Sorry ... the WORST game I have ever seen. EVER.

[The Man In Blue]

The game was probably horrible to watch and officiate.
BUT: If the coach on the losing team was good (although obviously lacking in softball knowledge), she could still make it a positive experience.

Disclaimer (because this needs some context): this was the high school my kids went to and that my daughters played for. I've talked about some of that history in various posts on here. The school cannot attract any quality coaches because of a long history of local personal politics that simultaneously kept coaches that have destroyed programs (including softball) AND got rid of quality coaches for wanting to run their programs (volleyball).

We are currently having to co-op with two other small schools just to get 9 girls on the field (despite brand new turf facilities). Our last three coaches were community volunteers from those other towns (not even teachers from those schools) who didn't know what they were walking in to.

The current one is an older gentleman who is approaching retirement. He ran the small summer rec programs at one of the other schools. He has no kids or grandkids involved, just an interest in providing something for these kids. At the end of the game I made sure to tell him that I appreciate what he is doing. I kept the rest to myself.

Those TERRIBLE players (I do not say that with a light heart or mind) and their parents showed him no respect, @#+ched and complained the whole time, and showed no respect to the game or interest in learning or getting better. But they knew they had him over a barrel. They were Varsity starters.

As the mental guys say..."there is no losing. It's learning." Winning and Learning.

I would normally agree . . . But that was losing in its purest form, and I don't mean the score.

 

[Blue69]

YOU did our game last week?!

Got you beat … 35-16 4 innings 2 hours 10 minutes Varsity HS game!!! More Hit batters than I have ever had in 25+ years of umpiring at every level except Pro.

 

[Chilixa]

Got you beat … 35-16 4 innings 2 hours 10 minutes Varsity HS game!!! More Hit batters than I have ever had in 25+ years of umpiring at every level except Pro.

At first I was wondering if you umped a game I saw the box score for. They lost 31-21 in 5 innings. They had 4 pitchers hit a combined 21 batters with pitches. Never seen anything like it. That game had to last 3 hours. There are some really really bad “varsity” teams out there.


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[DryHeat]

DD has a friend/former teammate that goes to a smaller high school in the area.

A couple years back, they scored 32...




...and LOST. 33-32 in 7 innings.

38 BB, 8 HBP, 17 errors, "only" 26 hits for the game. Sounded brutal.

 

[ArmWhip]

and LOST. 33-32 in 7 innings.

I have you beat by almost double digits, 42-41. At the end of 7 innings the other coach came over and said the score was tied 42 all, we said no you won 42-41. Our pitcher threw 209 pitches. It's hard to describe how bad some of the varsity teams are in this area, but when you have zero travel players and no local rec program what's left? But the hockey teams are pretty good, field and ice.

 

[Cougars]

There is a school in our conference that is horrible every year. Many years they only have the V team, and from what I've heard, the coaches have to beg students to tryout (softball experience optional), just so they can fill a roster. This is in a conference where I'd guess the majority of varsity players have grown up playing some level of "travel". They haven't played a non-conference schedule in a few years, and this season are 0-6 in conference, being outscored 101-2. I think it's supposed to be 5 innings for an official IHSA game???, but they only play 4.

I will add, from the few times my daughters played against them, the coaches seem to be doing their best to keep the team upbeat and invested in the game.

 

[PJR202]

Some of these awful teams actually have good, knowledgeable coaches. There just isn't enough time to get kids up to speed in 6 weeks.

Rec is everything to a program. Just having girls show up to middle school able to throw and catch accelerates the program by YEARS. When rec was restarted in this town, I was one of the first coaches. I had never coached before. The 5th grader girls on that team that became semi competent are now finishing up their 8th grade year. My coach buddy and I had agreed that once those girls were in their sophomore year, the varsity team would be pretty solid. And that's shaping up to be accurate.

But the first year those girls played middle school, I was an assistant coach and it was absolutely brutal. I'm a halfway decent coach, and my buddy is a fantastic coach, but we were coaching 20 girls, with only three of them having any playing experience prior to that 4 week camp/season, and only one of those was competent. We had one wild, emotional pitcher. No catcher, because the competent kid was a catcher but more needed at 1B.

We got demolished every single game. We only got past 3 innings once, and managed to lose 12-5 in a full 5 inning game. I've never felt so good about a game as I did after that one. One game, the opposing coach ran the score to 24-1 in the first inning, then took it to 30. We had been outscored 63-3 in our first three games that year. The same team hung 24 on us at their field. We were both assistants at that time and would just go to the other side of the dugout after the head coach and her daughter would start arguing in the dugout. Next season he took over and we won 5 games. The next season I moved along with my daughter but he won 5 more, which would have been more like 8 without the rainouts. But we worked, and worked summers, etc, just to get to that point. Rec is barely clinging to life again now. It's hardly advertised for signups. The middle school program is working hard but kind-of in the same boat we were at that point. Scrounging for players just to fill the spots. And we don't even have to get into pitching. Everyone knows how important that one is.