High School experts!

[ThatDad]

@Sluggers
I'd like to know, who his big dog D1 daughter is. Pauly pitched at Corpus Christy, Im curious where this girl with a drop ball better than Ostermans pitched?

 

[Rocketech1]

I really doubt a few months out of the year is going to screw up a good travel ball player. Deal with it for three months and go back to playing real fastpitch. You guys make it sound like its life or death if a coach gives your young adult DD some conflicting advice. Give these players a little more credit the. that. I remember my senior year in V soccer. The gym teacher head coach didn't know soccer from basket weaving but he happened to inherit a bunch of talented club soccer players and our team went undefeated that season, in spite of the incompetent coaching. High school is a short season, the experienced travel ball players will see through the BS and will continue to play the sport at a high level.

 

[sluggers]

ThatDad, I IM'd you the details. For the record, I have never claimed my DD was as good as Pauly or Osterman.

 

[coach james]

Left field,
As far as the practice being closed... that was never made clear to me or the other half dozen parents there that day. As far as me suggesting a solution to my own problem, that defeated the purpose of my rant/ asking others for advise! You are coming across to us as one of those coaches we all dread. You know it all, and no one is gonna tell you anything because you've been there and done that... As my screen name eludes to, I too am a coach. Ive coached from t-ball through high school varsity. And every single kid or parent I've come across along the way was a person and not a job. I treat them the way I wanted treated as either a player or a parent. This is not basic training. I recognize that I don't know everything, but I make it my goal to learn something new constantly. As a high school coach, there's a big difference between helping the kids get better who are just there for social reasons or letter points and "helping" the kids who play this game year round. Especially the ones who are so serious about it that they pay $100 an hour for pitching lessons and play 80-100 games a year. How much "help" does that kid honestly need? My dd has spoken with him a few times going back to last season as well. She's made it abundantly clear to him that she takes private pitching lessons from a pro. and hits with me 3-4 days a week through the winter. And her hitting was proven two weeks back when she cranked 4 homers on 5 pitches. But even with that he suggests she doesn't rotate her hips enough! My point was if it aint broke don't fix it!!!
Now, left fielder, how do you propose we handle this from here?

 

[YOCOACH]

I really doubt a few months out of the year is going to screw up a good travel ball player. Deal with it for three months and go back to playing real fastpitch. You guys make it sound like its life or death if a coach gives your young adult DD some conflicting advice. Give these players a little more credit the. that. I remember my senior year in V soccer. The gym teacher head coach didn't know soccer from basket weaving but he happened to inherit a bunch of talented club soccer players and our team went undefeated that season, in spite of the incompetent coaching. High school is a short season, the experienced travel ball players will see through the BS and will continue to play the sport at a high level.

Rocketech1, This is one area where you and I may agree to disagree. On our 13u TB team last year we had a girl who was pitching in the low 60s (clocked by college coaches at camps and by us at practices). Her HS coaches got ahold of her this year and proceeded to try and change her pitching style to the more acceptable (to them) HE style. She wanted to pitch so she did it their way by pushing the ball. Since she still tried to throw in the 60s, she ended up tearing her rotator cuff and is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. IMO, I place the blame on both parties. Her mother, who was a D1 pitcher, is her DD'S PC and taught her the I/R style of pitching for not stepping in and saying something and her HS coaches for trying to change something in her pitching motion that clearly didn't need to be changed. Now she is out for the HS season and TB season. Both teams will suffer for it and since she is playing on a 16u showcase team, she will miss out on the many opportunities to impress the college coaches that are attending. Not to mention the fact of all the pain she will have to go through during the surgery and rehab afterwards. Is this an extreme case? Absolutely. Will this happen to everyone or many? No, and I will be the first to admit that. But IMO, this simply should not have happened at all.

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

In my experience closed practices are the bastion of an insecure and/or inept coach.

I told the girls that I am going to invite the parents to watch practice. Their quick looks of horror and "no coach..please don't" changed my mind. Some girls don't even want their parents at games because all the parents do is put more pressure on them.

 

[riseball]

I told the girls that I am going to invite the parents to watch practice. Their quick looks of horror and "no coach..please don't" changed my mind. Some girls don't even want their parents at games because all the parents do is put more pressure on them.

