High School cant compete?

[wild man]

I am not sure if this is the right spot for this but thought you might all have some in put.
Our Community has struggled with Softball in all levels, I did however manage a LL championship once upon a time.
Our local HS league plays against teams that are made up of players that have played much travel ball . For the past 10 years the HS coach gives the excuse that we will never compete against them.

We have no travel ball as we are too isolated and its simply too expensive for almost all the families.
I have another take on the subject, I believe we can compete, For one the Coach Blames the pitchers for not doing off season work when he never attempts to help them. He takes hitting practice about 4 times during the season. His Practices consist of two hours of taking infield nothing more.

Most all the parents say that winning 5 games in 4 seasons is perfectly OK because we just arent that good.
I am only a LL Coach now but this kind of mentality drives me nuts. I think with intense practices and off season work we can compete, Am I wrong?

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Well............your heart is in the right place.

Our local HS league plays against teams that are made up of players that have played much travel ball

That's why they are so good.

For one the Coach Blames the pitchers for not doing off season work when he never attempts to help them.

Pitchers should be working on their own during the off season.

He takes hitting practice about 4 times during the season. His Practices consist of two hours of taking infield nothing more.

80% of what the kids need for a successful HS program is learned before they get to HS.

this kind of mentality drives me nuts.

It would me too buddy.

I think with intense practices and off season work we can compete, Am I wrong?

With the correct practice you should improve and take the steps towards competing.


Go to the end of my "DD gets odd exposer" thread. We are in our second straight year in the state play-offs right now. That whole group ( minus 3 girls ) is the same group I had since they were in 6U coach pitch. We then moved onto travel ball.

You must start them early ( at least by 10U ) if you want the years of experience to make a successful team, .750 ball and above.

But you will not get better right now or for next season without taking the time to practice and push them.

Best of luck!!

 

[sluggers]

Is the HS's baseball team competitive? If they are, then see what that coach does...

Softball is the most skill based team sport around. The teams that field better, throw better, run the bases better and hit better are going to beat the pants off the other teams. It usually isn't even close.

I think with intense practices and off season work we can compete, Am I wrong?

Yes and no. There is no question that more and better practices will make them a better team. How much improvement? It depends on how much and what level travel ball the other teams are playing. If the other towns have teams playing 150 games of TB a year at "A" level or above, then probably it won't matter. If the other towns are playing 30 games at "C" level, then it could make a big difference.

It is difficult to get kids to do enough off-season work without games. There are usually some pretty strict rules about kids practicing as a *team* in the off-season. Also, motivating more than one or two kids to take ground balls without games is difficult to say the least.

Goingdeep is correct...the only way your team is going to be really competitive is to start playing travel ball.

What I would suggest is trying to put together a team made up of HS softball players and do 4 or 5 tournaments during the summer. I think that would be the quickest way to improve the team.

 

[JAD]

My DD is still playing middle school ball, so I am not an expert on the subject, but I can tell you that any coach that inherits a lot of players with TB experience will beat a team with no TB experience 9 times out of 10 and it has little to do with coaching.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

it has little to do with coaching.

Why didn't you tell me that you have been to one of our games?

 

[starsnuffer]

At 18G levels of travel ball, you're doing more managing than coaching. I'm guessing it's much the same for good HS teams. If you find you're doing more coaching then managing, then the talent probably isn't there. This isn't a fault, it's just a reality.

The good news is that hard work beats talent when talent isn't working hard.

-W

 

[chinamigarden]

How isolated are we talking? There are no other towns nearby in the same boat? How far away are the HSs you are playing who do have travel teams. As for expense, with the right sort of fund raisers you can play a limited travel schedule going to in state tourneys, wearing team owned uniforms for next to nothing. yes there are start up costs but its not that bad if you are smart about it.

My dd plays with an organization that belongs to a travel league. The league is made up of teams that play travel tourneys but play 2 double headers per week against each other. After that its up to the individual teams how many tourneys you attend. Our team goes to only 4 tourneys Plus the league play and the league tournament at the end of the season. We play about 60 games or so. Is it keeping our girls on a par with the teams who play 120 games, maybe not, but its better then nothing.

Speaking of nothing, because of good fundraising by the organization, thats what my fees have been the last 2 years. I think the families who opted out of fundraising paid a max of $200.

 

[CoachKevin]

I agree with chinamigarden, if your smart about it you can play TB fairly cheap, so really thats not an excuse. Really the bottom line here is that the parents don't want to invest in the time. There is a small town near where I live, and while the HS typically competes only a couple of players play TB, and it's not the cost, it's the parents that don't want to take the time.

You probably wont be able to change this by yourself, unless the coach gets behind the idea and promotes it your HS will continue at the present course and make excuses as to why you can't compete.