The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

[LEsoftballdad]

You're 100% right. The simplicity of basketball, volleyball, and soccer is the lack of gear. It looks like something easy to catch-on to. And it's not, really, but if the get into it and like it, then it doesn't matter. We lost 'em.

Saves the parents some dough too.

One of the reasons basketball thrives in the inner cities is because all you need is a ball and a public playground with a hoop.

We struggle with numbers in my district, too. We have about 750 students in grades 9-12, so we are limited with all sports. But, the major issue is lacrosse kills us for players, as does volleyball in the fall. Soccer is popular, but the soccer players never seem to play softball at any age near me. Our lacrosse team had 46 girls tryout this spring, while softball had 15 show up.

 

[CoachJD]

No kidding. 2600+ kids, 900 freshman this fall. 25 came out for softball in the spring.

This is bonkers, and while I love where I'm at, I wonder how much I could accomplish at a school this large.

We have 270 kids in the HS. I had 26 play in the spring (started with 28). Not all superstars. Eleven JV players who had never played before. But we still got the numbers.

Of course, our girls basketball team has a hard time finding players, so I do get the struggle, but with just a little bit of effort a school that big should not have a hard time getting talent.

 

[PJR202]

This is bonkers, and while I love where I'm at, I wonder how much I could accomplish at a school this large.

We have 270 kids in the HS. I had 26 play in the spring (started with 28). Not all superstars. Eleven JV players who had never played before. But we still got the numbers.

Of course, our girls basketball team has a hard time finding players, so I do get the struggle, but with just a little bit of effort a school that big should not have a hard time getting talent.

I swear, I think a little old-school marketing would go a long way. I suggested over and over last year that they hand out LL signup flyers at the elementary schools but it wasnt done. People didn't even know there was LL softball here again. This stuff needs broadcast.

 

[CoachJD]

I swear, I think a little old-school marketing would go a long way. I suggested over and over last year that they hand out LL signup flyers at the elementary schools but it wasnt done. People didn't even know there was LL softball here again. This stuff needs broadcast.

Last week I got a soft commitment from a Freshman volleyball player. We're still months away from softball signups, so she has plenty of time change her mind, but all it took was me asking if she's interested. That's it. I saw a decent volleyball player and just asked her if she might want to give softball a try.

If you're trying to generate interest at a school without much in the way of sports, it's fairly easy to get people on board. If you already have some established sports, you need to do something different from the rest of them to get people to want to join. Make it seem like the cool, fun thing to do. Make it seem like it matters.

Making a team good is not easy. Getting people to show up shouldn't be difficult if you put in a little effort.

 

[PJR202]

Last week I got a soft commitment from a Freshman volleyball player. We're still months away from softball signups, so she has plenty of time change her mind, but all it took was me asking if she's interested. That's it. I saw a decent volleyball player and just asked her if she might want to give softball a try.

If you're trying to generate interest at a school without much in the way of sports, it's fairly easy to get people on board. If you already have some established sports, you need to do something different from the rest of them to get people to want to join. Make it seem like the cool, fun thing to do. Make it seem like it matters.

Making a team good is not easy. Getting people to show up shouldn't be difficult if you put in a little effort.

I need to make friends with the local news and their social media person. Really the whole paper is probably only 2-3 people. I have room for 3 friends. Maybe. If not I'll kick Ed out.

 

[_MIA_]

Making a team good is not easy. Getting people to show up shouldn't be difficult if you put in a little effort.

Go find 5 athletic parents of 5 YOs and offer to pay to train them to be P/ C/CF/SS/2b (lessons, TB, the whole works) and make them sign a contract that they will attend your school in 9 years. You might not be there when they get there but they should have a good team that will then propel the program for years to come

Norman has two HS with 2500+ kids and neither softball team has ever been any good..

 

[Rick M]

The numbers seem so random, but I think it really does come down to the strength of the local rec program, and whether they’re able to grab kids interest and keep them coming back.

