Softball Teams Using Guest Players

[InSider]

I think I can safely say that we all have had experiences with guest players at one time or another. Some coaches know how to use them and some don't. To be fair, it's a thin line to walk and can be very tricky to do in a way that is acceptable to the guest player and to your regular players.

I think a couple things to keep in mind when it comes to guest players:

1. The player came to play. Therefore, they should play.

2. The player has not been with you the entire season, so do not play them to the exclusion of your regular players.

3. If you bring in a guest pitcher who is clearly better than your current pitchers, and proceed to give them a good chunk of the innings that weekend, be prepared to no longer have at least one of your pitchers.

3a. If you bat the guest player in the #4 spot, be prepared to have some unpleasant conversations with your other players/parents.

4. Do NOT treat the guest player as though you value them ahead of your team. I understand if you are trying to woo the player, but if your other players feel slighted by you, they will make that guest player wish they'd never heard of your team.

Using guest players can certainly help you out of a tough situation. They can also cause you another tough situation if you don't utilize them correctly.

 

[FastBat]

3. If you bring in a guest pitcher who is clearly better than your current pitchers, and proceed to give them a good chunk of the innings that weekend, be prepared to no longer have at least one of your pitchers.

Lol! I actually don't mind guest pitcher's and my dd is a pitcher. It upset me early on in my dd's career. Then I realized, when a new pitcher is bought on, one of two outcomes will result. Either she will be better than my child or prove how much my dd's pitching is needed. Then she works harder if the pitcher was better or we have a good giggle about the coach thinking someone could replace her. It's all part of softball.

 

[Roto148]

2. The player has not been with you the entire season, so do not play them to the exclusion of your regular players.

3. If you bring in a guest pitcher who is clearly better than your current pitchers, and proceed to give them a good chunk of the innings that weekend, be prepared to no longer have at least one of your pitchers.

3a. If you bat the guest player in the #4 spot, be prepared to have some unpleasant conversations with your other players/parents.

4. Do NOT treat the guest player as though you value them ahead of your team. I understand if you are trying to woo the player, but if your other players feel slighted by you, they will make that guest player wish they'd never heard of your team.

I've witnessed a coach who did all of the above and was clueless to the effect on the team not mentioned here. It screams to the team that this sub is better than any regular player on the team and demonstrates to the team that the coach doesn't have confidence in them. These girls need to know that their coach believes in them, has their backs and has confidence in them. If the coach don't believe in them, they are NOT GOING TO PLAY TO THEIR POTENTIAL! Additionally, the attitude of the girls sitting for the sake of the sub, and parents boiling over on the sideline is a cancer to the overall moral and therefore the performance of the team. Every successful team I've been involved with has had tremendous cohesion and supported each other 100%.

To add insult to injury, it doesn't help when the sub pitcher loses her first game, and then gets pulled in the third inning in the final elimination game losing 9-0, and the teams regular pitcher holds them the rest of the game to zero runs and the team comes back with seven runs and loses 9-7.

 

[CARDS]

One issue I had seen over the years is coaches bringing on guest players when they could have got by with what they have at various events or, they make a poor choice in the guest player.

A coach that brings on a guest player or players during three or four day event for one day or spot play should not happen unless you only have 8/9 or only one pitcher for the day.

Making sure there is good communication between the guest player and team members is critical. Nothing worse than thinking you have 11 for a weekend and the guest player shows up on Friday or Saturday then they bail on the team/coach the rest of the weekend or, the guest player thinks they are there to help and finds the team already has 11+ girls.

The coaches that place guest players ahead of the team a lot of the time are trying to "woo" the guest player or parent at the expense of their committed players and parents.
(You see this a lot during league play when the coach seems to bring in players every week).

My DD helped out about a half dozen teams over the course of her playing days. I made it clear that the coach needs to use the opportunity to allow the players he has to step up and she would fill in 'where needed".
When I needed a guest player we generally worked it out between our other teams so there was no animosity and the players knew what their roll would be.

 

[daboss]

Coaches, be loyal to your team-------------the entire team. Unless you don't have enough to field the girls, stay away from guest players entirely. If you get the reputation of carrying players simply for their money and never give them the playing time when you are faced with these opportunities, you can count the days till you don't have a following or a team.

If they were good enough at tryouts for you to take their money, play them!

If you do ask a player or more to come, they should play. They gave up a weekend to help out. They deserve the courtesy.

My issues dealt with kids having other commitments during the season such as county fairs or camps. They would let me know in advance of a particular weekend they wouldn't be around. I made sure they understood if I needed to pick up a player, the pick up would play ahead of them even if things changed and they showed up anyway. I'm not going to ask a family to commit to me and have them sit the bench. If I need to go thru that much trouble to keep the others playing ball on a scheduled weekend than they should understand they give up their rights as rostered/paying players.

The ones I love are the parents that hound you relentlessly to give a guest player a chance because she's "Supergirl" and we will win the world championship if we could put her in the line up. What I would finally do is give in and allow them to bring her, then sit their daughter for the weekend. They want her on the team so bad they can sit and watch her play. None of the other girls solicited for her to be there so why should they suffer. Seems like you do that once and they quit bothering you. however, I do mention our tryouts to them and thank them for coming afterwards.

 

[Kavin3]

Never have been a fan of guest players. I chose my team in August & stuck with them. The year we won Orville Fire in the Sky at 14U just had 9 due to two injuries & that's what we went with. I understand coaches adding to a roster when they are injury plagued but I think you have to give your original players most of the innings & the starts but also must be honest w/ the guest player about her playing time & role.

 

[Hilliarddad3]

Our one did it a few times, even shuttling between Dayton and CBUS in the same weekend as her team was playing and she played another and didn't miss a beat. Her and a friend did a favor one time and we figured they'd be done by Sunday, but they kept going til Thursday. The entire team embraced them, they made long distance friends and we even by chance saw them at a rest stop two years later going to QDS, which shows how small a world softball really is.

 

[24GahannaLadyLions7]

We try to sub as much as possible. Our expectations going in are that she will bat last and my daughter may play every other inning if the team has 9 players. We are okay with that and I prepare my daughter for that. I try to have her look at it the other way around with a sub coming to our team. Honestly, I really have her sub to establish new relationships with other coaches/girls, meet new people, because honestly ur not going to get that many game reps if the team has 9 or more and the coach is doing the correct thing batting her last. She can go out there and have fun because girls are cordial, inviting (especially young ones) because its something new just like a new kid in class, everyone wants to meet them and see what they are about.

The good thing is if she does sub and she plays well.... awesome, and if she doesn't, guess what we don't ever have to see them again, it isn't our team. Some coaches we have subbed for have put us in the lead off spot and played the entire game, if I was coach I wouldn't of done that, I don't care how good the girl is. I would take care of my loyal girls and paying parents first. In my initial parent meeting, I would make sure parents know if we have to have a sub we WILL play her, but she will bat last and switch in periodically during the game. This way they will know that the sub isn't going to bat in front of their daughter, but their daughter have to sit defensively a inning while the sub plays. I am not going to complain to a coach who wants to play her the entire game and bat her first, that is HIS/HER decision.

We have had such a great experience subbing around town. Girls and coaches have been wonderful and fair with my daughter. But the new friends and relationships we have established has been unbelievable. She got to meet new friends while playing a game that she loves. She got to work on a few aspects of her game that she was scared to or wouldn't have had the opportunity on her regular team.