Interesting article: Senior week or State playoffs?

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jun 7, 2016
275
43
I've followed this whole thread because DD team had a player(close friend) that was "punished" by the team for not being committed enough. She was a starter but not a star. Missed a pratice due to being a competitor at the regional science fair and again came late to an away game (missed bus but her mother took half day off work to grab her and transport a bit less than an hour away) due to AP test this spring. Coach did not play her that game (understandable) but benched her next game. Was told that she lost momentum and she needs to better balance her school/team activities. Her parents(my friends, as well) were increduluous that a coach would expect a player to forego academic commitments before athletic obligations.
My point here is that each player/family (as well as coaches) has a different scale of priorities and each are going to do what is best for themselves for their long term. We all do this with our lives, in our jobs, with our marriages etc. My job as a parent, hopefully, is to instill the proper mix of values so my child with thrive over the longer arc of their lives.
 
Jun 7, 2016
275
43
FWIW, I felt that the article smacked of a hit piece. And I am glad that the players that jumped in comported themselves in admirable fashion. I think the best a coach can do in that circumstance is to treat the two absentee players as injuries and keep the attitude that "the show must go on". DD team lost a key player due to torn knee ligaments (done by playing with a dog, no less).
 
Jul 19, 2014
2,390
48
Madison, WI
I've followed this whole thread because DD team had a player(close friend) that was "punished" by the team for not being committed enough. She was a starter but not a star. Missed a pratice due to being a competitor at the regional science fair and again came late to an away game (missed bus but her mother took half day off work to grab her and transport a bit less than an hour away) due to AP test this spring. Coach did not play her that game (understandable) but benched her next game. Was told that she lost momentum and she needs to better balance her school/team activities. Her parents(my friends, as well) were increduluous that a coach would expect a player to forego academic commitments before athletic obligations.
My point here is that each player/family (as well as coaches) has a different scale of priorities and each are going to do what is best for themselves for their long term. We all do this with our lives, in our jobs, with our marriages etc. My job as a parent, hopefully, is to instill the proper mix of values so my child with thrive over the longer arc of their lives.

I would have trouble believing this, except I know of coaches in my area who have done this sort of thing. Players getting punished for things like science fairs or even going to NHS induction ceremonies.

I also know of coaches who punish multi-sport athletes because these athletes are not dedicated to the coach’s sport all year around.

Let’s be real. Unless someone is expecting a career in a sport, a student athlete should be a student first and an athlete second.

And a multi sport athlete needs to spend time on all her sports. Sometimes the multi-sport athlete winds up playing the “other “ sport in college. A number of year back, my DS knew a girl who was the best HS 1B in the county. She rowed in the fall and winter for cross training. Turned out she was one of the best HS towers in the US and went to college on a rowing scholarship. If her Hs softball coach had been nasty about it, he would either have lost the best player on the team or else prevented her from getting a rowing scholarship. Instead the HS coach was delighted to have her play in the spring and TB in the summer. The HS coach even let her spend some spring breaks with the rowing team. Win/win.
 
Feb 3, 2011
1,880
48
That was a good read. Thank you for sharing. And, yes, I do agree that there are a lot of similarities between the two topics. While I may not personally be a fan of that specific rule, it is a rule the coach has in place and must be followed. From being a member of this site, I have learned that some states have a "state rule" against this. But that is not the case in PA. It is a school by school, coach by coach thing. I will offer my thoughts from different points of view.

Coach -- I have a lot of respect for this coach's decision. If he has a rule, and has communicated it to all the players, then he needs to follow it. Faced with this situation, I"m sure a lot of coaches would have looked the other way for an opportunity to have his star play in this big game. The fact that he stuck to the rule is admirable.

Player -- Just as my view with the other situation, it is ultimately the player's choice to make. If she feels that the PGF tournament was more important than the high school game, that is her choice. But either way she needs to be willing to live with the consequences. If I was a teammate, I would be very disappointed in her decision. As a parent, I would also be disappointed. I would help her through the process as best as I could, but she would definitely have a say in the final decision herself.

Travel ball coach -- this part is a little grey to me. The author seems to point some blame at the travel ball coach, making the assumption that the coach is aware of the school's rule. I'm not convinced that is the case. When I was coaching high school students, I made it a point to ask each player what rules their high school coach had in place. Some were "no travel ball". Some were "limited". Some didn't care at all. It's a small area, so I know some of the high school coaches personally. But I don't know how much communication occurs between travel coaches and high school coaches in other areas. My gut feeling is not much.
That's interesting. It makes sense that there would be variations all over the country, but I didn't realize that such a conflict could exist, especially in a region where high school sports generally are so embedded into the fabric of the local community. It wouldn't happen here, because there are no 16/18u tournaments until the end of the HS season. I think the first real tournaments are normally a week or so before the playoffs wrap up, so at worst, a HS player on a deep run is going to miss one weekend with her TB team.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
That's interesting. It makes sense that there would be variations all over the country, but I didn't realize that such a conflict could exist, especially in a region where high school sports generally are so embedded into the fabric of the local community. It wouldn't happen here, because there are no 16/18u tournaments until the end of the HS season. I think the first real tournaments are normally a week or so before the playoffs wrap up, so at worst, a HS player on a deep run is going to miss one weekend with her TB team.

I think it is a weather thing in PA. High school games don't begin until late March, and depending how much snow we get, sometimes early April. The regular season then ends in late May followed by District and ultimately State playoffs. The final State Championship games were just played on Friday, June 14 at Penn State University. Think about that... With PGF and other National events scheduled for Late July, that doesn't give travel teams much time. Plus tryout season keeps getting earlier and earlier. It is quite possible for some players to go from the State Championship game to travel ball tryouts in less than a month.

When I coached travel ball we typically went dark for most of the spring other than voluntary practices. Some of our players were not allowed to practice with us, some were. Some came just for hitting instruction. I knew many of their coaches, so they were okay with this. We would never schedule a tournament during the regular season. Our first was typically the first weekend in June. By then, most of our players were done with high school ball. The only real conflict we had was during 2017. We signed up for a college showcase outside of PIttsburgh on the first weekend of June. Two of our players were still playing at the time. Their coach was also a travel ball coach, so he was understanding. He called me prior to the tournament to discuss the event. The one girls top pick was going to be in attendance, so her coach gave me the okay to pitch her in that game. Beyond that he asked me to avoid pitching her, but she could play the field. I followed his request. In the end it all worked out. But I can see the challenges on both ends.
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,468
Members
21,443
Latest member
sstop28
Top