We have a strong rec program in our town, and in a school of less than 500 students, 25 showed up for softball tryouts (23 were year-round TB players). There are at least another 20 who played rec through 12U and played MS, but didn’t even bother coming to tryouts because they knew that they didn’t have a chance to make the team.

Great thread, look forward to more of the story!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PJR202]

2021 little league was largely uneventful. We saw some familiar faces from covid camp, a couple new faces, and our age-eligible middle school players. We did come up with another catcher from that bunch. Overall that LL season was more about experience and reps. We had two teams again, with The Wizard and I coaching one, and the other being run by another friend of mine and a lady who would end up as a 2022 MS assistant. She's a savage.

If I recall correctly, the 2020 HS team had three freshman players and a couple sophomores. I'm not sure how many Jr/Sr players there were, but I was told they only had 9 total for 2020. So they, in their own way, kinda lucked out as we did at the MS level. I presume the HS coach's plan was to borrow DD1 and Ed's daughter and maybe a couple others, which would have left the MS team in absolutely abysmal shape. So despite the global pandemic and ever-increasing amount of deaths worldwide, 2020 did do some people a favor or two. I would include my ability to work from home in that. It had an amazing effect on my mental health and family life. I still feel like logging in at the house is a privilege.

The 2020 HS team would have had one competent pitcher, and another who had her moments. I'd love a chance to work with the second one during this 2022 fall and see if I can correct a few things and get her throwing the ball over the plate. She's a good athlete and throws pretty hard--I don't think it would take much to get her in the zone.

Anyway, the competent pitcher moved to another county before the 2021 season. She was a good kid, and actually had volunteered to help with our covid camp. I hated to lose her.

For 2021 a new coach had taken the reigns. The previous coach had just taken on too much with coaching multiple sports, and decided it was time to lessen the workload. So a new coach was found, and he had quite the task on his hands. He had 8 weeks to build up from 5 players to enough to field a team, teach them the game, throw, catch, hit. I'm not sure what his methods were, but he managed to track down several excellent athletes from other sports. Here are some of them.

-A junior from the golf team. No experience in any other sports at any level. Great throw and catch immediately.
-A junior from volleyball. Excellent athlete with a super fast learning curve.
-A sophomore cheerleader. Straight savage. Insane learning curve. You can put her anywhere and be confident. She even pitched and got it over the plate a respectable amount of the time. Strong as a bull and plays with near reckless abandon. When the ball comes her way or she's at the plate. All the parents stop talking and watch.
-A junior from soccer. I'm happy any time I can steal a soccer player. I hate soccer.
-Also had a couple foreign exchange students. Another this year as well. I was just telling her a few days ago that if she'd been picked to live in an area with a larger school, she likely wouldn't have been able to just show up and be on the team. She had already realized that, and has quickly come to appreciate how, despite the lack of fun-filled destinations, this small town has its benefits. I think a place like ours is the true American experience. Big cities are big cities and come with all sorts of glitter and sparkle of their own (I love big cities too), but a small town is a small town, no matter where it is. They're sort-of all the same, and from my experience, the FES that come here get a very different experience than what they expected.

There were a few other new kids on the team as well. I went to watch a few of their practices and it was pretty rough, but the potential was there.

This was a very different experience as a parent. In MS I'm a coach and always thinking about the team and what we need from one player or another. I'm thinking about lineups, pitching, catching, holes in the defense, things we need to work on with individual players, etc. I'm managing emotional outbursts, parent conflicts, making a schedule, and all the other stuff. And on top of that, I'm questioning my abilities to do all these things. It stresses me out. Sitting out there with the HS and just watching and seeing things come together that I don't have a hand in (other than outside work with DD1) is nice. When you're not a coach, the relationship you have with the other parents is nice as well. Everyone is just wanting all the kids to do well, and in the case of 2021 we were all happy to give our full support to any of the kids.

