sold out

[missjeff]

Have you ever had a team sold out from underneath you ? The rug pulled out from your feet ? I find at most times as a coach you can get so much and fell so good for what you do and accomplish. A coach gives so much of their time. Their thoughts are endless of how to make a kid a better ball player and more important a better person. Today is sad for me, I have no team. So does this mean I have failed as a coach, failed the kids that I so desperatly what for them to do better and be better? Is this a light, does this mean change is good.??
I have coached travel ball for four yrs, we had somewhat of a winning season, .675 winning %. Most of the games we played up, 14's as 12's. Half my team wants to go to another team, 2 other girls headed in another direction. I don't want to sound whippy or whiney. It seems that the more you put into it the less you get. Perhaps just looking for a little strenght of advice. Good or bad theres a reason for everything. Just not sure what that is.

 

[softballphreak]

Not saying you are or aren't a good coach, but I found out a long time ago that I am a much better assistant than I am a head coach.

I don't have to deal with what the head coach has to deal with. I can, for the most part, focus on teaching. Being a successful head coach takes a lot of work and many qualities I don't seem to have nor want to have.

There is always a need for coaches; you don't have to be the head honcho to enjoy coaching. One of the most enjoyable parts of being an assistant is you don't have to deal with parents' demands.

 

[undergroundga]

There is definitely a shortage of good assistant coaches. Everyone wants to be the head coach. Who knows, help someone coach for now an in the future another door may open up.

 

[quincy]

Managers seem to need to spend more and more time with the parents and the league administration, does not mean less time with the players just more of your time commitment trying to work with the parents.

I know you are bitter but you want your Players to move on to better Teams, you are doing your job. If they go sideways or backwards you need to try to figure out why.

 

[Ken Krause]

That can be rough. You put in so much time and effort, think you're making a difference, then you get abandoned. Been there, done that.

The very first year I coached travel ball I had a great season. Won the championship of the top division of the travel league we played in, did pretty well in tournaments. Got a proclamation from the town government to commorate it and everything. The next year several players went to a second team in the organization because a popular girl's dad decided he wanted to coach. I was shocked and disappointed to say the least.

After that I decided to learn as much as I could about the game with the goal of becoming as good a coach as I could be so that no one would ever want to leave a team I coached again. Kids still left occasionally, but usually because they wanted to do something else with their summers, not to go to another team.

Sure, it hurts now. But if you love it, think about what you can do to create such an incredible experience that no one in their right minds would want to leave it. Build yourself a new team and use this experience to fuel your passion.

 

[undergroundga]

I agree. TB teams in our area seem to be dominated by men, but at the college level I see more women.

 

[PEPPERS]

That can be rough. You put in so much time and effort, think you're making a difference, then you get abandoned. Been there, done that.

The very first year I coached travel ball I had a great season. Won the championship of the top division of the travel league we played in, did pretty well in tournaments. Got a proclamation from the town government to commorate it and everything. The next year several players went to a second team in the organization because a popular girl's dad decided he wanted to coach. I was shocked and disappointed to say the least.

After that I decided to learn as much as I could about the game with the goal of becoming as good a coach as I could be so that no one would ever want to leave a team I coached again. Kids still left occasionally, but usually because they wanted to do something else with their summers, not to go to another team.

Sure, it hurts now. But if you love it, think about what you can do to create such an incredible experience that no one in their right minds would want to leave it. Build yourself a new team and use this experience to fuel your passion.

Really great advice had almost the same thing happen to me. As I see it you have two choices, sit in the stands or become knowledgeable of the game and give the players as good an experience as possible and sometimes you still lose them. Be sure and have a genuine interest in the kids, they can tell. I’ve lost players to divorce, parents moving, family feuds, other coaches making promises they knew they could not keep and just plain old jealously.

Had this one young lady who had great potential as a pitcher, parents were in a custody battle when she started playing with me. The parent that won would not let the kid play SB to hurt the other parent. The kid ended up in trouble and was kicked out of school and has had problem after problem. I can’t say for sure SB would have made a difference in her life; I would have liked to have tried to have made that difference.

 

[jacketsfan]

If you choose to coach in travel ball, a few things are absolutes that will occur:
- you will lose some friends
- you will lose some players
- you will probably have a player like Peppers described (I had exactly that same situation, and I pleaded with the one parent to let her play, to no avail)
- if you have a daughter on your team, you will be a rotten, daddy-ballin', favorite-playin' SOB (at least to the parents of the other player that shares your DD's position).

On the other hand, the are times when you will touch a kids' life in a positive way. You never know when or how that will happen. You might not even know until several years later.

These situations are tough, but anyone who's been around this a bit has gone through it.

Just keep doing the right thing. You never know when that moment comes that you might, quite literally, save a kid's life, or inspire them to do something that they didn't know they could do, either at that moment, or a few years downstream.

 

[sluggers]

Missjeff,

You are coaching at the "age of decision" for girls. Between 12 and 14 YOA, girls decide what they want to do with their time. Some decide to get real serious about softball, other don't.

Also, look around at coaches who do this for a *LONG* time. You'll find they coach a specific age level, and don't really like other age levels.

A coach is mainly a teacher. If you were a teacher, and your kids moved on to a different you wouldn't think twice about this. It is normal.

Maybe you should think about putting together another 12U team.