Can I get a poll?

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I think the poll has been created and everyone has responded.

Should I stay 0 votes
Should I go 70 votes
Should I stay in rec 30 votes

I cant help to notice from all "mom" posts talk about getting experience and nothing about getting better, maybe it's time to move your dd up to 18u? The incoming freshman in travel ball are still learning and listening and playing as a team to get better so they are ready for 16u and showcase tournaments to display their hard work and dedication to attend a D1 school. It reads as if your already past all that, so 18u maybe where your dd needs to pay to play.

 

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I told my dd "I payed for a spot on the team. It is up to you to earn a spot on the field". Every game, every practice is a tryout. I want all my children to work for what they want. They appreciate its value more and they learn that they are not entitled to ANYTHING.

 

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I told my DD, "I payed for a spot on the team. It is up to you to earn a spot on the field".

Can I use this? I love it... nothing not earned is worth value ...

 

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Playing H.S. right now, (don't know the "rules" for tryouts with that). Located in NWO. Would like a team around here or at least one that plays Toledo tourneys. Willing to travel for a good fit though, i.e, solid team, BEST player for each position, dedicated players who's idea of summer vacation IS a tourney, and NO DRAMA! Would like a team to stick with, too. 1st, 3rd & catcher.

I wonder if she has had this problem before. ;&

 

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The one funny things is that you hear about this every year, but some how these kids and their parents find takers. Just for arguement sake let's say this kid is really good, why as a coach would you take her knowing the families habit of skipping from team to team. Knowing when things don't work out like their superstar family thinks they should, they will jump ship. Looks like quite a few coaches will sacrifice their sanity and team unity for a couple of extra wins. Of course, us coaches think we will be the ones to get through to them and the kid. JMHO

 

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Can I use this? I love it... nothing not earned is worth value ...

Love it!

 

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i told my dd "i payed for a spot on the team. It is up to you to earn a spot on the field". Every game, every practice is a tryout. I want all my children to work for what they want. They appreciate its value more and they learn that they are not entitled to anything.

brilliant!

 

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Not her first season and not the first time hearing parents just like me. I guess they are just too afraid to put it in "writing". I however believe I am teaching my daughter NOT to take **** off anybody. Her power is to believe in her self, not that someone thinks she's not good enough so try harder. Sorry you didn't see the game, but the first 4 games on this team she played 3rd & 1st and made no errors. 1st, 2nd, & short made plenty. I mean come on, if a 1st baseman can't catch a ball thrown right at her at perfect tag level???????? When he switched her to first for an inning she didn't have any errors. I smell coaches and butt kissers. Like I said, I don't put my kid on a travel team just to say she is. I put her there to get more experience. She has played fall ball at the local college for H.S. players for 3yrs. now. She's a freshman this year. The college coach has already offered her a spot. She's not good enough?

I have got to print this off for my parents - This Mom has got to go in the Travel Ball Mom Hall of Fame....Start making the bust now....I just opened our "rules and regulations" sheet and added another one..."You may feel free to enjoy the entertainment and great information on OFC, however if you are caught posting about your DD or this organization you will be asked to leave immediately"

 

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Within all of this, though is something that could happen to a lot of naive families... maybe ones that never read this board, or didn't have friends with daughters on other teams.

Slightly untruthful coach (yes, there are a few), says "Wow, your kid's great. I'd bat her fourth for sure if she was on my team. I'd put her in the infield too, she has great hands. She wouldn't be a bench warmer for sure."

What he doesn't say is "I'll do all that at the beginning, but she'd have to continue to earn those spots day after day, and if she backslides or can't keep up, she would sit until she wins them again!"

And all proud, hopeful momma hears is "I PROMISE SHE'LL HAVE TRAVEL BALL HEAVEN"

 

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On the flip side though, my dd played for a coach who promised her many things and didn't deliver on his promises. Leaving the team NEVER entered our minds because we had made a commitment for the whole season, she just worked harder. She got to learn a new position she never played before and ended up loving it. You never know when an opportunity to better yourself might come along so you have to be willing to try anything and sometimes you just have to stick it out.

Amen Klump!
And, when the season is over, you look for a new organization to go to for the following season taking with you the lessons learned from spending the summer being promised one thing and seeing another thing take place.
Ask around about coaches and organizations before believing everything a coach will promise you to get you to come on board... do some research and pick the places you go tryout carefully so you don't fall into the same situation again.

