Managing Multi-Sport Athletes
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I hate to break it to you, but that's already happened, at least from a recruiting standpoint. HS ball means nothing.
I wasn't trying to say that it does, with regard to recruiting. I'm just talking about kids who play for the experience of playing. Plenty of kids (such as mine) enjoy it, and take it seriously and put in real work even if they have no desire to play in college. Mine even turns down travel team and pickup invites. Softball is just one part of who she is, and she wants to make time for everything else. Kids like her are the majority of school athletes.
But in addition, there are kids (especially in small towns) who have nothing else. Bad home life, or poor, etc, who use sports as an escape or just something to take pride in. Those are the kids that will suffer most, and those are the kids that NEED sports most.
I understand what you're saying, and I do feel sorry for those kids. The problem is not everyone has a positive school ball experience, so their outlet might be travel. There are more than a few people on this forum whose children did not play in HS because of poor coaching, bad dynamics, or no program.
If my younger daughter could go back and do it all over again, she would absolutely skip her last two years of varsity ball. When she knows far more than Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber, you know it's going to be a bad time. Would it have killed the school program if she didn't play? Probably not. They would not have won nearly as many games, but the program would still be alive.
It's a personal choice everyone has to make with their children.
I do not agree with this. Your position in this instance is that your daughter is above the team because she is more talented.
I think there are layers to this situation. Missing travel practice for a school sports is one thing. Ok by me. Missing already scheduled tournaments for another sport has to have a level of consequence. You committed to that team, the schedule, and the players/coaches.
What if half the team decided they were going to miss a tournament for another sport? I agree that kids should play other sports but I do not necessarily agree with your stance of "my kid gets to do what she wants or she will just go find another team."
Also, a coach having some level of consequence for a player that misses a tournament or even practices is not a flex. It's life. As with everything else, proper communication is the key to all.
- Oct 26, 2019
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I almost never have a full team at practice because I have so many kids that play other sports. It never really bothers me, but no one ever misses a game. Every family, every player, and every coach wants something different out of this journey (and that’s ok). I tend to think the other sports make my players better so I make it work. Communication is key. What worked for Sally may not work for Susie.
DD freshman year played JV Bball. We had a meeting with the Head VB coach and told her DD TB fall schedule. DD had a showcase tourney before a bball tourney. She would be finished before the first BBall game. We said we could meet the team at the gym (away) after her games. She said don't worry about it. We insisted that we could get her there in plenty of time and should we be ready to go. She said don't worry about it. Okay.
Fast forward to the next regular midweek game. DD was benched without any reason. DD was on the bench and gave us the look, I have no idea what is going on. After the game, I told her to go to the JV coach and ask how she could get in the lineup. The coach told her that she didn't know the plays. What!? She practiced with the team during the summer. She wrote up all the plays and gave it to the coach and he said okay. She played almost every minute going forward. Such BS and power trip. I knew the AD pretty well since I was the President of the Booster Club, but I never said anything.
One of the last games of the season the coach is yelling at DD from the sidelines during a play in his incoherent mumbly way. DD had no idea what he was saying. The whole gym went quiet. It was pretty awful. AD came to me after the game in the concessions and apologized for the coach's behavior. At that point DD decided not to come back the following season. The Head bball coach said, your shoes will be waiting for you right here. DD laughed inside. Those shoes will never touch my feet again.
Even though we were up front about everything and found there would not be a conflict this is the crap DD had to deal with.
Fast forward to the next regular midweek game. DD was benched without any reason. DD was on the bench and gave us the look, I have no idea what is going on. After the game, I told her to go to the JV coach and ask how she could get in the lineup. The coach told her that she didn't know the plays. What!? She practiced with the team during the summer. She wrote up all the plays and gave it to the coach and he said okay. She played almost every minute going forward. Such BS and power trip. I knew the AD pretty well since I was the President of the Booster Club, but I never said anything.
One of the last games of the season the coach is yelling at DD from the sidelines during a play in his incoherent mumbly way. DD had no idea what he was saying. The whole gym went quiet. It was pretty awful. AD came to me after the game in the concessions and apologized for the coach's behavior. At that point DD decided not to come back the following season. The Head bball coach said, your shoes will be waiting for you right here. DD laughed inside. Those shoes will never touch my feet again.
Even though we were up front about everything and found there would not be a conflict this is the crap DD had to deal with.
Good read.
To add
College camps overlapping with travel schedule. Is also 'a one or the other' type situation.
Know of several travel team coaches who are experiencing such a problem trying to keep a solid roster playing their showcase & tournament venues because there are many players that are going off to college camps it is interrupting their team schedule. So these coaches starting next year are implementing part of their game schedule will be mandatory. Because they cannot have lack of attendance tearing everything apart. They are making an adjustment to the predicament.
For instance the team is scheduled to play a tournament but two of the three pitchers have reasons why they did not want to show up that weekend. How would the team play? There has to be a standard to have some sort of balance.
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- Oct 26, 2019
- 1,409
- 113
A lot of how coach handles multisport athletes, missing their practices and events for another sport comes down to whether playing time is equally distributed or earned.
I play everybody pretty equally so it doesn’t bother me when a kid misses my travel practice for another school sport. My belief is that the school sport should come first.
When I was coaching high school baseball I never had any kid miss our practices or games for another travel sport. School was the priority. But playing time was also earned and part of earning it is attending everything.
I play everybody pretty equally so it doesn’t bother me when a kid misses my travel practice for another school sport. My belief is that the school sport should come first.
When I was coaching high school baseball I never had any kid miss our practices or games for another travel sport. School was the priority. But playing time was also earned and part of earning it is attending everything.
They probably need to be careful with that also. While I fully understand the predicament the coaches are in, the kids are in a tough spot also. I truly place a high value on commitments to teams but sometimes the girls do have to be selfish. I am assuming that if a girl is going to camp that is because she is wanting to be recruited. That is often why many of these girls are playing travel to begin with. I would argue those camps are much more important to their college chances than another showcase.
It is why older teams often carry a larger roster because they don’t expect everyone to be at every tourney. If you have too many players missing you can also reschedule. But those camps are a huge part of the recruitment process for many girls. I certainly wouldn’t be asking any of my players to skip one if a coach has asked for them to attend.
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