HS season starting for most areas..how long till???

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Jan 22, 2011
1,610
113
DD's team had their 3rd game tonight. She's chomping at the bit.... she sprained her ankle the second to last week of soccer.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
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Chicago
Finished up tryouts today. We have a strange mix this year. Our varsity team is the deepest and most experienced we've ever had, but our JV team has 7 girls who have never played before. I am really excited for what the Varsity team can do this year. We have seven seniors, and they all seem to be all in to have a good year.

The weird thing is we only have two Freshmen this year. We had around nine sign up, but for one reason or another, the rest didn't even try out. It's too bad, too, because there were a couple good athletes in that group, and I suspect they'll try to play as sophomores.

Everything is going well right now, which absolutely terrifies me. We deal with so many unforeseen problems every year that I know something awful is going to happen any day now (probably when I do my first grade check).
 
May 29, 2015
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I know it is all subjective, but to me having a good mix of veterans, rookies, and even newbies is a good thing for a program. Unfortunately, too many coaches (hopefully not you @CoachJD !) focus only on the veterans (i.e., varsity) and not enough on the others, causing the others to eventually leave the game.

That's too bad that so many freshmen bailed before tryouts. Maybe it is just the organizational development side of me, but I would be poking into that to find out the reasons. On the same note, I'd be asking the newbies what encouraged them to come out now. Are they athletes from other sports?
 

inumpire

Observer, but has an opinion
Oct 31, 2014
277
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Unfortunately in our area JV teams are irrelevant. Most varsity coachs don’t care about JV players or team........that is why we have fewer and fewer JV teams every year. From what I am seeing and reading here, that isn’t the case in most areas.
 
Aug 27, 2019
640
93
Lakewood CA.
5 games into pre-season. My DD's team is a motley crew. 4 girls (DD at C, RHP, SS/RHP and 3B) have all played TB and are tearing up the ball and playing great defense. Then we have a Jr 1B that has only played HS ball. She is doing very well. Two more Jr's that have only played HS ball that are hitting the ball well but are really struggling defensively.

Then we have a freshman that has never played but is very athletic and super fast. They are trying to teach her to slap. She got her first couple hits this past weekend and stole a couple bases. Her defense is spotty at best though she has a few PO's in LF. Thats 8 players. The other 4 on the team are super green and so far have been an automatic out and absolute disasters in RF.

They are 1-4 having got killed by a div iii team (we are div vi) beating a div vi team and holding their own against a solid div v team in a double header last Saturday losing 7-6 and 11-6.

It is a very small private school less that 400 total 9-12. But they did win CIFSS DVI championship in 2011. Having said all that they are 4 time repeat league champs and should have a good chance in league this year as the other teams in their league are in similar boats as we are. Most of the recent success is due in large part to a pitcher that graduated last year and is now playing D2. She was a stud having been named league MVP all four years and all CIFSS twice. They miss her.... lol

p.s. They had a tiny bit of drama already. The coach decided to name captains this year for the first time. It's not really anything official other than the girls that were named are great teammates and support the other girls. The captains are both jr's (one is my daughter).
The mom of the best player on the team and a senior emailed the coach and poof, now we have three captains.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I know it is all subjective, but to me having a good mix of veterans, rookies, and even newbies is a good thing for a program. Unfortunately, too many coaches (hopefully not you @CoachJD !) focus only on the veterans (i.e., varsity) and not enough on the others, causing the others to eventually leave the game.

My problem in the past has probably not been focusing on the better players enough. Because we built from nothing, and since we're constantly trying to bring in new girls, I've always focused on getting girls to a point of being good enough (which really just means they can get on the field and have a sense of what to do out there). I've probably neglected my better players to some extent.

That's too bad that so many freshmen bailed before tryouts. Maybe it is just the organizational development side of me, but I would be poking into that to find out the reasons. On the same note, I'd be asking the newbies what encouraged them to come out now. Are they athletes from other sports?

This is a weird Freshman class. Only two girls in this class played as 8th graders, and one of them isn't playing this year because of some health reasons. There are not many athletes in the class. We've questioned if we're not doing a good enough job at the 13u level, but last year's Freshman class was pretty big and there are a decent number of 8th graders this year. I think a lot of the ones who signed up and backed out just got scared they wouldn't be able to do it. I'm confident a half dozen of them will

We're a small school. There are only about 125 girls in the high school, so the 28 we have this year (27 plus a team manager) is a decent turnout, I think.

As for drama: My #1 pitcher is currently failing English, and her parents are talking about pulling her off the team. I don't want to tell people how to raise their kids, but completely removing her from the team when the threat of missing out (which I have already made) is motivating her to improve seems pretty dumb to me. It'll work out, but it's been a stressful first three days. :)
 
Aug 25, 2019
1,066
113
As for drama: My #1 pitcher is currently failing English, and her parents are talking about pulling her off the team. I don't want to tell people how to raise their kids, but completely removing her from the team when the threat of missing out (which I have already made) is motivating her to improve seems pretty dumb to me. It'll work out, but it's been a stressful first three days. :)
[/QUOTE]

we have a "policy" at our school that if you are failing a class and do not actively seek out extra help, you don't play. Although the better you are, the less that policy is enforced.
 
Jun 7, 2016
275
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NJ not allowed to start, with coaches, until first friday in march (tomoro). Unforturnately we just got a new coach two weeks ago. players yet to hear directly from her. Not looking esp. promising. But better than no season. Most teams we face have been doing "captains practices" in third party facilities (since most of DD TB teamates play in our HS league). Makes for an unbalanced competetive situation. Start scrimmages in 10 days. Apr 1 is when games go official.
 

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