Need guidance ?

[quincy]

Im livid and ask at least for some sort of compensation as i'm losing my top pick . I am told basically that" it is rec ball - deal with it " . I e-mail the other coach looking for a trade,no response.

I have mixed feelings about some of this but I agree you have the right to feel your Team was taken advantage of, mostly your Players.

A trade will never work; you will always get the short end of the deal anyways. For your Team you are better off leaving them go and moving on.

I guess what I would have liked to happen in this situation is that the Player/ Parent that did not want to be on your Team anymore be assigned to a different Team, they cannot pick the Team they want to be on. It would be a board decision what Team they were assigned to. If the 2nd Team did not work out for them, cut them lose and maybe refund some of their money.

I would rather deal with the aggressive parent then the backstabber. If you are warned off parents pay attention you might not be able to fix it, let someone else have the headache.

as a side note -was it wrong of me to be happy when i found out that the enabled child's team lost in the championship last night

Yes, but I can be petty too. It is not right to wish the HC/ Team loses but I have been there.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Without reading every word of the thread, I don't see the big deal.

One player moved from Team A to Team B. Team A went 4-12 w/ 6 one-run losses. Team B went 9-3-3. If the #1 draft pick had played on the original team, perhaps those records would've been reversed. But so what? From the standpoint of the league coordinator, it's the same thing - two teams competitive teams. Yes, one is better than the other, but it doesn't sound like either team is too good or too bad. A rec league is not a competitions to see which coaches draft the best. Yes, you as the coach got screwed, but how did it affect the girls? Your team won less, but another team won more. What difference does it make? Who was hurt by this?

 

[CoogansBluff]

the competitive balance was thrown out of whack with this move and it really wasn't fair to me or my girls. yes rec is about competing hard,but you are correct when you state that it's not about creating super teams either .

A team with a 9-3-3 record is not a super team. If you'd been able to keep this pitcher, what do you think your team's 16-game record would've been?

 

[Brookarly]

Without reading every word of the thread, I don't see the big deal.

One player moved from Team A to Team B. Team A went 4-12 w/ 6 one-run losses. Team B went 9-3-3. If the #1 draft pick had played on the original team, perhaps those records would've been reversed. But so what? From the standpoint of the league coordinator, it's the same thing - two teams competitive teams. Yes, one is better than the other, but it doesn't sound like either team is too good or too bad. A rec league is not a competitions to see which coaches draft the best. Yes, you as the coach got screwed, but how did it affect the girls? Your team won less, but another team won more. What difference does it make? Who was hurt by this?

How did it affect my girls ? Let me tell you . They moped , they verbalized how bad they thought they were, they bickered and cried when they lost the tough games. It wasnt easy keeping them focused and it wasn't until the end of the year , after setting limit upon limits, small praise upon small praise ,did they finally start winning a little and believing in themselves.It was a difficult year for a lot of them . It was a learning expereience for all of us.
As far as the league coordinator is concerned - why have a draft at all then if the spirit of the draft is compromised . I agree,Its not about who drafts the best ,but it's certainly about who you draft . I dont care if we pick from a hat ,get assigned a team etc as long as we're all on equal footing when we pick/ get assigned our teams.

 

[Brookarly]

A team with a 9-3-3 record is not a super team. If you'd been able to keep this pitcher, what do you think your team's 16-game record would've been?

The team this kid went to was pretty good already as i found out when we played them.They swept us (3 games) and only pitched the kid 2 innings each game in 2 games( you can pitch a girl 3 innings a game max) and not at all in another. I don't know what our record would have been with her but i'm guessing better than the 4 and 12 we finished,thus we would have earned a better first round matchup .
You say no big deal coogan ,i highly disagree. However ,while disagreeing with you, i appreciate and respect your comments.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Brookarly - When I say 'no big deal,' I also understand that I'm not there, and you are. I'm just giving food for thought. There's no way I can really assess things from where I sit.

That said, I'm still not convinced this was so terrible. I'm not condoning the 'trade.' I certainly think that episode needs to be reviewed by the league, and your concerns need to be heard. But as it stands, we don't know why it was done. So there's no way we can comment on that without all the facts.