We shared the joy in those moments seeing a kid with hardly any experience get out there and make a great play or have a great hitting game. We shared the joy, and we shared the relief when things weren't such a struggle. Even though I missed most of the HS games because of conflicts with MS (we share the field) games, my wife was there for most of them, and always had good things to share. I can honestly say, with that team and that group of parents, there was no conflict. No ego. We just wanted the kids to survive. It was an experience akin to how we felt with Covid Camp, and I'll also keep those memories in the years to come.

 

[PJR202]

The first win for the HS in 2021 was at home, about 3/4 of the way into the season. A JV game, but really it was more of a second varsity game. Both teams had mostly the same players. The brothers and boyfriends of the players had congregated in the bleachers, and they were relentless with the cheering and support. The other team was unnerved. To be fair, the boys probably took it a shade too far (at one point they were critiquing the color of the opponent's shoe laces), but for the most part it was funny and energizing. Some parents on the other team tried to do the same, but the boys would always drown them out. That was also a program that thinks they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, so I really didn't feel all that bad for them. Things went so well for us at one point that the pitcher threw two in a row at the batter's head (not on purpose), and both times she squatted under it only to leave her bat sticking up. Two fouls in a row like that.

When a walk-off single ended it, the eruption from the crowd was incredible. The boys stormed the field, people were crying, and it was an enormous weight off everyone's shoulders. It really changed the feel of the season. They knew they wouldn't end up with a record staring with zero, and just as important, they knew they could do it again. I feel fortunate to have caught that last play and celebration on video.

The rest of the season just felt different. There we only a few more wins, but the mood was lighter. That first win created a feeling of accomplishment and optimism that was sorely needed.

One of those wins was extra special because it was a team that had invited us to their place first, and pulled a stunt where they called another team to come there and play us as well. And as you're probably guessing, we had to play the other team first. I believe the girls lost by two runs, and it was probably their second best game of the season. So we played the actual home team fatigued and with our #2 pitcher, and it went about like you would expect. The girls got some sweet revenge a month later, though. I think we hung 18 runs on them. 2022 we beat them soundly both home and away. Suckers.

Overall I considered that season a success, and I learned something...brand new HS girls pick up the game faster. Or maybe really it's more that they're bigger and stronger, and the ones who play sports are already confident in their abilities. But there's less fear of getting hit with the ball and more initiative when it comes to just doing the job they're given. And they're mostly done growing, so their coordination isn't fighting their physical growth (no science behind that but it seems logical). I'm trying to keep that in mind going forward.

DD1's freshman year went fine. She had some nice plays at SS. Her hitting was a struggle. She gradually went downhill after 7th grade. She has good power, but has never been a strong hitter. It's just lack of instruction for the most part. She's got a dip in her mechanics, but getting the reps in has been a challenge. I was ready to get her some lessons for this fall but now she's saying she isn't going to play. More on that in the 2022 season wrap-up.

 

[Intheboondocks]

I've enjoyed following along, my daughter got thrown into the deep end at the start of her softball career. Prior to 7th grade she had only played in the local rec league that offered modified slow pitch. Fall of '21 she played fall ball fastpitch and also did a fastpitch academy/dome league over the fall / winter which helped immensely with her fundamentals.

We didn't know if we had highschool coaches until late january '22. She went to the workouts at school and there were 15 girls, 3 dropped out after the first week. So there we are rolling into highschool season with a 7th grader with maybe 8 months of fastpitch experience playing on varsity. As a team, they went deep in the section playoffs. Personally she struggled with hitting and defensively when she played outfield (running with her glove in the air, reading the ball), playing infield she did well. But the mental/physical toughness she gained was big.

This coming season could be tough, they lost 4 girls and we are still not sure about the coaching situation. LaCrosse and Track teams at the school are stacked, hopefully we can snipe a couple of players off of those teams.