The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

[CoachJD]

Does softball have a strong reputation there, or are there just less sports? I think we have 6.

Both. We started the softball program in 2016. At that time, we had other sports, but no AD worth a damn and the other teams were run very poorly. They'd play 5-6 games a year, at most.

When we started, I had no idea what I was doing. I expected our AD to make a schedule for us. When he didn't, I realized I'd have to do everything myself. For our first varsity season in 2017, we played 14 varsity games, easily the most any team at our school had ever played at that point. It was easy to make softball The Thing at the school because the rest of the sports were so bad. In 2017, we also started a team at the middle school level (we're K-12), and the year after we started a 10u team and our JV team.

For a few years, they tried to get girls soccer going in the spring. It never took off. We have track, but the girls track team usually has about a half dozen runners only. So I do benefit from not many options, but we also created an environment where softball was the best option for someone looking for a sping sport to play, and that killed off the attempts to get soccer going. We've converted plenty of soccer players over the years, and I do, in fact, expect everybody to shower me with appreciation for that.

Interestingly, softball is not huge in our neighborhood. The rec league our 10u/13u teams play in is really struggling to get girls to sign up. And yet, this year, I'm going to have two teams in the 13u division. We currently have 36 girls signed up who are eligible for that level.

We aren't talented enough to compete at a high level, but we're getting girls to play when others around here can't.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Killing off soccer is a dream to me. It has to be the most boring sport to watch. 1-0 games with 8 shots on goal are considered exciting. If you can kill off lacrosse too, I'd be eternally grateful.

 

[PJR202]

Both. We started the softball program in 2016. At that time, we had other sports, but no AD worth a damn and the other teams were run very poorly. They'd play 5-6 games a year, at most.

When we started, I had no idea what I was doing. I expected our AD to make a schedule for us. When he didn't, I realized I'd have to do everything myself. For our first varsity season in 2017, we played 14 varsity games, easily the most any team at our school had ever played at that point. It was easy to make softball The Thing at the school because the rest of the sports were so bad. In 2017, we also started a team at the middle school level (we're K-12), and the year after we started a 10u team and our JV team.

For a few years, they tried to get girls soccer going in the spring. It never took off. We have track, but the girls track team usually has about a half dozen runners only. So I do benefit from not many options, but we also created an environment where softball was the best option for someone looking for a sping sport to play, and that killed off the attempts to get soccer going. We've converted plenty of soccer players over the years, and I do, in fact, expect everybody to shower me with appreciation for that.

Interestingly, softball is not huge in our neighborhood. The rec league our 10u/13u teams play in is really struggling to get girls to sign up. And yet, this year, I'm going to have two teams in the 13u division. We currently have 36 girls signed up who are eligible for that level.

We aren't talented enough to compete at a high level, but we're getting girls to play when others around here can't.

Sounds like the perfect scenario to start a program. Kids get tired of losing and start to head elsewhere. We have soccer, bball, track, cross country, cheerleading, volleyball and golf. It's a lot to share kids as we do. I've been of the mindset this whole time that if we start winning, the kids will come out.

Little league is another story. We merged with the other side of the county (bigger schools) last season and it didn't work out well for us. They didn't want to let us have a couple teams made up of local kids because they expected we would beat the piss out of them, which is accurate because their middle school players don't play LL and we encourage ours to do so. They're even given leniency about how much LL practice they attend. We want our kids to get as much experience as possible, and when they're playing with younger kids I notice they take on leadership roles.

So there's also a planned schools merger in the works and it's been a hot issue here. It's gonna happen regardless, but there were a ton of folks who decided that supporting a merged LL would be like supporting a merged school district. I think over 250 kids across all ages and sb/bb signed up, and I believe outside of teeball, there were 18 signups from our side of the county.

There was also a plan that practices and games would be split between sites. It's about 15 minutes either way by interstate, then we're taking into consideration that there are a lot of kids that don't live in town. Add in that most players weren't from our side, and that plan fell apart real quick. The closest we got were a few games at our HS field.

I have no idea how signups are going this time. I've advertised on my own a few times, but overall I doubt it was pushed enough. Probably gonna end up in the same situation this season. The MS barely has 12, and they'll lose three of those after this season. There may be a couple coming up. Two seasons from now, half the team will be gone to HS.

I think this was out last shot to save the MS from either a gap year, or at best a repeat of 2020/2021. My kid will have a couple years of playing HS in the best situation. The current 7th graders are a solid unit and by 9th grade should be really good. I fear that with 5 years, the result of all our hard work will have run its course. By that time we'll be a county high school, and the HS program on the other side of the county is pretty strong. At that point, my best thought now is that we can just send strong pitchers over and hope for the best.

