was regarded as one of the best pitchers for that age group in the state. Freshman gets all the big starts and wins every regular-season game she pitched. Sr. goes something like 1-1 vs the weaker teams then gets hurt. Jr. starts one game and gets shelled like Omaha beach. All season long, there was a lot of animosity towards the freshmen starters from the upper classmen.

Trying to keep a long story short...Jr. The Jr. pitcher's dad donates a lot of money to the school and goes around boasting that he is going to get the coach fired. And sure enough, he does. The Freshman pitcher basically gets run out and transfers back to her public school the following year. The school ultimately found a very good coach to hire, but it definitely set the program back a couple of years.

Back to the OP's point. We were very disappointed in what had transpired politically and DD was going to sit out softball and run track the next season instead.

 

[schwabach]

I wish I was surprised, but after the recent prosecutions of Lori Loughlin and others for fabricating credentials to get their kids into a better college, I am not surprised.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I think there are more politics than most parents will ever know.

Had a front row seat for it for seven years. Would have been eight but covid cut it short.

It’s either politics or spectacularly bad decision making and player evaluation. I don’t miss it to be honest. Keep in mind that comes from the perspective of a parent whose kids started varsity as freshmen and played every inning at their preferred positions.

Same experience with volleyball (and goes hand in hand with @Long Baller 's story) ...

Oldest daughter had barely come off the court since her 7th grade year, played all the way around virtually every rotation. Her sophomore year, we get some new school board members, one of whom has an agenda to fire the volleyball coach to hire a friend (her daughter's club coach). Long story short (I'll leave out the side plot involving the police kicking in the door of another school board member and an illegal board vote), the new board member succeeds, but her friend turns down the job after hearing what was happening. Now the school's reputation for these coaching shenanigans catches up with them and they cannot give away a varsity head coaching job.

My daughter plays through her junior year barely coming off the floor with a crap coach who gets fired, replaced with another crap coach who believes she answers to the board member.

As my daughter is really beginning her college search and her desire to play volleyball in college, this new coach not only benches her, but rarely lets her in any game. [Skipping emotional reactions]

Fast forward and my daughter played soccer immediately after that season and ended up with all-conference mentions and a (PARTIAL) scholarship to play soccer in college. She had never touched a soccer ball before that.

 

[Westwind]

Holy cow. We had a couple school board members that were sports hover parents/daddy coaches and they inappropriately involved themselves but nothing like that. (And fortunately didn’t affect softball.)

The school board president was a classic volunteer baseball coach that saw to his kid playing ss.

 

[_MIA_]

My uncle was my principal..now I am starting to wonder if I deserved to start at SS my Soph year

 

[The Man In Blue]

No, you didn’t. Next?

 

[_MIA_]

No, you didn’t. Next?

Succinct and to the point I like it

Probably why I tore my ACL before the next season..karma and all