When I say it's not so terrible, I'm just saying that achieving good competitive balance in rec leagues is hard and that there are worse teams than 4-12 in almost every rec league that I see. I'd be curious to look at your league's final standings. I've run rec leagues and helped set up teams, drafts, etc., and if my worst team is 4-12 with half of the losses by one run, then that's pretty good. It's hard to get the teams even. Coaches love the ''fairness'' of a draft, but in drafts, kids end up on worse teams than yours because some adults are really good or really bad at drafting. And sometimes you pick a kid you think is great and she's not, or she pulls a John Elway and refuses to play for you. If you're saying your team would've been 8-8 and the 9-3-3 team would've been 8-8 (or thereabouts), then it's a shame that did not happen. But the fact that a team goes 4-12 and has to endure going from bad to respectable is not a big deal, IMO. It happens every season somewhere. Sounds like you did a great job as a coach to keep their chins up and make them better. They didn't quit. They improved. And you had a couple of pitchers who got an opportunity that they would not have. I say good season. I know it could've been better, but some good things happened.

 

[MandM]

There were worse things that happened in our softball rec league, during the draft. One year- there was no draft, the teams were just "formed"- one team went 0-14- that coach was REALLY mad, he had all new sixth graders and no pitching. Naturally, one team went 14-0 (you can guess why). All the experienced 8th graders landed here to play together. Oh well, rec as a microcosm of the real world.

 

[CoogansBluff]

There were worse things that happened in our softball rec league, during the draft. One year- there was no draft, the teams were just "formed"- one team went 0-14- that coach was REALLY mad, he had all new sixth graders and no pitching. Naturally, one team went 14-0 (you can guess why). All the experienced 8th graders landed here to play together. Oh well, rec as a microcosm of the real world.

In the rec league that I coordinate, I let the coaches decide whether to have a draft, or to let me pick the teams for them (with their help and feedback, of course). We have a small league with no more than 4 teams in any age division, so it's practical for me to do it.

I've found that the teams are more evenly matched when I pick them. But inevitably we will have a season where one team really stinks and someone will decide a draft is the better way to go. That's fine. But you're just as likely or more to have a team that really stinks, or one that dominates, because some coaches are really good (or bad) at picking teams.

One coach favoring a draft defends it by saying, 'At least this way, every coach had a equal chance. He/she can't complain.'' But that's a cop out, IMO. I'm not concerned about coaches' complaints. I'm concerned about giving parents and kids a balanced league. The league's objective is to get the teams as even as possible, not to have a scapegoat or excuse in case that doesn't happen.

The problem with a draft is that the goal of each coach is not the same as the goal of the league as a whole. The coach wants a good team, while the league wants an average team. Not saying you shouldn't have a draft. If the coaches demand it, that's what you've got to do, I guess. The only way you can have a neutral person pick teams is if the coaches have a lot of respect and trust for that person.

In other words, it's easy to criticize how teams are picked, but there are pitfalls no matter how you do it.

 

[Brookarly]

hey coogan(great screen name by the way,maybe i'll change mine to bedford avenue !) can you coordinate my league lol. i like your philosophy. as i stated before i'm good with a draft or being assigned a team as long as it's all done pretty fairly.the girls are smart too.they talk in school,outside of school and know what's going on . hopefully i get a voice this winter at the board meetings.

@MandM-that's really bad .someone was not looking out for the best interests of the league/kids but for the best interests of themselves

thanks again for the input everyone. team party this saturday !!!

 

[quincy]

In other words, it's easy to criticize how teams are picked, but there are pitfalls no matter how you do it.

Off topic and to a point goingdeep makes.

Our club assigns players to Teams.

We have 2 10U Teams, 1 pretty good 1 not very good. Commissioner said that he wished he spread the pitching around better to make them more equal.

My opinion is that at the beginning of the year you could have given the good team’s HC all the “worst” players and they would still be a good Team. They really work hard at it and the Players seem to have a great time.