Unsafe and Toxic Culture-UH Softball

[LEsoftballdad]

Oddly enough, the coaches put a personal post on Instagram this weekend of them together on the boardwalk enjoying a hug. My daughter said multiple people complained, so they were forced to come clean. He's the AC, and is now twice divorced. She is the HC, and there was always speculation she was a kept woman. Either way, it's good that it's out in the open for administration to see.

 

[Strike2]

Looking in from the outside, Gasso seems like part of her deal is personal connection to players. There have to be challenges unique to playing at Oklahoma. I only know one kid that played there. Yet I have never heard that she doesn’t treat players fairly.

Although I don't know her, I've been close enough to hear her talk to players during ball games. My sense is that she's a different coach now than she was 20 or even 10 years ago, and I mean that in a good way. This season, during game conferences, I saw her just stand there and listen to what the players were telling each other. She'd nod a bit, maybe say a quick couple of words at the end, but that was it. I don't think she was doing that even a few years ago. She mentioned in her post-game on Thursday that she gets to "coach again" next season, meaning the fully developed players that she allowed to largely "coach themselves" are leaving. I think her personal commitment to developing her players as people is real. If there is any conflict on her staff or with the team, you rarely hear about it. Their biggest problem seems to be there is so much bench talent that Gasso can't keep some of it from going elsewhere.

 

[Westwind]

She strikes me as being super intelligent in a quiet way and more importantly able to relate to people.

Pretty amazing when you think about how easy it would be in that situation to start believing in her own omnipotence lol

 

[Rolling Hard]

I have thought many times about writing a post about how poorly the two staffs of my two daughters college teams treated players. One is now retired. She was a NFCA hall of fame coach. Coached almost 40 years. She was also an unbelievably awful human being. It never showed in camps or our contacts with her. Her co-conspirator is now the head coach. Yeah, there are a huge number of head coaches who had relationships with assistants etc. This was the case with these two and they were a two headed monster most of the time. She is quite infamous for walking down the aisle of a bus flipping frozen Hot Pockets to players as nutrition after a loss she didn’t like. She would regularly keep players from having dinner with parents on the road. One ploy was “team meetings” designed to keep players away from parents.

The second group I thought would be a lot better. This is a well known softball program and the talking head tv announcers parrot every stupid thing the coach tells them. The annnouncers LOVE her. “Coach said this. Coach said that.” It’s all nonsense. It’s mostly not true. It ruined watching sports for me because now I truly believe nothing the announcers say is likely true. Again, this was a crew of coaches where the head dated the co-head coach once upon a time. Now the co-head coach dates the director of softball and the head was living with a former player. When the former player moved out, all the parents knew we were in for a hellish year. It’s a mess. It’s a problem. It causes crazy dynamics. Players are aware that the coaching staff sits around and runs down every player on the team.

The things some female former players will say to your daughter on campus will curl your hair. ”We are effing losing because you go to church so much. You are too nice.” How do you like that one? I could go on. When I say wildly inappropriate I mean the kind of swearing and harsh things that if it was video taped it would go viral in minutes. Stuff that they cant say to boot camp recruits any more. You wouldn’t believe it.

And the just bad coaching and poor handling of team dynamics. Player acts up in practice. According to personality tests, this player is described as “red/red”. Yes I don’t know what that means either but apparently it’s a license to act out and not be corrected. As soon as someone starts to tell the player to knock it off, the co-head coach scurries over and says “but she’s red/red”. Okay coach. Let her do whatever she wants. Oh yeah- and “we recruit players families”. Bull. That got progressively worse as the team recruited “highly ranked classes.”


Absolutely. The problem is that many of these coaches don’t have any life outside of softball. They have NEVER HAD a life outside of softball. They have no responsibilities outside softball. They truly do not know how to act.

Yeah. Happens everywhere all the time. How does that happen? Because there is no enforcement of personnel policy and procedures. Politics prevent it.

Yes. I believe players are bundled up like a commodity and are sometimes part of a package deal. It sucks for unsuspecting players and parents. I believe tb org heads say things like “yeah, I can get you that player but you gotta take this one too”. The complete lack of impulse control college coaches have seems to prevent them from doing the right thing. They just want that player.

Related to that las line- be damn careful of a college team that takes a bunch from Team A this year, Team B the next year and then Team C the next. Even if there is nothing untoward happening, it’s weird. Are the college coaches too lazy to pick and choose players? And as a coach why would you want a group of players bringing some old team baggage with them?

