Drama

[chapelhillbilly]

I hate drama. And I know there is no getting away from it in softball but OMG! My husband is coaching our youngest daughter in 8u this year. When he was picking positions I suggested he try his cousin's daughter at pitcher over our own daughter because she seemed to be more aware of her surroundings and where the play was at and so forth. He put our daughter at SS. Well the pitcher does know where the play is at but cannot catch or pick the ball up fast enough to save her life. She fumbles with it every single time it is hit to her. Our daughter has done better than I ever expected this year. So we are halfway through the season and he decides to switch them up. They both excelled at their new positons. Well the little girl's Mama has hit the roof over it and said they should have talked to her about it first and that if it happened again she would pull her child off the team. I could see her getting a little upset of he took her daughter from pitcher and stuck her off in right field, but she's playing SS. And he didn't pull her from the position the first time she made a mistake. He gave her time to see if she was going to get the hang of it and it just wasn't happening. He did not want to pick the little girl (and neither did the other 8U coach in our town) in the draft in the beginning of the year, not because of the child but because of the mother. She is crazy! It is his cousin's wife and poor thing knows how she is and has to apologize for her behavior all the time. So to reiterate- I HATE DRAMA!!!

 

[Jojo]

This morning my hubby asked me how practice was last night.
I said, I had a parent complain because she didn't like the other parents in the class, a kid complained because she didn't like the other kid in her class. One kid thought I was the evilest person in the world because I took her ball away from her. One complained because her class ran late. One complained because she was hot, one sore, one tired.........

He said, "It's alright, it will get better."
I said, "No it's not! It's only going to get worse!"

 

[Amy in AZ.]

The woman in the first post needs a reality check. Does her husband have a noodle for a spine?

 

[Dave D]

So, here's mine. Four of the girls on my TB team have left the local rec ball scene behind in order to focus on their travel team. Two are talented pitchers and one the other two are good hitters who play great defense. Had they stayed in rec., they would be playing on the 8th grade team that currently has 13 players. Rec ball has pitching limits (7 inn. per week on a 3 game schedule) and some of the other obvious limitations.

Needless to say, the rec ball parents and players had expected these four girls to be on the roster, making them a league favorite. Much gnashing of teeth when everyone found out they weren't going to play. Now, the girls on the rec ball team are talking a lot of smack about how good they are and how they could whip up on our TB team. TB girls aren't rising to the bait, yet, but privately, they really want to challenge the rec team to a scrimmage. Having watched (and, over time, coached) both teams, I know that a scrimmage would get very ugly very fast.

Every kid on the rec ball team had a chance to try out for this TB team, and none of them ever did. They gave our kids a hard time when they were getting it handed to them in tourneys last season as a first year team. Now, they're off to a good start, with a Gold bracket trophy in their first outing, and everybody wants to know why their kid can't be on our team instead of the kids from the next town over. We may not be very popular right now, but man, are we having fun!

 

[druer]

Parent's - Can't coach with them, Can't afford to play or have time to get all of the players to the field without them.

 

[BB Coach]

So, just so I am clear..... coaches family members get to play P & SS regardless of skill? Do any other girls get a chance.? You refer to RF as a place of banishment. What about the poor little girl out there that won't see the infield all year on this team? Anything pre-high school should be totally delopment orientated for ALL the players.

 

[Coachmom]

So, just so I am clear..... coaches family members get to play P & SS regardless of skill? Do any other girls get a chance.? You refer to RF as a place of banishment. What about the poor little girl out there that won't see the infield all year on this team? Anything pre-high school should be totally delopment orientated for ALL the players.

Thats what I was thinking, why isn't there a rotation of all the positions at 8U?

 

[Chris O'Leary]

So, just so I am clear..... coaches family members get to play P & SS regardless of skill? Do any other girls get a chance.? You refer to RF as a place of banishment. What about the poor little girl out there that won't see the infield all year on this team? Anything pre-high school should be totally delopment orientated for ALL the players.

I try to rotate kids infield/outfield, and give (most) every kid at least one inning in the infield.

The only exception is dust pilers and flower pickers for whom this is a safety issue (because they don't pay attention).

However, I generally won't put a kid at 1B unless they have a decent glove.

 

[andyh64000]

So, just so I am clear..... coaches family members get to play P & SS regardless of skill? Do any other girls get a chance.? You refer to RF as a place of banishment. What about the poor little girl out there that won't see the infield all year on this team? Anything pre-high school should be totally delopment orientated for ALL the players.

Yeah...at 8u why in the wold are the players specializing at all? Even at 10u I have the girls play at least 2 (or 3 or 4) positions every game.

 

[mad hornet]

So, here's mine. Four of the girls on my TB team have left the local rec ball scene behind in order to focus on their travel team. Two are talented pitchers and one the other two are good hitters who play great defense. Had they stayed in rec., they would be playing on the 8th grade team that currently has 13 players. Rec ball has pitching limits (7 inn. per week on a 3 game schedule) and some of the other obvious limitations.

Needless to say, the rec ball parents and players had expected these four girls to be on the roster, making them a league favorite. Much gnashing of teeth when everyone found out they weren't going to play. Now, the girls on the rec ball team are talking a lot of smack about how good they are and how they could whip up on our TB team. TB girls aren't rising to the bait, yet, but privately, they really want to challenge the rec team to a scrimmage. Having watched (and, over time, coached) both teams, I know that a scrimmage would get very ugly very fast.

Every kid on the rec ball team had a chance to try out for this TB team, and none of them ever did. They gave our kids a hard time when they were getting it handed to them in tourneys last season as a first year team. Now, they're off to a good start, with a Gold bracket trophy in their first outing, and everybody wants to know why their kid can't be on our team instead of the kids from the next town over. We may not be very popular right now, but man, are we having fun!

Got a similar situation here. Whatever you do, don't scrimmage them. If you think you're seen as Satan now, wait till you demoralize them in front of families you share a community with. You can't win. Not to mention the weak competition will only serve to weaken your team.