So you made a decision and due to popular opinion reversed yourself? Do your players have input into all of your decisions? Maybe you invite the parents anyway, address the situation and improve conditions for your players.

 

[Cannonball]

Wow is all that I can say. I like a lot of you guys/gals and know that we'd all have a great time if we were to take in a game together. So, I'll just briefly comment on a few things and try to keep my self in check. I can't believe in this thread that we have attacked HS coaches the way that they have been attacked. So, if a HS coach was any good at all, they wouldn't be coaching HS? I've had college offer before. I've turned them down. Being a HS coach for me is an honor and not a sign that I could not achieve success at the collegiate level. As an FYI, I was once chosen to help start the Olympic Baseball Program in the former Soviet Union. So, once upon a time, I was almost a someone. We then regress to attacking teachers? Really? Instead of complaining on a message board how about the community getting together and attending a school board meeting demanding that there be more rigorous instruction with greater accountability. Let me tell you this, half of my class is not getting A's and B's. I'll leave it at that since I can be a jerk when I start defending teachers.

Per Ray being an administrator here, Ray is imo highly qualified. I moderate two baseball websites and I know how truly hard it is to moderate. I've been though incredible heartache doing so and to the point that people have tried to get me fired from my teaching job as well as threats to kill my family. Most members of various websites have no idea the time involved and the issues moderators have to deal with. Ray has also been forthcoming about his DDs. He has stated his softball player's level of success and has never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. In fact, he has much to be proud of.

We are 8 pages into this discussion and so, I'll add that if I thought my DD was in danger of injury due to any coach TB or HS, I would have her first approach the coach. If that doesn't work, I'd ask for a conference. If that didn't work, I pull my DD. In fact, that is what I told every parent of every player who's child played for me these 27 years of coaching.

I apologize for the rant.

Take care,

Darrell Butler

 

[YOCOACH]

Wow is all that I can say. I like a lot of you guys/gals and know that we'd all have a great time if we were to take in a game together. So, I'll just briefly comment on a few things and try to keep my self in check. I can't believe in this thread that we have attacked HS coaches the way that they have been attacked. So, if a HS coach was any good at all, they wouldn't be coaching HS? I've had college offer before. I've turned them down. Being a HS coach for me is an honor and not a sign that I could not achieve success at the collegiate level. As an FYI, I was once chosen to help start the Olympic Baseball Program in the former Soviet Union. So, once upon a time, I was almost a someone. We then regress to attacking teachers? Really? Instead of complaining on a message board how about the community getting together and attending a school board meeting demanding that there be more rigorous instruction with greater accountability. Let me tell you this, half of my class is not getting A's and B's. I'll leave it at that since I can be a jerk when I start defending teachers.

Per Ray being an administrator here, Ray is imo highly qualified. I moderate two baseball websites and I know how truly hard it is to moderate. I've been though incredible heartache doing so and to the point that people have tried to get me fired from my teaching job as well as threats to kill my family. Most members of various websites have no idea the time involved and the issues moderators have to deal with. Ray has also been forthcoming about his DDs. He has stated his softball player's level of success and has never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. In fact, he has much to be proud of.

We are 8 pages into this discussion and so, I'll add that if I thought my DD was in danger of injury due to any coach TB or HS, I would have her first approach the coach. If that doesn't work, I'd ask for a conference. If that didn't work, I pull my DD. In fact, that is what I told every parent of every player who's child played for me these 27 years of coaching.

I apologize for the rant.

Take care,

Darrell Butler

CB, just an FYI. My commentary on the public education system in general was a commentary against the politicians that support this type of environment....not against the teachers themselves. DW teaches in an inner city school system. I have learned through the years that education happens at home as much as, if not more, than it does in the schoolroom.

 

[Cannonball]

YOCOACH, I've been through a lot of grief lately with people attacking teachers and so, I'm a little sensitive. So, I apologize if I took it wrong. There was a post, and I don't know by whom that 50% of the graduating class was "Honors." That is not the norm and would not be accepted in my community. In fact, my HS is the only school in our part of the state that has keep pace with these various governmental changes and goals and we don't have half of our graduating class ranked that high. (By only school that would be out of hundreds of schools.)