DD is 1/3 the way through her TB season, 13 year old first year U-14 player; #3 pitcher on her team and getting a good amount of work with the #1 out with a hip injury. Unfortunately last weekend was HBP in the pitching wrist resulting in a buckle fracture. Them's the breaks (har, har) so hopefully will have cast off by the end of this week.
She's a good soldier, goes out to all practices and participates to the extent possible, attends games in uniform and cheers the team on. The org is the best in the area, one of the best in the whole country, and is used to winning provincial championships (equivalent to state champs in the US). Coaches are mostly former college players but there is some daddyball too; for example the HC and one AC on her current team are player daddies.
Last Monday we play another local TB team who is historically one of the weakest in our area; they have some decent players this year and decent pitching so it winds up a 6-6 tie (don't ask me why no extra innings). Really the game was pretty decently played; few mistakes here and there but far from horrible and we have played way worse.
DD's arm was fractured Saturday; saw the doc Monday and got the cast on. She is a good soldier so when the coaches raked the girls over the coals after the game then ran the girls she ran with them as a member of the team. Had been up a couple of nights with the wrist throbbing and so was starting to slow down so one of the coaches yelled "Why are you stopping? You broke your arm not your leg!" Same coach yelled at another girl, who was about to puke from the run to "Stop being a wuss!" That kid is still 12 years old.
Email came out the following day and included a line something like "We coaches are not ready to give up on these girls just yet." Ummm...you don't have the option of giving up on the girls. At that point they were 9-3-1 on the season. I track the games on Game Changer so obviously watch things very closely. I honestly have not seen an ounce of quit in any girl, haven't seen any bad attitudes, haven't seen any lack of effort. There was another episode with this same problem coach humiliating the "older" girls in practice earlier this spring (maybe 6 weeks ago).
Disappointing b/c we joined this org thinking it would be the best of the best and we would work harder than everyone else. I have seen zero indication that these coaches take any responsibility for what the team is or is not capable of doing. The notion that you can "give up" on a bunch of 12-14 year olds sickens me. Take a look in the mirror coaches - you hand-picked these 11 girls from 40 who tried out. You had all winter to work with them. You are the ones who thought TWO outdoor practices in total over April and May would be good enough for them to be ready to go. You are the ones who are playing a lighter travel schedule than every other team, partly b/c you have DD's on U-16 and U-18 teams and only have so much time for softball. Now you have the audacity to rag on a bunch of girls?
*rant over*
She's a good soldier, goes out to all practices and participates to the extent possible, attends games in uniform and cheers the team on. The org is the best in the area, one of the best in the whole country, and is used to winning provincial championships (equivalent to state champs in the US). Coaches are mostly former college players but there is some daddyball too; for example the HC and one AC on her current team are player daddies.
Last Monday we play another local TB team who is historically one of the weakest in our area; they have some decent players this year and decent pitching so it winds up a 6-6 tie (don't ask me why no extra innings). Really the game was pretty decently played; few mistakes here and there but far from horrible and we have played way worse.
DD's arm was fractured Saturday; saw the doc Monday and got the cast on. She is a good soldier so when the coaches raked the girls over the coals after the game then ran the girls she ran with them as a member of the team. Had been up a couple of nights with the wrist throbbing and so was starting to slow down so one of the coaches yelled "Why are you stopping? You broke your arm not your leg!" Same coach yelled at another girl, who was about to puke from the run to "Stop being a wuss!" That kid is still 12 years old.
Email came out the following day and included a line something like "We coaches are not ready to give up on these girls just yet." Ummm...you don't have the option of giving up on the girls. At that point they were 9-3-1 on the season. I track the games on Game Changer so obviously watch things very closely. I honestly have not seen an ounce of quit in any girl, haven't seen any bad attitudes, haven't seen any lack of effort. There was another episode with this same problem coach humiliating the "older" girls in practice earlier this spring (maybe 6 weeks ago).
Disappointing b/c we joined this org thinking it would be the best of the best and we would work harder than everyone else. I have seen zero indication that these coaches take any responsibility for what the team is or is not capable of doing. The notion that you can "give up" on a bunch of 12-14 year olds sickens me. Take a look in the mirror coaches - you hand-picked these 11 girls from 40 who tried out. You had all winter to work with them. You are the ones who thought TWO outdoor practices in total over April and May would be good enough for them to be ready to go. You are the ones who are playing a lighter travel schedule than every other team, partly b/c you have DD's on U-16 and U-18 teams and only have so much time for softball. Now you have the audacity to rag on a bunch of girls?
*rant over*