How to break the news?

[19catches]

Looks as though your tryouts are later in the month. It might be good idea to let those two players know in advance so they can tryout for other teams. I think you owe that to them.

On the other hand you want to be sure the new players coming to tryouts are better and have already committed to your team prior. Nice little game of chess we play every year.

I think its easier to tell two players they didn't make the cut, than it is to tell a whole team they they will not make the cut because of two players. It sucks to be the one delivering the bad news, but as coaches we take the bad with the good, and thats why we continue to do it.

 

[CoachKevin]

The one thing that we may do depending on the number of girls that come out, is to make a 2nd 14U team, in this case those 2 players can still play in our organization.

 

[PEPPERS]

Our HS coach has kids who work all summer at his practice which he makes as inconvenient as possible, at 11 AM – 1PM. Then he post the players he wants on the team in the dugout and he is no where around. Some who make the team is some who never show up to a single practice and make the team.

One of my daughters friends hit 2 balls over the fence in a practice game the day before he picked, she had a great summer practice, and did not make the team. After the season he asked her why she did not go out for the team she told him she did, was at ever summer practice and was cut. He told her he did not remember she had came out!!!!!

She was a good player and quit playing all together.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Our HS coach has kids who work all summer at his practice which he makes as inconvenient as possible, at 11 AM – 1PM. Then he post the players he wants on the team in the dugout and he is no where around. Some who make the team is some who never show up to a single practice and make the team.

One of my daughters friends hit 2 balls over the fence in a practice game the day before he picked, she had a great summer practice, and did not make the team. After the season he asked her why she did not go out for the team she told him she did, was at ever summer practice and was cut. He told her he did not remember she had came out!!!!!

She was a good player and quit playing all together.

This example happens more times than we'd like to think. Unfortunately softball isn't always about ability but personality. My oldest daughter is pretty quiet. She is very social but does not like being the center of anyone's attention. She has played on a travel team for the past 4 years and the other girls on the team are very animated kids. They love to be in the limelight and make sure everyone sees them no matter what they are doing. Admitidly my daughter has not always been the best on the team. She wasn't the worst but fell somewhere in the middle. This year she has really surprised everyone in her improvement. By the end of the year she was probably one of the top 3 players on the team. She played rec in addition to travel and ended up making all-stars. Her travel coaches came to the state tournament to support her in the all-star game. They all made the comment that they couldn't believe she wasn't wearing her gameface/facemask. I said she hasn't worn that all year. They said yeah she has, she always wears a facemask. I told them no she hadn't worn that in any game or any practice all year. Of course they were embarrased that they hadn't noticed. But it didn't surprise me at all. Just like in anything else the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Sometimes it doesn't matter how great someone is, if they don't make a great first impression they are forgotten. I hate to hear that the girl ended up quitting the sport. I wish there would have been someone there to see her potential.

 

[amanda_cake]

PEPPERS--that situation happens far, far too often I'm sure. When you send your daughter to tryouts, even if she's a quiet one make sure she stands out. Have her wear a bright shirt, a shiny headband, etc. Don't make her another girl out there in a white softball t-shirt and shorts. Make her stand out. If she's great, she won't need all that stuff. If she's average, then I'm more likely to remember the average girl with the shiny headband than the average girl with a white t-shirt, shorts, etc. that looks exactly the same as the others.

 

[playball13]

One thing I have seen with teams that have the girls re-try out is that some of the girls you want to keep may not know if they are safe or not and will go to other tryouts and may go to another team. I saw a coach do this to try to upgrade his bottom 4 players and ended up losing 3 of his better players. It would be good to make sure the girls that you really want back know it so they don't go looking.