Thoughts, opinions and ideas please...

[HITRUNPALYHARD]

Just curious what thoughts the parents and coaches familiar with youth travel softball have on this...

My daughter tried out and made an experienced/competitive 12U travel team that was looking for two new players, this would give them a roster of 11. She was told playing time would be limited and she needed to earn her spot. Fair enough, no problems there. After an entire season of never missing practice (2-3 nights a week) attending all clinics, tournaments, events offered + private lessons, while getting positive feedback from the coaches on her performance---she spent most of her time on the bench. Although, she spent more time sitting than playing, she was getting subbed and or alternated with regularity and even starting sometimes. When asked what she could do to get more playing time, the response was just keep working hard, you are doing great, you show up and do your job when you are on the field, but your still the youngest player...I'm not sure what to think of the situation and or how it follows a coach's mentality as it's happened twice now.

My questions is this: As a coach your starting catcher or other position player is making a lot of repeated mistakes, do you

A. Pull the starting player, and give it to the 2nd string who is performing better and work the player back into her starting position?

or

B. Move the starting catcher to a starting infield position where she has very limited fielding experience, in turn moving the weakest infield player to the outfield and continue to bench the 10/11th kid without even a thought of increased playing time?

Help me out! Because right now, I can't help but to think my daughter is getting shafted & I really like this team/organization/players/parents and coaches.

 

[Eric F]

There are way too many variables to provide any kind of definitive answers. Are the games friendlies or tournament (pool or bracket?)? Is the starting catcher a better choice at her secondary position than the other options? Is the starting catcher having an off day, or is there a pattern of poor performance? If I put the #2 catcher behind the plate, how do I have to adjust the rest of the team to fill the position she was playing?...Lots of other variables, too.

I have experienced a situation where the starting catcher wasn't the best catcher on the team, but the team was better with her behind the plate, and the more-skilled catcher at an infield position. This was largely due to the starting catcher not being very strong in an alternate position.

 

[HITRUNPALYHARD]

Yes, many variables, I agree. To answer your questions:

1. The games are all 3 day tourney based with pool, then bracket play.

2. I would say the starting catcher is better playing 3rd than she was catching but not better than then the 3rd baseman that was there before. The third baseman was moved to centerfield and is definitely no better than the bench players in that position.

3. The starting catcher was not having an 'off day, week or month' it was consistent and became very obvious she wasn't performing at a level we needed her to or maintaining a positive attitude. I will say the catcher did have a health standing upright was more comfortable than squatting.

4. The second string catcher was an outfield/back up S.S. player before

 

[CoogansBluff]

My daughter tried out and made an experienced/competitive 12U travel team that was looking for two new players, this would give them a roster of 11. She was told playing time would be limited and she needed to earn her spot. Fair enough, no problems there....

Help me out! Because right now, I can't help but to think my daughter is getting shafted ....

Why did they tell her playing time would be limited? On an 11-player team? How did they know that? Sounds like they just wanted a bench player for emergencies.

So, yeah, IMO, she is getting shafted. What kind of 11-player 12U team provides less than 50 percent playing time to a player who puts in the time and effort that you described?

 

[HITRUNPALYHARD]

A team that has 9 out of 11 players moving up with the same coach to 14U next year...where my benched daughter is only 11 years old. Although, she didn't have much trouble playing up this year, she is no way ready to battle against 14 and 15 year olds.... Thanks for your thoughts CoogansBluff

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

I would seeks another team and get her some play time.

 

[let it be fun]

Why did they tell her playing time would be limited? On an 11-player team? How did they know that? Sounds like they just wanted a bench player for emergencies.

So, yeah, IMO, she is getting shafted. What kind of 11-player 12U team provides less than 50 percent playing time to a player who puts in the time and effort that you described?

You're not familiar with the 12U "this is an "A" team so we have to play the "starting" nine in every bracket game of every tournament because all these 12U tourneys are critically important." Then of course you have to play the starting nine in every pool game because that impacts your seed in the critically important random June tournament.

 

[HITRUNPALYHARD]

Oh, he said playing time would be limited because the other 9 girls played 10U ball with this team and she had to prove herself to earn a spot...which leads me to another question I have, what does 'earn a spot' typically mean? Seriously, my intent was never to steal a starting position away from a girl, only to share a regular spot with someone. Instead, my girl got playing time in multiple positions (never a bad thing, but not great when you are trying to prove yourself and playing mainly one position is the strategy/culture of a team) but only for minutes at a time...& never on second or S.S. where he consistently had her running drills each week for the last 18 practices.

 

[Eric F]

Yes, many variables, I agree. To answer your questions:

1. The games are all 3 day tourney based with pool, then bracket play.

2. I would say the starting catcher is better playing 3rd than she was catching but not better than then the 3rd baseman that was there before. The third baseman was moved to centerfield and is definitely no better than the bench players in that position.

3. The starting catcher was not having an 'off day, week or month' it was consistent and became very obvious she wasn't performing at a level we needed her to or maintaining a positive attitude. I will say the catcher did have a medical issue with a cyst behind her knee and standing upright was more comfortable than squatting.

4. The second string catcher was an outfield/back up S.S. player before

I wasn't necessarily looking for answers, just making the point that there are often a lot of considerations that go into the reason why certain players are where they are. Sometimes the reasons make sense, sometimes not. Sometimes parents don't have a full grasp of all the variables. That said, If the coach is using something like "she's the youngest player" as a reason for her not getting equitable playing time, I would take that as a strong indicator that the coach might not really give her a fair shot.

Another approach is for your DD to bust her rear MORE than everyone else until she good enough that she can't be ignored.

 

[HITRUNPALYHARD]

Well said, will do & I like it. Thank you.