High school politics

[riseball]

Like some have said the coach may have been trying to prove a point. Years ago I had a dad who rarely got to see his DD play due to travel for work. He became very upset when I moved his DD from leadoff to #7 in the hope she would see some better pitches and could work through some issues with her mechanics. He kind of made a scene about it so to the dismay of my AC's I put her back in the leadoff for the next game. After seeing his DD go 0-4 with a swing that was only missing the blindfold and pinata he apologized and I never had an issue with him again. Sometimes it is better to just let things play out and have the chips fall where they may.

 

[mann]

We (Me, AD, principal) don't discuss playing time with parents so it would not happen at my school. But it could just be splitting duties, so it will just kill you if you worry about it. No one goes with one ace anymore, if you don't have to. If the returning pitcher was good last year you have to give her a shot, as the new pitcher has no game records. How do you get a pitcher to contribute if she works hard, wins games then loses her spot to the new player? In the long-term, would hurt the program, returning players who contributed would just quit or get bad attitudes.

Better to split it all up, for developing the pitchers and having leadership from returning players.

you cannot have a successful Sport program without support of the kids, the parents and family, who are the fans.
If apparent has an issue, no matter what it is, including playing time, time to show you care is only human.

hire a teacher first, before a civilian coach, go high school

 

[YOCOACH]

When school ball started up, my daughter played the majority of the time for the first 2 games. All of a sudden, she was sharing mound time equally. I found out that the other pitcher's parents went to the school and complained about their daughter not getting to play enough. She was their starting pitcher last year. Any one else had this happen to them?

I'm not so sure this is considered HS politics in action. An example of HS politics would be what happened to my DD last year. Starting V catcher had major back surgery her Junior year and then shoulder surgery on her throwing shoulder over the Winter her Senior year. She couldn't even throw a rainbow to first because her shoulder wasn't anywhere close to being rehabbed and she couldn't drop and block balls due to all of the hardware in her back. Yet she started every game until she was injured. Why? Because her mother was the President of the Booster Club.

That being said, many larger schools use their JV team as a farm system to give players game experience and time to develop their skills further until their ready for V. Whether this is the case or not, I couldn't tell you as I'm just playing devils advocate.

IMO, and shared by many others, is a majority of the HS programs are nothing more than glorified rec ball. There's always an inherent sense of entitlement by both parents and the players themselves. That's why many of us just suffer not so silently through it and can't wait until it's over. I wish I could talk DD out of playing for her school but it would crush her if she couldn't play ball with many of the girls she grew up with and for school pride. Whatever the outcome, Good Luck!

 

[Pdiddy]

despite whatever the peanut gallery is trying to convey, it doesn't answer what the OP asked...."yes".....plenty of people here have experienced politics in high school softball. No one cares about someone else's perfect HS, where they got it all figured out and it's the healthiest, loving environment in the world. So, if that's the way the game is played at your DD's school, you need to fight fire with fire and do some complaining yourself....it worked for the pitchers camp.

 

[Ken Krause]

I wouldn't get too upset about the split playing time just yet. Depending on how many games the JV team has scheduled you (and your daughter) may be glad there's someone else to take up some innings, especially as the season grinds on. Maybe the coach is trying to keep your daughter from an overuse injury later in the season.

Parents complain all the time to HS ADs about all kinds of things. In my experience it rarely has any real effect unless the coach is doing something blatantly illegal or immoral or unethical. And a lot of people complain, and offer proof. It is tough to get changes made at the HS softball varsity level, much less JV. I wouldn't consider it politics unless your daughter stops getting the opportunity to pitch.

 

[Ken Krause]

After seeing his DD go 0-4 with a swing that was only missing the blindfold and pinata he apologized and I never had an issue with him again.

Had to give this quote more than just a thanks. It made me laugh out loud.

 

[Crystol Owens Brown]

despite whatever the peanut gallery is trying to convey, it doesn't answer what the OP asked...."yes".....plenty of people here have experienced politics in high school softball. No one cares about someone else's perfect HS, where they got it all figured out and it's the healthiest, loving environment in the world. So, if that's the way the game is played at your DD's school, you need to fight fire with fire and do some complaining yourself....it worked for the pitchers camp.

This is the first year dd played school ball. She has played travel ball currently and in the past. We were living in Italy on military orders when my daughter learned to play softball at the CYSS program. They didn't start school ball until high school. Softball was slow pitch until the age of 13 when they did fastpitch. DD only did one year of CYSS fastpitch before we returned to the states. I was curious about the politics in school ball since I have seen a few other things.

 

[riseball]

High School ball is what it is and you will drive yourself crazy trying to understand or change the dynamics. Make the most of it and always remember that it is of absolutely no consequence with regard to playing at the next level.

 

[Crystol Owens Brown]

High School ball is what it is and you will drive yourself crazy trying to understand or change the dynamics. Make the most of it and always remember that it is of absolutely no consequence with regard to playing at the next level.

Good point. I was just under the assumption that like travel ball, the best players play the most. The school like to start the senior players over the freshmen and bench the travel ball players because the coach assistant does not believe you should play school ball and travel ball at the same time. My dd is the only freshman that plays travel ball who starts. I just could not believe that a player can get more time because the parents complained to the coaches. I guess I should just chalk it up as practice for travel ball. I do love how the Varsity players that play on my daughters travel ball team, cheer for my daughter when she pitches.(Looking on the bright side of school ball).

 

[chinamigarden]

The thing with HS politics, and with TB org politics (yes they have it too) is that no 2 are exactly the same. It all depends on who the individual parents are, the coaches, and how its going on the field.

The least politics I ever experienced was my dd's 11th grade HS Varsity (last year). The school had the least amount of girls tryout ever, wound up with 10 on V and 10 on JV. Everyone played, the 10th girl on varsity probably played 3/4 of the time because it was never really a for sure 10th girl, the bottom 4 pretty much rotated quite a bit with each other or came in at the end of decided games. No parent could bitch about playing time and because of that, the politics was at a minimum. Plus every single girl started on the same travel org, so everyone knew each other and everyone already knew the pecking order talent wise.