Unfair (Unethical IMO) League Set Up

[init4thegirls]

Our 10 and under league didn't have enough coaches and there would have been 16/17 girls on a team. My wife played and wanted to coach, so I'm coaching now. We're 24 and 26 with no kids. I enjoy doing it but the league rules/ jerk daddies make me irate.

Coaches are allowed to hand pick their teams in the off season. One team turns in their hand picked roster while the rest draw for the kids that weren't picked. The result is a team of the 14 best girls that started practicing in December winning every game 15-0 in three innings.

We drew every player and only had a month and a half of practice. We have 14 girls, 7 of which couldn't throw or catch the first day of practice. We had to tell one girl not to stand on the plate while batting. When a sub came off the bench slap hitting for them I about blew a gasket.

This set up is horrible for every girl involved. The only person getting anything out of it is the daddy of the stacked team. His girls have no competition, and the rest don't have a chance. It's not that I want to win the league. It just makes me furious to see how far our girls have come only to feel humiliated.

Are other leagues set up this way? What are your thoughts?

 

[Sweet Lou]

It happens that a team gets stacked on occasions in rec leagues but that's not generally the primary focus or setup of most rec leagues. Hopefully there are enough teams that you only play them a few times.

If they really are that much better, change the expectations for your girls in those games. Hey - let's hold them to 3 runs an inning today. Or Our goal is to win one inning today. Or today we are going to try to push accross 3 runs. Someting reasonable. Or let's see if we can play 4 innings today.

Sucks when one team gets stacked an the rest are left with the leftovers. Doesn't really do anything for anyone as the stacked team just beats up on lessor competion and never really gets better and the other teams just get demoralized but getting slaughter ruled each game.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Well, maybe they weren't that bad, but yes - there was some unfair stuff, when my kids were in Little League. If you are Little League, I believe that your league would be creating some violations. But, there were always local rules, that were taken advantage of.

My kids are your age. You are learning some good lessons about softball and sports, in general. Your girls are going to learn more, than the stacked team. Go for little victories. Each girl should have a reachable goal. Make the practices fun. Give out treats, if you have to. See if someone could buy some pizzas.

I absolutely hate, what you are describing. If you were in Tucson, I would volunteer to help.

 

[sluggers]

Are other leagues set up this way?

Yes.

What are your thoughts?

I think you should be congratulated and thanked for what you are doing. You are making the lives of children better and teaching them valuable lessons about teams, work and life.

I understand your frustration. Everyone who has coached has been through this kind of situation, and it is very frustrating. There are jerks who coach, and they are completely obnoxious.

I am not 26 YOA...more like 58. I was head coach of my first team when I was your age. I've coached many, many teams. Some have been good and some have been not so good. I have lost many, many games. I have been angry when I coached. Guess what? It doesn't matter in the long run. The kids are going to remember whether you had ice cream than the game. Heck, I played baseball growing up, and I can't remember one game I played.

So, here is some wisdom: You can't control what other people do, you can only control your reaction. (Read "Man's search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. If that guy can make life as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp meaningful, surely you will be able to do the same coaching a 10U softball team.)

You are teaching the children how to react to this situation. They look to you for guidance as to what to do. Do you really want to teach that the thing to do when the odds are stacked against them is to be angry? Or do you want to teach them, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?

It really is that simple. *YOU* as the coach have to make this a great experience for the kids. Having coached this age group before, I believe that "humiliation" is how you feel, not them.

 

[Comp]

Been there, done it. LL does have rules in place to try and stop that kind of thing, but even their rules can creat problems. But, when you start a rec league and then allow some teams to go out and hand pick players while others have to select from a pool you are just begging for inequity. And the worst part is, the team that you think is really good isnt learning anything but how to be lazy. Once they play a team that really knows what they are doing they will find they cant be nearly as aggressive on the basepaths and on defense they better be on their toes or the same thing they pull will happen to them.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Sounds like you're part of a Little League.

At least your league administrators are completely transparent in the way they stack teams. In our town, it's typically a lot more underhanded than that, as they try to make it look like team formation is fair and hope they can fool most of the people.

Where are you located? How many girls are in your league? How many 10u teams do you have?

 

[Coach661]

I think take what you have and make them better. Your parents will see what you did in the end. Use the resources of this site and get them better. I don't know what time frame you're working in but start now. Its 10U, make it fun for them, they can learn and have fun. In the end,if they had fun and get better, most of them won't even care about the outcome of the game. I've seen 12U LL games where at they end they didn't know if they won or lost at the end, they had fun and didn't care.

 

[Axe]

That's awful and it eventually leads to a smaller league as people move to find better situations. There are leagues in our town that are run that way and we are happy to accept the families that come to us. We start with a blank slate every year and redraft every team. Only the kids of two coaches and can predetermined and those are sometimes broken up if they are two strong (ie two top pitchers). Rec programs that provide a fair, competitive playing environment will thrive and those with the kind of shenanigans you are talking about will generally shrink. I hope they enjoy their team because eventually it may be the only one.

 

[init4thegirls]

I'm really proud of the improvement our girls have made. There's just not much you can do when you have to teach the basic fundamentals while other teams are practicing to go to a tournament. There are teams from neighboring towns in our league that have that have a little more talent since they only have one team. All the talent in our area is on one team. The other teams from our town are similar to ours. They have one or two girls that could hang with them.

Our pitcher struck out 5 in the first inning but we don't have a girl physically capable of catching her so they got 5 runs. She did awesome but she came of the field in tears. She's about the only competitive girl we have. I hate it for her so bad. She gave up two hits, stuck out 8, and lost 15-0.

Most of our girls are just there to have fun and I think they do in practice. I just don't see what a grown man gets out of doing this kind of thing. If you want to show off your "coaching ability" just play travel and see how you do. Thanks for your suggestions, I just needed to vent more than anything. There's nothing that can really be done. The board members and the "player agent" happen to coach one of these teams in every age group except 16-u which no longer exists because there aren't enough girls. Wonder why?

 

[Axe]

5 K's in the 1st inning? You play dropped 3rd strike in 10U Rec? Wow, sounds like this league might want to re-evaluate their mission.