Frustrations with school team

[MoparFin]

So after a few practices, here is the latest.

DD was getting cups for water for JV team for their game that was going on at same time as V. HC says that she is allowed to grab enough cups for players on the roster, 9. AC was standing there holding 2 of the 3 foot packages of cups.

All of the JV players have to attend V games, in uniform and be in the dugout if there is not a JV game at the same time, they hardly ever get put in but that is why they are told they have to do this. They get yelled at if they are sitting on the bench and not up and cheering for the V players. If V doesn't have a game when JV does, the V players are allowed to go home, leave, sit where ever they want and are not required to be cheering etc.

Only the JV players are required to get the equipment when practice is over, even the stuff that V used. V is not responsible for carrying anything like the water jugs or bottles, picking up bases and plugging the holes.

I know this may be nit picky stuff, but this is stuff that to me is singling out the JV team. I understand having the players put away stuff, clean up, cheer etc. But to me, it should be all of them, even across the board.

DD said that HC tried to talk to her joking about something stupid, she just said "Um, yeah, Ok." and didn't crack a smile. Guess he was chuckling when he said the joke. She said it was dumb to me. She told me what it was, I forget honestly.

 

[BobInMadison]

Lots of schools tend to treat Varsity better than JV. Yes, it gets aggravating at times. Esp. when a decent program will sometimes have some players on JV who are better than some of the Varsity players, just because of their positions. I am quite biased, but I think there are at least two girls on JV who hare better than many of the girls on Varsity: the JV catcher, who is a beast when she bats, and DD 3, the starting JV pitcher. But, with the cachet of being on Varsity, some of the better JV players (or their parents), put a lot of pressure on the coaches to be put on Varsity. So there are some girls who sit on the bench on Varsity who would start on JV, but they are on Varsity!

I have complained about the coaches, but in this case, I feel sorry for the coaches having to deal with some of the parents. I really am.

MoparFin's DD seems to be on a team that takes favoring Varsity to an extreme. I wonder how many JV girls get discouraged and leave because of the treatment. Consider, there are often VERY close calls between putting a girl on Varsity or JV. (Happened to my DD 3. VERY close call between which girl was going to be on Varsity, and which on JV, and DD 3 got stuck on JV). I can imagine a girl on JV who thinks she is as good or better than some of the Varsity girls would be thinking about quitting awfully fast.

My DD 3 told me that if their JV team run rules the other team, they will go to watch the end of the Varsity game, esp. if the game is out of town and they have to wait for a bus home together.

 

[MoparFin]

Our JV girls are EXPECTED to come watch the game if theirs is over early and the V is still playing. If the V game is over early and JV is still playing, they either leave if we are at home or load up the bus and then they can do what they want till the game is over. Walk around, talk, sit wherever they want. If JV goes to watch game, they are required to stand in the dugout on the fence, cheering.

New rule, they (JV) are no longer allowed to eat seeds, etc in dugout because it distracts them from cheering for the V team.

Watched game last night, we lost 9-3. I saw 6 errors, 2 each by 3 players in one inning on D. Plus 3 base running errors in the same inning on O. At least 4 watched third strikes the entire game that were right down the middle. One player didn't swing the bat once in 2 at bats.

After game meeting DD says they talked up how good the D played, HC said that he wished he had videoed the game due to 2 great plays from 2nd base. I missed the great plays (got there at the top of 3rd inning), but saw the 3 errors in one inning and 1 watched 3rd strike she had, and the other 3rd strike that bounced in front of the plate that she swung at and missed. After praising the V team for the great D, he switched to tearing down the JV team for about 10-15 minutes for not cheering, having side conversations on the bench not related to softball, not standing on the fence, and eating seeds. They were supposed to also have a game, but it was canceled due to our only pitcher not being at school. They knew that maybe only one or two of them would get a chance to play, be it only an AB.

Oh, fun times.

 

[BobInMadison]

I read your posts and I wonder how many of these JV girls will quit the team in disgust before they get to Varsity.
Most likely a few won't try out next year, and a few others will see they are stuck in JV for another year, and quit as soon as teams are assigned.

 

[MoparFin]

I think there is a group of JV girls that are going to talk to the AD. Of course, my DD is rounding the group up.

The other part of the problem is that the JV coaches, are OK by themselves, but follow whatever the V HC says no matter what when he is around. I think they feel like they can't push back when they think something is wrong.

I can see the program having less numbers next year because of players not returning. There is a large number of 8th graders though, so they will be moving up to HS next year to fill the JV team. I was already told that my DD2 will probably be the starting pitcher for HS V when she is in 9th. We will see if she even trys out for the team.

 

[Cannonball]

I think there is a group of JV girls that are going to talk to the AD. Of course, my DD is rounding the group up.

The other part of the problem is that the JV coaches, are OK by themselves, but follow whatever the V HC says no matter what when he is around. I think they feel like they can't push back when they think something is wrong.

I can see the program having less numbers next year because of players not returning. There is a large number of 8th graders though, so they will be moving up to HS next year to fill the JV team. I was already told that my DD2 will probably be the starting pitcher for HS V when she is in 9th. We will see if she even trys out for the team.

If your dd wants to continue in this program, I am going to really advise against this. The AD is not going to change anything.

 

[MoparFin]

This happened 2 years ago where a group of girls went to the AD and told him that if the then current coach was coaching again the next year (2015-2016 season), they would not play. He was not asked to come back and the now current HC was brought in.

One of the others in the group is the DD to the JV HC for the HS.

The AD has told me personally, that he is looking to make changes for next year. He wasn't specific, but did tell me that he was not happy with the level of coaching. Again, he was specific, so he could have been talking about the AC's, not sure.

I am a little hesitant with the players going to the AD, but I am kinda on both sides of the fence. I feel like it would possibly be different coming from the team or a large part of it, then it would coming from the parents and the AD would take it more seriously. Then part of me thinks that he would take it as players just complaining about the coach and not do anything about it. In my previous experience as a paid coach (Field Hockey) for another school, if the girls went to the AD with a problem, she would talk to the coaches about it. At least. And she wouldn't tell us what player said it. How this AD would handle it, I am not sure.

 

[Orange Socks]

Don't y'all know JV=Janitors for Varsity.

It was that way 30 years and still today...actually not so much on DD's team.

 

[Tatonka]

Good luck. Most AD's aren't going to do anything about the complaints, softball just isn't that important to them and they'd prefer to sweep it under the rug. It's also likely that the complaints will be specific enough that when relayed to the HC they'll know where they came from and the player(s) will suffer the consequences. I truly hope your experience is different. There's always new kids coming up and a fresh set of parents who don't know what they don't know until it's too late.

 

[Tatonka]

Don't y'all know JV=Janitors for Varsity.

It was that way 30 years and still today...actually not so much on DD's team.

LOL...never heard that one before!!