First showcase

[Lance Steckler]

Why would anyone care whether a parent helps carry equipment to the car? Any coach who worries about that is an idiot. Sorry to be so blunt, and I am sure a lot of people will disagree, but they will be wrong. Are we worried about players performing on the field or are they supposed to be part of a cult? There is one thing that matters, and one thing only (after the players having fun) and that is putting them in the best position to be successful on the field. Does carrying ones own bag make that more or less likely? It certainly doesn't make it more likely, so who cares? And to take away playing time for this grievous offense? It's insane!!! And I make the same argument about water and food. Does making sure that the player has enough water, and actually drinks it before it is needed, help the player or hurt her? It certainly helps. Does eating in the dugout hurt a player's performance? Probably not, so who cares??? These silly rules are all about coaches' egos and "showing who is boss". Of course no one wants parents hovering over their players all the time because that does hurt their development, but no one should ever care about all of that other stuff.

i'm going to be nice and just say i strongly disagree. and every coach I have ever talked to likely disagrees. I've been sitting right there talking to a coach about a player. Watched the coach observe some of your mentioned behaviors in a different player and sharpie a line right thru the players name off her 'player to watch' list. Happens all the time.

 

[Chris8]

Why would you need to carry your kid's bag? Seriously, why? Unless they are injured. Players at 14U and above should be responsible for carrying their own gear AND the TEAM gear (ball buckets, bownets, tees, etc). Who do you think does it on a college team? Why does a player need a gatorade from mom during the middle of game? You simply place a small cooler right outside of the dugout full of water, gatorade, grapes, etc. If your kid does not have enough water and nourishment, who's fault is that? These things should be on your game day check list before you leave the house or at least before you get to the field.

really this should be started at 10u....maybe not carrying the team gear at 10U....but definately they should be responsible for carrying their gear. It's not hard. AND set the expectation up at the beginning to have their stuff together any thing they need for game day. To help @ 10U we developed a checklist for the player to make sure they had. So many parents appreciated that....and shifting the responsibility to the player. Many parents...did the "Did you check your list that coach gave you, remember the list coach gave you, make sure you have things on the list that coach gave you"...they commented it took the "fight" out of their relationship and shifted it to being responsible for themselves. No different than going to school and being responsible for your homework, your lunch, your jacket/coat etc.

 

[IndyHScoach]

When I was at a different HS, there was a baseball player being scouted. He did get drafted and the scout came back to the school and dropped off a couple of boxes of hats to be handed out. I was able to be part of a conversation with him and other coached about what he looks for.

One of the first things he said was, we look to see if the player carries his own equipment. This shows if they are responsible for their own things. Or are they still dependent on mom and dad. They look to see if the player acts like they are happy to be there. Do they want to play? Is their uniform on properly (shirt tucked in, socks on, pants done properly) He said, you can get marked off a list before a play has even been made by the kids attitude.

Also, how do they play catch/warm up? Is it business like or is it social hour?

 

[Axe]

Keep your expectations in check. If she and her teammates haven't spent a lot of time at camps and emailing coaches there probably won't be any coaches at your games. Especially for 2023's. Just showing up at showcases and hoping for to be seen simply doesn't work unless you have super elite players on your team who will draw coaches for you.

 

[Westwind]

Making the player responsible for water etc has so many advantages for player, parent and coach.

Another very real reason to do this is to keep parents away from the dugout during games. When mom or dad head over to the dugout with a pretzel and a purple Gatorade it’s a chance for the inevitable hushed conversation about whatever parents feel they need to tell dd.

Non-coaching parents really shouldn’t be in or near the dugout. Nothing good ever comes of that. Only exception is illness or injury. Another is when the games are back to back and there isn’t any reasonable way to carry enough water etc. In that case I always just walked over with a couple waters and said to whatever player was closest “here hand these to _______, thanks.”

I‘ll say one more thing- once it’s a 16u team, especially showcase, there really isn’t any reason for the team/org to send team info/schedule to parents.

People freak out when they hear this. It will cause problems for awhile. But once the player is forced to communicate that info to her parents it results in a higher level of responsibility for the player. And the subtle message is that they make their own arrangements, they don’t sit around and wait for mom or dad to tell them it’s time to pack or get dressed and head for the car.

