Honest league officials

[Honest Dad]

What to do Waht to do???

My Daughter just turned 12 a couple weeks ago; she plays on a very good team that has won their division the last two seasons in a row. The interesting part in this is that there are 6 girls on the team that must age up (14U) and 6 that can stay down (in 12's), the team meaning the coaches and other girls have decided to move up, but my little girl just turned 12 a couple weeks ago like I said earlier and is kind of small in stature. Should I leave her down or move her to 14's? I think she can handle the more advanced play and she does want to stay with her friends, but should she stay down to build confidence??

What to do....What to do???

 

[druer]

Pass this on to the parent manipulating the league - "Brilliant move: Arrange things so that your daughter has the best players on her team to ensure she never has to play against them. That way she'll always remain the player she is and will never be challenged by playing against stronger players. Much better at 12 to beat up on lesser players than actually learning the game. The last thing you'd ever want to do as a parent is see her challenged and develop as a player. Definitely continue ensuring that she always gets the best seed for that $7.50 league championship trophy instead of getting competition as well. No other coaches out there would ever want to know that you daughter builds character by scrapping her way through a losers bracket to the top of the heap."

For your situation: I care more about the size of the player's heart, than about their physical size. However, as I think most will probably atest the physical strength & speed jump from 12U play to 14U play is HUGE. The differences in what will be talked about in the dugout will also be HUGE and that is something else you may want to protect DD from as long as you can. The way you asked the question "to build confidence" leads me to believe she doesn't have much now and confidence is 80% of this game.

In general: I tend to believe that girls that stay together end up with a sort of pecking order amongst them as to who should do what. That is both good and bad. It helps the top dog remain the top dog and push through using the other's expectations. But it hurts the bottom dog because they can never rise above the low expectations. Moving teams occassionaly gives the girls near the bottom/middle a chance to change their place in the order based which is a good thing.

 

[fivepotsogold]

Travel versus Rec .. or both

My daughter turns 13 in the spring. First year at 12U Travel.
In this area, a player is not allowed to play out of their ager bracket. My DD could not play 13U or 14U.
If there is enough 11's 12's, they play 12U...but many teams here have an
11U and 12U.

My DD was an average player last year in LL with strong emerging pitching skills. One coach actually laughed at her when she said she wanted to play Travel. He rated his DD's higher so they could make All Star teams...on and on ...

She tried out for and made 5 Travel teams.
She has a very good coach (I really think he is so into softball that he is not into parent politics at all) .....almost all never played Travel before.....a learning year. Good kids, mostly good parents (pitching competitive stuff typical).

She's in the middle with general skills, #2 pitcher.
She is working very hard. We are going to an extra practice each week (14U batting).
For the first time she is seeing a pitching coach (only 3x so far). Mechanics are very good ... stepping out about 4 inches (pitching on a board fixed that in 2 days), bending elbow too much. She pitches around 46-48 with a good change up and hits her spots great. #1 pitcher is slightly faster, but not the same control. Both good kids. They will both pitch a lot.

She wants to play Rec/LL as she has been with many of these girls since Kindergarten. She will go only when she is not with her Travel team....and as long as she doesn't have the coach she had last year.

Cost was $1400 (uniform, equipment, fees) for all except hotels, gas, food.
We go to Glenns Falls NY January 17th and that will be interesting as several of the players are involved in other sports and haven't been to practice for months.

I think she will love it ... she is the driver for all of it as we don't have the money for this ..... we'll do what we can and see where it goes.

Dying to buy Marc's personalized fitness stuff....tought to justify spending anything...but we could use direction!

Some rec leagues/coaches are very good. One travel league here folded due to coaching issues and bickering parents......not a good situation at all.
Find the best environment you can (Rec or Travel) and your player will do well.

 

[coolstuff]

Politics are everywhere

There are politics in rec and travel ball. Don't think travel ball is a perfect world where coach's kids and their friends don't get preferential treatment. The difference is that it's worse in rec ball.

 

[Coachmom]

I have a question for all of you..........what should I do???

The ASA softball commissioner in my area and the President of our league are fairly close friends; it is blatantly obvious that the President manipulates our league to benefit her child and the friends of our commis... . She allows certain teams to benefit in the draft; she schedules the tournaments so that her kid’s team and her friend’s teams to have the bracket that is without competition, always sending them to the championship game. These practices are so unfair, it's just plain sickening! What this does is create a couple teams that never lose and the balance that struggle, it also costs us numerous girls who leave our league and go to other teams or to "a" ball! What can I do, is there any governing body that I can report this tremendously unfair practice to, or am I and our girls out of luck???????

Most rec leagues have a set of rules and bylaws that explain how these things work. Some have a blind draft process and others do a player evaluation day followed by managers picking the teams in a certain order.
You need to get a copy of those rules for your league and insist that they be followed. If you feel that the rules for drafting teams are not fair become a member of the BOard of Directors and fight for change in the way things are done.

 

[Stevepic01]

this post seems to have wandered a bit but has come back into focus. the issue at hand hurts not only your daughter, but the rest of the league as well, which you stated in your original post. The person in charge of a rec league has a responsibility to all of the girls and the program as a whole. Be careful that if you join your Board, you don't start making noise right away - you need to build allies in order to affect change, or else it might be you against the world. This person cannot possibly be all powerful in the league, unless there are other board members who are benefiting equally. It's amazing to me how people can lose site of the reason for the league in the first place - it's for the girls. In our town there was a similar situation with baseball in Babe Ruth, and several Board members left and formed a Mickey Mantle league because they could not break the control of the ruling party. Our girls rec league has a culture of checks and balances - no unilateral decisions are made, and we constantly solicit feedback from coaches and parents. We just tweaked our draft policy to try and ensure more balanced teams - the coaches in each division meet prior to the draft to discuss each girl in the draft - Ps, Cs and positional players. Then they decide where each coaches kid is placed in the draft (1st rounder, 3rd rounder, etc). On draft day, teams are set in picking order by a random draw and then they pick. If any parent has an issue, I listen to it and categorize it according to whether it will help all girls in the league, or just their daughter and I explain my feelings - then if need be I bring it to the board. Our goal as a board is to create highly satisfied customers - that's our only goal.