How to tell a high school coach that she can't overuse my pitcher

[Traps71]

Setting aside the question of the PE class (which I would take up with the AD and/or the Principal if need be), you have all the leverage because you have the pitcher. Without a pitcher, the coach has no team and will lose every game. If they are not prepared to amend their currently insane plan to ensure they have a quality pitcher for the Varsity season, then they are just a moron.

Developing the JV pitcher is part of the answer as is trying to identify any former pitchers or athletic girls on the roster and getting them to a place where they can at least somewhat reliably throw strikes to eat innings.

 

[Cannonball]

... and now the HS coach has 1 pitcher. Problem solved.

 

[quincy]

This was MS but same situation. I told DD to talk to her coach or I would. She talked to the coach the next day. Not 100% resolved but close enough that I never talked to coach.

HS she should be able to defend herself.

 

[lostcreek1]

I think you are going in the right direction. I would let my daughters address the situation first. If that didn't resolve the situation then I would resolve the situation. Either we would come to an agreement on her need for a pitcher, and my need to protect the health of my daughter or she would have to find another pitcher.

 

[Orange Socks]

DD had a teammate who was going into SR year after missing her Jr year due to Basketball injury (ACL)(whole other story on that). She was not the #1 pitcher, but could really help the team if she was able to eat up some innings. Our #1 was going to be out an year due to bone cyst on her femur. We are already screwed. Coach said that she would be doing some pitching. Parents said no. Coach said they are the coaches and will play the players where needed. Coach drew a line in the sand. Parents said she won't play at all and she didn't. It was sad that she sat out both her Jr and Sr season. This kid was hitting HR's in 12U. It could have been great. Instead she saved herself for her D2 team. 78 total AB's in 3 years. 19 Hits. Zero HR's.

I understand the parents point of view, but they could have worked something out instead hitting the Eject button.

 

[GunnerShotgun]

She's also planning a schedule where they'd play 3-4 games per week for the season, including tournaments where she'd play more than one game per day.

What happens if your DD or the JV pitcher gets hurt? You can only have as many teams as you have pitchers and you don't have enough of them for two teams.

Also, what state are you in?

 

[Cannonball]

My son-in-law is a second-year HC at the HS level in basketball. He had an open gym last night and stopped by afterward. We were talking about his team this year and he has obvious problems at skilled positions. He asked what he could do and I gave him some of my basketball stuff. He looked at it and wanted to implement it in his next open gym. I told him he couldn't do that and would have to wait until the season to do so. We live in Illinois and he can't coach in his open gyms. He can let team captains or seniors have responsibilities and they might decide to do things he did last year but he can't run new drills now to teach them offensive plays etc. and run a real practice. If it were the summer, he had 25 contact days where he could have done this.

 

[Lightning]

That's very unfortunate that the coach is acting that way. What is their leverage to be pushing her like this anyway? Losing your only pitcher sounds a lot worse than her pitching a bit less to stay healthy. Sorry to hear you and she are experiencing this.

From what DD has described to me, Coach uses guilt as her leverage. When DD told her that her shoulder was sore, she said that Coach seemed really disappointed in her and started talking to her about responsibility and commitment. She told her that the program is counting on her and not to let her teammates down.

Developing the JV pitcher is part of the answer as is trying to identify any former pitchers or athletic girls on the roster and getting them to a place where they can at least somewhat reliably throw strikes to eat innings.

There's one girl who gave up pitching in 10U and that's it. The entire program doesn't have a lot of TB players (5), a handful who play rec ball, and at least half of the girls have two years of softball experience or less (many of them no experience at all). There are three teams in the same league whose rosters are made up entirely of TB players, so DD's team will not vie for a city championship this year. It's hard for me to understand why the coach would not take this as a year to develop players for the future instead of trying to ride my kid the whole time. DD is only a sophomore and she's already saying that the only way she'd play softball for her school her junior or senior years is if there's another coaching change.

What happens if your DD or the JV pitcher gets hurt? You can only have as many teams as you have pitchers and you don't have enough of them for two teams.

This is what I wonder. I understand that there are 27 girls in the program so that seems like enough for two teams, but there are two pitchers and two catchers (both varsity returners) so I'm not sure how that's going to shake out. It seems like a lot of problems would be solved by making only a varsity team.

Also, what state are you in?

We're in California. There's a limit on the number of games to be played total, but as far as I can tell not the number of games in a week. If we have rain like we did last spring, there is likely not going to be enough time to make up the games missed (last year they were supposed to play 25 but it ended up being closer to 20) so I might spend the springtime praying for rain.

 

[The Man In Blue]

If your daughter already spoke with the coach and that was the response, I would advise that you don't bother talking to the coach. You should be calling the athletic director tomorrow morning and having a conversation about this coach's reckless disregard for player health and safety.

In Illinois, they implemented pitching limits in baseball several years ago. Anytime the season has a run of rainouts/cold weather cancellations/etc. it pushes too many games into a few weeks. Come the last couple weeks of the season, games are being cancelled left and right because teams do not have pitching to play.

I know the seasons can be terribly compact in some places. However, school coaches pushing that many games into a week on a regular basis are just stupid.

 

[Northball]

Coach has told DD that she needs to be prepared to pitch 100% of the team's innings this spring...Coach says she needs to get comfortable with it....her shoulder was unusually sore....Coach not only refused to give her a day off but told her that she wants her to throw an additional 100 pitches per day so she can learn to work through the pain.

No baseball coach would keep their position if they took the same approach to their stud pitcher with a sore shoulder.

Nor would a basketball coach telling their point guard they will play every minute and to run extra killers after practice to toughen up their sore knee.

Heck, tell the running back with a concussion to get in 100 extra head butts with his teammates so they get used to the dizziness.

Ask coach how in THE HELL! does adding workload heal overuse injury?

I know it's not apples to apples, but I still expect my fruit to not be damaged.