 

[PJR202]

Killing off soccer is a dream to me. It has to be the most boring sport to watch. 1-0 games with 8 shots on goal are considered exciting. If you can kill off lacrosse too, I'd be eternally grateful.

I tell the kids all the time..."why would you play a sport where you're on a team with 40 kids, and all you do is run around for 90 minutes, when you could be over here with guaranteed innings and spend the majority of the game basically waiting on the ball to come to you?"

Volleyball is getting on my hate radar now as well...

 

[CoachJD]

I tell the kids all the time..."why would you play a sport where you're on a team with 40 kids, and all you do is run around for 90 minutes, when you could be over here with guaranteed innings and spend the majority of the game basically waiting on the ball to come to you?"

Volleyball is getting on my hate radar now as well...

I like volleyball. I do a lot of scouting/recruiting of new players during volleyball season.

I'm torn on basketball. I like how it keeps softball players in shape, but I learned this winter that it's hard for some who are serious about softball to play basketball and still do all their off-season softball work.

 

[Intheboondocks]

LaCrosse, Track and spring AAU basketball are killers at my daughters school. Registration just opened for softball so we will see what the real interest is, but I have a feeling it's going to be 4 or 5 highschool age girls and the rest middleschoolers (7th and 8th grade can play varsity sports here). I think we have a couple of development years ahead of us, I'm most worried about pitching the only real pitcher on the team is a senior.

 

[PJR202]

LaCrosse, Track and spring AAU basketball are killers at my daughters school. Registration just opened for softball so we will see what the real interest is, but I have a feeling it's going to be 4 or 5 highschool age girls and the rest middleschoolers (7th and 8th grade can play varsity sports here). I think we have a couple of development years ahead of us, I'm most worried about pitching the only real pitcher on the team is a senior.

I'm finding that the best thing is to learn some stuff about pitching, find a few kids who are interested and you KNOW will at least work on it some in the offseason, and get them started. The basics of pitching mechanics aren't difficult to understand. About half the kids I've dealt with have a natural-ish ability to throw underhand. It's not completely unrealistic to think you can get a couple throwing over the plate by next season.

 

[PJR202]

LaCrosse, Track and spring AAU basketball are killers at my daughters school. Registration just opened for softball so we will see what the real interest is, but I have a feeling it's going to be 4 or 5 highschool age girls and the rest middleschoolers (7th and 8th grade can play varsity sports here). I think we have a couple of development years ahead of us, I'm most worried about pitching the only real pitcher on the team is a senior.

Basketball here for the MS kids starts in July and runs until like mid fall. The HS girls start later but don't finish until the first week of practice IF they don't advance in the district tournament. Ours didn't this year. Last year they did, and halfway into spring practice the all-time basketball scoring leader, a senior, showed up having never played softball and goes on to be the only one who could consistently get the ball over the plate. She threw around 35mph and got beat up by the good teams, but she only walked 12 batters in probably 20 starts. It was a miracle. This year there are three kids who can throw strikes and at least 45mph. Another miracle. We're all about the miracles around here..lol

 

[Northball]

Basketball here for the MS kids starts in July and runs until like mid fall. The HS girls start later but don't finish until the first week of practice IF they don't advance in the district tournament. Ours didn't this year. Last year they did, and halfway into spring practice the all-time basketball scoring leader, a senior, showed up having never played softball and goes on to be the only one who could consistently get the ball over the plate. She threw around 35mph and got beat up by the good teams, but she only walked 12 batters in probably 20 starts. It was a miracle. This year there are three kids who can throw strikes and at least 45mph. Another miracle. We're all about the miracles around here..lol

Your investment will pay off and the miracles won't be as necessary. I'm seeing it in my similar situation.

 

[kibadbo]

Killing off soccer is a dream to me. It has to be the most boring sport to watch. 1-0 games with 8 shots on goal are considered exciting. If you can kill off lacrosse too, I'd be eternally grateful.

I will never understand soccer. I have tried so many times to figure out what I'm missing. I usually end up baffled why it could possibly be the world's most popular sport.

I actually like lacrosse, but the boy's version. I don't get why they made up a sissified version for girls where there is no hitting.

And volleyball is the grossest money grift I have ever been conned into. I hate everything about it, and it costs a fortune. Way more than softball, if you can imagine.

That's my old-man rant for today. I'm going to go outside and yell at a cloud now.