Three to None?

[coachtucc]

I coach a small independent town travel team. Last Fall I had two pitchers, then three in the spring. I moved up to 14U this fall (or trying to). One pitcher went to play for another organization at the 12U level because her pitching coach said she would be better off doing that...two are trying out for higher teams (though one probably won't make it). I had a pitcher that agreed to join, then backed out at the last minute to join a higher organization. I am just flabbergasted. I had pitcher and catcher workouts in March 3 days a week on top of regular practice. Last fall I went to two of the pitchers
workouts at 8pm after my team practice. They all say I am a knowledgeable and very dedicated coach!! So..what the heck. Thanks for letting me rant!!

 

[Coach JV]

You have touched on a common problem.
The problem is two-fold

1. Once you move to 14U the girls
are bigger and much better hitters. A good 12B pitcher who won by throwing strikes
will get whiplash in the 14U while hits buzz past her. The key in pitching at higher age
groups is movement pitches. A pitcher who relied on fastballs in 12U needs to learn quickly
that it is hard to dominate a game with fastballs. For this reason, some pitchers stop pitching
and in some cases stop playing.

2. The recent surge in popularity of softball has led to more and more teams and not enough pitchers.
I know of a coach like yourself who has a great group of 10 dedicated players and zero pitchers. This
scenario is a sign of the times, the one constant is good pitching equals a good team, bad pitching
leaves you a bad team.

Best of luck, my suggestion is to disband if you cannot find at least 2 quality arms.

 

[Ken Krause]

Tucc, so sorry to hear that. It sounds like you tried to do everything right, and really went out of your way for your players. And in the end they slapped you in the face and said "so long."

That is definitely a problem these days. Parents don't seem to want to build a great team anymore. They'd rather just go join one that's already good. Maybe it's validation for them and their kids. Maybe they find winning plastic trophies to be the most important consideration in playing. Whatever the reason, they look for the "quick fix."

What's funny is CoachJV is exactly right. Great pitchers make great teams. Or at least you can't have a great team without great pitchers. So if your team wasn't good enough for them, the first place they should be looking is the mirror. Perhaps if DD was as awesome as Mommy and/or Daddy think she is you'd have the higher-level team they're leaving you for.

What could be an eye-opener to them is if those teams have a couple of pitchers who are better and have consistently been better, their daughters may not get much chance to pitch. Doesn't help you as you look for your own pitchers, but they may very well find the grass isn't so green.

On your end, the one thing to look at is how dedicated were your non-pitchers? It takes a lot of work to become even a good pitcher, and if the perception is a couple of kids are working their butts off on their own and everyone else is kind of coasting, the parents are going to seek out a team where the other players are just as "serious." Can't blame them for that. On a town-level team you sometimes get some of that, so keep it in mind as you evaluate the whole thing. Again, nothing you did wrong, but difficult to overcome.

As you can probably tell, I've lived it. My very first year coaching at 12U my team did very well. I knew I didn't know a ton about softball but I'd learned some along the way. The next year at tryouts, moving up to 14U, I find out that half my team (including my #1 pitcher) want to play on our program's other team, which the #1 pitcher's dad is going to coach. #1 pitcher was very popular in school, which I discovered was the main reason, but I was still hurt by the fact that those kids could leave so easily.

It was at that point that I really threw myself into learning everything I could. I figured if I was an extremely good and knowledgeable coach players and parents would value that and wouldn't be so quick to leave just because some popular girl wants to go somewhere else. It worked pretty well, although the closer I think I'm getting to being an "expert" the more I see how much farther I have to go.

Those defections, by the way, left me without any pitchers. Fortunately my daughter Stefanie decided around that this time that she wanted to pitch. We got her into lessons and she learned enough in a year to help us win some ballgames. I had no choice but to pitch her, so she gained a lot of experience and confidence. Had #1 stayed my daughter probably wouldn't have pitched nearly so much.

A couple of years later my old #1 came back to play for me, and she couldn't hold a candle to my daughter pitching. So sometimes the universe does work out as it should.

Good luck to you, and keep plugging away. Sounds like you're coaching for the right reasons, so I hope you find a couple of pitchers who will appreciate that.

 

[starsnuffer]

If you manage an A level travel team, it would behoove you to forge relationships with several pitching coaches in your area. Often, if you take on one of their "projects" now and then as a third pitcher, you will be rewarded later on with a superstar.

-W

 

[guero_gordo]

Three things to keep in mind:
1. It's not personal.
2. It's not personal.
3. It's not personal.

Not going to tell you it doesn't sting though.

 

[CoachKevin]

Always remember it does go both ways. Lets say your #1 pitcher stayed, then another 2 huge pitchers come along and want to join your team. What do you do? We all know what this scenario comes to.

Like Gordo said it's not personal, as it shouldn't be personal when you find better players than played with you last year.

 

[Indiana]

How to retain players.... Are great teams developed and built or are they picked during tryouts? There is an old thread on this subject - I'd love to hear more from coaches on each side of the question. Do teams get better by staying together and learning/improving as a unit, or do teams get better by "upgrading" talent during tryouts?

 

[ConorMacleod]

My softball assoc is attempting the "keep teams together" for several years method, thinking the team will develop over time. I couldn't disagree with this more. Just because a team stays together does not mean they are good players and will improve. What if nobody practices outside of normal practice times? So much more goes into developing a team than merely keeping the same girls together. It starts with the quality of the coach, but it also has a great deal to do with the quality and dedication of the players/parents. I'll take 10 hard working girls that have never met before over 10 girls that have simply played together for 4 years. In our particular case, my DD is 1 of 3 girls on the team that also take private lessons.

 

[Phathead]

I'd love to hear more from coaches on each side of the question. Do teams get better by staying together and learning/improving as a unit, or do teams get better by "upgrading" talent during tryouts?

Mine has stayed more or less together no tryouts just txt in late winter season and pratice fixing to start who's in. In another post I talked about I have never dropped a player but if one quits of course I try find one better or a least equal. First time for me this fall had Mom come ask me if I would have any spots open nxt yr. I am pretty sure I have one that has quit so that will work plus she is 5x better than the one that quit.

 

[Momo'sDad]

You've gotten some of your players ready to move on to higher level teams and that where they've gone. As a coach, these days, you take that as a compliment and move on to the next player who is looking for the type of opportunity your program can provide. Well done, Coach.