Last thing that comes to mind- end of year meetings. One year this hc takes all of her rage out on a player and encourages them to transfer. The next year the coach will beg that same player to stay. Very healthy deal.

How this culture goes on and on…. Well it happens in high school and college because it isn’t football. AD’s care about football. And mens basketball. Firing coaches is easy, finding someone better is harder.

I’m glad it’s over. We got two bad draws. That plus what I have heard from other parents causes me to believe this is common. Good luck parents of incoming freshmen. You won’t know about this stuff for awhile. Neither of my kids told me at first. Both lived through it and both graduated from the schools they first enrolled in. I am very proud of both for their resilience. Again, good luck. It isn’t what you think it will be.

I am proud of them, too, and I don't even know them. I hate shitty people.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Looking in from the outside, Gasso seems like part of her deal is personal connection to players. There have to be challenges unique to playing at Oklahoma. I only know one kid that played there. Yet I have never heard that she doesn’t treat players fairly.

I am not saying this about Gasso, but since you bring this up . . . Here is another potential red flag on that note: Is the coach developing personal connections with ALL (or at least MOST) of the players, or are they developing their little cult of personality? I have known several coaches (some who have been discussed on this board) who seem to be the biggest @$$#013s and will run kids off, yet have players that would die for them.

Oddly enough, my wife and I were discussing the former MS/HS coach my daughters played for. She has left coaching (still full-time teacher) and is working part-time for a local diet/fitness program. My wife went through this program and really enjoyed and benefitted from it when she started. My wife had a different coach through those early days. Then she started seeing this former softball coach as her program coach (again, we like this woman off the field; all out issues were on -field). My wife ended up quitting the program. She said the first coach took the time to engage with her and was authentic, while the former softball coach would run late because she was socializing with other "friend" clients (during my wife's time) and then rush my wife through.

I asked my wife why she expected anything different, as that was exactly what she did as a softball coach. She developed relationships with the few players who could get her something (wins or "connections" to parents/board members) and then treated everybody else like garbage. Those "connected" players loved her; nobody else did. To be fair, maybe this was how she was brought up when she played college ball.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I was typing at the same time. Your point about a coach that never goes anywhere else is really interesting and I had not thought about that!

Both staffs we saw up close fit that bill. I would say also that they seemed to have a weird co-dependence vibe going on.

I picked up that observation a long time ago in my retail management/organizational development days, but I have found it holds true in other (not all) industries. They are good enough to not make problems for the brass, so they keep them. However, they aren't good enough to promote. When everybody else is leaving for opportunities or moving up the ladder, they just stay there.

I'm not saying there aren't other reasons (don't want to relocate, family circumstances, etc.), but it always throws a flare up when I see that one person who hasn't gone anywhere. I would also challenge organizations (putting on my OD hat) to NOT allow people to fester and rot in a job. You can get too comfortable.

 

[Rolling Hard]

What percentage of coaches work on being better coaches? Taking in info, reading a book, watching video, open to learning, adjusting their style?
Whatever the number it's too low. The good news, and I hope and guess, the number is getting bigger.

 

[schwabach]

Although I don't know her, I've been close enough to hear her talk to players during ball games. My sense is that she's a different coach now than she was 20 or even 10 years ago, and I mean that in a good way. This season, during game conferences, I saw her just stand there and listen to what the players were telling each other. She'd nod a bit, maybe say a quick couple of words at the end, but that was it. I don't think she was doing that even a few years ago. She mentioned in her post-game on Thursday that she gets to "coach again" next season, meaning the fully developed players that she allowed to largely "coach themselves" are leaving. I think her personal commitment to developing her players as people is real. If there is any conflict on her staff or with the team, you rarely hear about it. Their biggest problem seems to be there is so much bench talent that Gasso can't keep some of it from going elsewhere.

Patti Gasso said that herself in one interview when talking about her teams spirited conduct. She said that there was a time when she would have had a hard time with that.

Softball teams and coaches have a personality. The trick for a coach is to understand that personality and recruit players who are a) good and b) a good fit. It seems like Patti Gasso has that pretty well-figured out these days.

 

[wi_dad]

Depends upon who they know. I will not go into detail but I needed a lawyer once for one of the sites I moderate. It so happens that I am friends with a gentleman who was the President of the Bar Association for the State of Illinois. When asked what it would take to hire him, he told me that I could not afford him. He has over 100 lawyers in his firm. He took the case for free and we won.

You run Midwest Fastpitch lol

 

[Westwind]

Midwest Fastpitch

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

As they might say in CheeCawGo, “Keep doz gize over by dare” and the hell away from DFP.