 

[Ksphenom]

Why would anyone care whether a parent helps carry equipment to the car? Any coach who worries about that is an idiot. Sorry to be so blunt, and I am sure a lot of people will disagree, but they will be wrong. Are we worried about players performing on the field or are they supposed to be part of a cult? There is one thing that matters, and one thing only (after the players having fun) and that is putting them in the best position to be successful on the field. Does carrying ones own bag make that more or less likely? It certainly doesn't make it more likely, so who cares? And to take away playing time for this grievous offense? It's insane!!! And I make the same argument about water and food. Does making sure that the player has enough water, and actually drinks it before it is needed, help the player or hurt her? It certainly helps. Does eating in the dugout hurt a player's performance? Probably not, so who cares??? These silly rules are all about coaches' egos and "showing who is boss". Of course no one wants parents hovering over their players all the time because that does hurt their development, but no one should ever care about all of that other stuff.

You might not like these unwritten rules for showcases but this site is bringing factual info and all parents and their DD's should be taking notes about these showcases.

Again you can do whatever you want but arguing about what you think Colleges should be worried about and not isn't one of them.

A bunch of stuff being argued about on this thread has been communicated over and over by College players, Scouts, HC"s and Olympians. They almost universally agree about players carrying equipment, responsible enough to get what they need (water) etc. and being ready to play.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[Orange Socks]

I‘ll say one more thing- once it’s a 16u team, especially showcase, there really isn’t any reason for the team/org to send team info/schedule to parents.

People freak out when they hear this. It will cause problems for awhile. But once the player is forced to communicate that info to her parents it results in a higher level of responsibility for the player. And the subtle message is that they make their own arrangements, they don’t sit around and wait for mom or dad to tell them it’s time to pack or get dressed and head for the car.


DD got pulled up to the 18U Gold team as a sophmore and most of the communications went from Coach to Captain to Group Text. One Saturday morning 6:30am we showed up to the field, and noticed that we were the only people there. We figured that we got there way to early, and we were the first family to show up. I texted another dad where is everyone? Because of the overnight rains, they moved all of the games to the Scrapyard (turf fields-50 minutes away) and he said that there was a group text that went out the night before, which my DD did not get. Becuase I am so cheap, DD had a Cheap Cricket Samsung type phone that did not accept group texts over 10 people. DD got an iPhone the next week.

 

[Westwind]

Oh man... Unintended consequences right there.

Its exactly the kind of thing that happens at first.

I had the same problem last year with my 18u team. It wasn’t with players though. I used GroupMe with players but my older coaching staff refused to use it and there were two droids in the group. I couldn’t text them and know they got it. I loved coaching with those guys but they were very set in their ways and I wasn’t always smart enough to fix it.

 

[EC22]

Why would anyone care whether a parent helps carry equipment to the car? Any coach who worries about that is an idiot. Sorry to be so blunt, and I am sure a lot of people will disagree, but they will be wrong. Are we worried about players performing on the field or are they supposed to be part of a cult? There is one thing that matters, and one thing only (after the players having fun) and that is putting them in the best position to be successful on the field. Does carrying ones own bag make that more or less likely? It certainly doesn't make it more likely, so who cares? And to take away playing time for this grievous offense? It's insane!!! And I make the same argument about water and food. Does making sure that the player has enough water, and actually drinks it before it is needed, help the player or hurt her? It certainly helps. Does eating in the dugout hurt a player's performance? Probably not, so who cares??? These silly rules are all about coaches' egos and "showing who is boss". Of course no one wants parents hovering over their players all the time because that does hurt their development, but no one should ever care about all of that other stuff.

Please don't try out for our team.

 

[ez_softball]

There is a lot of good information here but don't freak out with thinking that all of it is 100% accurate, 100% of the time. You need to do what is right for you and your kid and understand that there will be times it doesn't mesh with somebodies unwritten rule. The two things that I tried to live by at tournaments were:

1. Make it about the game and not the other crap. In other words, let the kid play the game and focus on the game and not who was or wasn't watching, etc.
2. It's about the player and not about the parent. This is the one that gets a lot of folks. Other parents actually teased me about my behavior at games... there's "so and sos" dad out in the outfield sitting under the tree. Yep, that was me sitting under the tree staying the hell away from everyone else. I let my kid play and let her know it was HER deal and not mine. Don't get me wrong I coached some along the way and I loved the time with my daughter... but gamedays were HERS to do HER thing.