Guest Players vs Rostered Players

[yellowball22]

My DD is on a 12U TB team that formed back in February with a great concept.. Find quality player's and quality parent's. We thought we'd found softball bliss . Slowly things have been sliding down hill but that's for another post. Here's is one of the major problems.. While looking for quality players & parents the coach hasn't fielded a full team, we have 8. He keeps asking guest players to play (that are currently playing for other teams & have no desire to leave, just want playing time). It wouldn't be so bad but he will ask 2 or 3 guest players to play every tournament and they play every inning while rostered/paying players sit the bench.

We are struggling with numbers as it is and parents are ready to pull their DD's. My DD hasn't had to sit yet but it still frustrates me that he sits our players and I'm ready to go with them. How are they suppose to get better and learn each others strengths if they don't play with the same girls?

Today, a few of our players arrived early at the fields & did some warming up. The coach told them that they are not to arrive early and do any warming up. He said "You warm up my way and only my way and if your parents don't like it then you can find another team to play on. Are ya kidding me??? They are 11 & 12 year olds. This was a dig at the parents through the girls. Why?

Now we have parents who's kids sit to guest players & parents who can't warm their own DD's up a little before warm up starts. Is it just me or is there a pattern forming here?

I just want softball to stay just that SOFTBALL!

 

[softballphreak]

Find another coach or another team—whichever comes first.

I assume the guest players probably aren't paying anything, either.

 

[Lozza]

I would be finding a new coach. Yes he needs to get guest players, but why can't he keep them? Then to tell parents they can't warm girls up (when they're trying to help their girls get more playing time) is dodge city. I would be looking for a new coach for these girls.

 

[sluggers]

You signed up on a team with too few players--probably with the thought that your DD would get to play a lot, and now you find that there is a downside. The team has to have 9 players for a tournament, and the team must have 11 or 12. So, the coach has to do something, or the team will have to drop out of the tournament.

In order to get "good" guest players, a coach has to promise that the guest player get playing time. The more experienced players will demand a minimum number of innings from the coach before they agree to play as a guest.

I'm sure the coach isn't the brightest bulb on the tree, or he wouldn't have let this happen. But, I have some amount of difficulty of saying the parents are free from blame. Agreeing to play on a team with 8 players doesn't make any sense.

Now we have parents who's kids sit to guest players & parents who can't warm their own DD's up a little before warm up starts. Is it just me or is there a pattern forming here?

Well, I'm not as supportive of the "warming up early" issue as might you think. If the "warming up early" is EXACTLY the way you describe, the coach is getting a little wacky. But, usually the Daddies try to take over the warm-ups. If a player wants to play pitch and catch before the rest of the team shows up, then she should use one of the players that are there already rather than her Daddy. If a coach lets Daddies do whatever they want, then pretty soon you've got one line of players playing pitch and catch with a line of Daddies.

When I was a young coach, a Daddy was just "backing up the infield" as we did some infield. After about 10 minutes, he had actually started playing 3B. He clearly was the best fielder...of course, this was a 10U rec league.

 

[starsnuffer]

I'm not going to repeat what Ray said, because I think he's spot on.

As for the warming up thing, I've had to get on my players about "warming up" before as well. Usually, it is because their ideas of a "warm=up" may be to jump in and start throwing to eachother without actually adequately warming up. Everything we do as a team is a progression, and when you are trying to teach kids to throw correctly, having them jump in and just start doing it can often make them regress a bit, if they do it incorrectly. It may also be a long tournament day and you want them to reserve their strength for particular things, or take care of their arms, ect.

I realize this may sound mean and anal, but you have to see it from the coaches point of view as well. I'm only doing it because it's what I believe is best for them on a given day, not to be a control-freak a-hole.

That said, I've not any problem with a dad taking some kids over and playing pepper with them outside of a tournament regimen or something like that.

-W

 

[fastpitch]

At this point if you can find another team... find one. Keep playing with them until you find one but this team is going to fall apart. If they can't find players and have to keep bringing in guests...the current parents of kids sitting are going to be unhappy and not come back anyway. There is nothing for this team to build on.

 

[fastpitchtwinz]

I wonder where this guy was coaching last year and why he had to form a new team? You might be seeing why.