Kinda venting a little here, but would like some input as well.
Our league is growing and for the first time, we are in a position where we can legitimately have a division for jr. high girls (in the past, girls from 12-14 have pretty much been dropped from the league). We are drawing in 5 teams from outside areas and putting together some teams with the girls specifically from our organization. The problem (and I'm sure this is common) is the coaches.
The board (mostly baseball elders who don't know who the coaches even are), chose the first coach, and while I don't like the way they chose the person, I agreed that she was a solid choice who would do a good job. As more girls became interested and it looked like we would have 2 teams from our group, I was appointed as the coach of the 2nd team (the board kinda got bypassed on this because they didn't want involvement in softball affairs, but the President of the organization agreed that I was acceptable to them as a coach). The problem now is that there is a fair chance that we will have enough girls for 3 teams.
I should mention here that most of the teams that are coming in are pretty competitive (we've played many of them before in fall ball/all-star tournaments).
My first concern is that while we have enough good girls to be competitive with 2 teams, when we go to three, we are diluting our talent pool too much, imo. As of right now, there are only 3 pitchers signed up, and of all the rest of the signups there are only one or two that have any mound time in at all. Pretty much the same story with catchers. But even once you take those players out of the pool, there are only 3 or 4 players with significant skill left on the rosters...everyone else is in varying levels of "low skill". Some I can coach and make sure they are acceptable, some honestly don't have the skill set to play at a jr. high level.
My bigger concern, though, is the person who is waiting in the wings to be the 3rd coach. He himself is a nice enough person, but he is there 100% for his granddaughter and will willingly sacrifice what is good for the team for what is good for his granddaughter. We got into it last fall when his granddaughter was tired of playing outfield and decided to put her in as catcher (her primary position, but one which it was agreed upon before the game that another catcher would be given plate time for experience and growth...and the backup catcher was catching a hell of a game at that point, so there wasn't a reason to remove her). Add to this, the fact that he is just a BAD fundamentals coach. His practices consist of 1 girl hitting, 1 girl on deck, and the rest of the team shagging balls. ALL PRACTICE. Pretty much nothing else going on. (league officials have talked to him about this repeatedly in the past with little to no improvement.) Add to that his daughter (his granddaughter's mother) who is one of those parents who badmouths everyone and everything, stirs up trouble with other parents and players, etc.
Now, you might be thinking that since there isn't a big deal here because I will be coaching another team and I don't have to put up with these people anyways. You'd be correct. But my problem here is that one of the things I don't want to see happen in the first year of our expanded program is that our girls or other teams have a bad experience and decide not to come back next year. I've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the development of our program over the past 5 years and want to see it continue to grow.
I am also very concerned that some of the girls who will be assigned to his team will want to try out for the travel team I assist with in the fall. If these girls lose 3 months of development because they are with a poor coach now, then I may be forced to cut players that frankly I've been looking forward to see play at a higher level just because they haven't progressed as much as they would had they not been put into this situation.
I've expressed my feelings to the commissioner of the division and while he agrees, he also says that nobody else has shown interest in coaching the 3rd team so he is kinda stuck. I'd rather see that we keep the top 22-24 girls, and then put the lower skilled girls back in the 11u league, but I think he wants to see more teams in the junior high division (even though we should have 7-8 teams right now).
Not sure what I expect from the community. Needed to vent a little here. It is tough watching kids that you've worked with for years be put into a situation that, even if it doesn't "hurt" them, will certainly won't help them either.
Our league is growing and for the first time, we are in a position where we can legitimately have a division for jr. high girls (in the past, girls from 12-14 have pretty much been dropped from the league). We are drawing in 5 teams from outside areas and putting together some teams with the girls specifically from our organization. The problem (and I'm sure this is common) is the coaches.
The board (mostly baseball elders who don't know who the coaches even are), chose the first coach, and while I don't like the way they chose the person, I agreed that she was a solid choice who would do a good job. As more girls became interested and it looked like we would have 2 teams from our group, I was appointed as the coach of the 2nd team (the board kinda got bypassed on this because they didn't want involvement in softball affairs, but the President of the organization agreed that I was acceptable to them as a coach). The problem now is that there is a fair chance that we will have enough girls for 3 teams.
I should mention here that most of the teams that are coming in are pretty competitive (we've played many of them before in fall ball/all-star tournaments).
My first concern is that while we have enough good girls to be competitive with 2 teams, when we go to three, we are diluting our talent pool too much, imo. As of right now, there are only 3 pitchers signed up, and of all the rest of the signups there are only one or two that have any mound time in at all. Pretty much the same story with catchers. But even once you take those players out of the pool, there are only 3 or 4 players with significant skill left on the rosters...everyone else is in varying levels of "low skill". Some I can coach and make sure they are acceptable, some honestly don't have the skill set to play at a jr. high level.
My bigger concern, though, is the person who is waiting in the wings to be the 3rd coach. He himself is a nice enough person, but he is there 100% for his granddaughter and will willingly sacrifice what is good for the team for what is good for his granddaughter. We got into it last fall when his granddaughter was tired of playing outfield and decided to put her in as catcher (her primary position, but one which it was agreed upon before the game that another catcher would be given plate time for experience and growth...and the backup catcher was catching a hell of a game at that point, so there wasn't a reason to remove her). Add to this, the fact that he is just a BAD fundamentals coach. His practices consist of 1 girl hitting, 1 girl on deck, and the rest of the team shagging balls. ALL PRACTICE. Pretty much nothing else going on. (league officials have talked to him about this repeatedly in the past with little to no improvement.) Add to that his daughter (his granddaughter's mother) who is one of those parents who badmouths everyone and everything, stirs up trouble with other parents and players, etc.
Now, you might be thinking that since there isn't a big deal here because I will be coaching another team and I don't have to put up with these people anyways. You'd be correct. But my problem here is that one of the things I don't want to see happen in the first year of our expanded program is that our girls or other teams have a bad experience and decide not to come back next year. I've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the development of our program over the past 5 years and want to see it continue to grow.
I am also very concerned that some of the girls who will be assigned to his team will want to try out for the travel team I assist with in the fall. If these girls lose 3 months of development because they are with a poor coach now, then I may be forced to cut players that frankly I've been looking forward to see play at a higher level just because they haven't progressed as much as they would had they not been put into this situation.
I've expressed my feelings to the commissioner of the division and while he agrees, he also says that nobody else has shown interest in coaching the 3rd team so he is kinda stuck. I'd rather see that we keep the top 22-24 girls, and then put the lower skilled girls back in the 11u league, but I think he wants to see more teams in the junior high division (even though we should have 7-8 teams right now).
Not sure what I expect from the community. Needed to vent a little here. It is tough watching kids that you've worked with for years be put into a situation that, even if it doesn't "hurt" them, will certainly won't help them either.