 

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No coach in his right mind promises anything, EVER! Just chaulk this up as a bad experience, and move on. I know the coach well, and his reputation speaks for itself. He will continue to coach at a high level whether your daughter is on this team or not. Please use everything that everyone is trying to tell you. Nothing is given except for a spot on the team. We as parents must sit back and enjoy the ride from there. I too have a freshman, and i am dreading the day her career comes to an end. I just hopes she does well enough to get a scholarship. Dont care if its athletic or academic, as long as she goes to better herself.

Just point her in the right direction, and let your daughter do the rest....

 

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Run Forest Run !!!!!!!!!

Away from this coach and this player. I am confused if the coach said she would play there every inning? Any coach and player worth their salt would not want to make or accept promises but hope every player on the team is earning everything they get week to week.
If the player and the team come to an impass then they settle it as adults not as " I am grabbing my ball and going home kicking and screaming". Can you say PRIMA DONA.

 

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All of our DDs teams since 12u have promised us sunshine and roses. Some kind of other player drama has been shown during the season. Late pick up 12u pitcher promised to be starting, (moved the other "starting" down), and as soon as she pitched a real tourney game and showed she couldn't was given my DDs spot and she got the bench. The organization sold their winter practice building so the new pitchers dad gave them his barn. They were teaching her how to play DDs spot during the tourney. My DD was 3rd all winter practice. At young 12u her heart was broken so we decided to back out rather than watch her cry. No 13u teams around here. 14u coach that she subbed for last year because not enough players, (asked her to play left field and she was happy to do so), promised her a spot the following season. We didn't care where on the team. It was a real good coach and a real good team. He dropped my DD and picked up a LOCAL player who had quit her team the season before for the same reason we are accused of, (she even got picked up by another team to finish that year as their starting pitcher). He promised us he wasn't going to do that because he wanted to pick up more than "local" girls. We came from an hour away. 14u coach our DD was playing for in that same season, (in the same organization), let his DD coach the games because she had gotten injured. We thought we'd try further away for THIS season with an organization that was playing under a well renowned organizations name. The team we were going to use the "no girl left behind" scholarship fund for. That 14u coach left his team during a winter team tourney standing on the field in the middle of a game. His wife threw a fit because he had promised his own daughter 2nd pitcher. When he put a substitute 12u left fielder in the spot instead, his wife grabbed her bawling DD off the field and left. He went right after them and never came back. You already know what this seasons 14u coach did. Are we naive? I don't know? After those coaches? All her other coaches, (college coach included), never move her except to the places she KNOWS how to play. She plays 1st, 3rd, & catch. I guess I'm naive about the way travel teams run. I guess rec, H.S.,ACME, all stars, & fall ball are enough experience. Maybe a camp is best for teaching her how to play different positions, (instead of a game). Her 12u team showed us that. If our DD plays on a teams spot that she doesn't know how to play, and take it from the player knowledgeable for that position, how would that player & their parents feel? Think of it this way, take the starting PITCHER out, (and bench her), and put my DD there instead. ;&

 

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No offense to your daughter, but any college coach would take a pass on her, no matter what her talents, if they were to read your posts.

 

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And you haven't learned a thing from all these posts have you??? It is NOT all about YOUR daughter, it is about what is best for the team. If EVERYONE you've dealt with seems to be screwing you over, maybe it's you. If the same problems and drama follow you from team to team, every year maybe you are the cause. If you know so much about positioning players, why don't you coach? Your daughter could play all the cushy spots she wants and bat #4 in the line-up like she likes, sunshine and roses just what you are looking for!!

 

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I think mom asks a really good question and from a parent's perspective.

If you are going to spend time and money on a team; shouldn't there be some understanding about what our daughters are going to get out of it. If the coach makes promises and then doesn't deliver, the coach shouldn't be surprised to see these players vanish. A whole summer season sitting on a bench while others play makes for a very long year and very little personal progress.

Most of these posts do not acknowledged that the coach 'promised' this player (and her parents) right or wrong. He recruited her, so she passed up other opportunities with other teams and is now finding herself in a secondary role that was clearly not part of the deal. The coach seduced her and her family, took her money and then didn't deliver.

We all make these decisions based on a myriad of factors including who else is on the team, who the coaches are, what the anticipated depth chart looks like, the tournaments that they are likely to play, the anticipated cost, the quality of the team, their placement history, the integrity of the coaches and organization ....etc. . You don't want to spend a entire summer as the 5th pitcher on a 4 pitcher rotation.

 

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You are assuming she is telling the truth.....remember, there are TWO sides to every story. Just because she says he promised something, doesn't mean he actually did. Sometimes parents hear what they want to hear, not what the coach actually says.

I think mom asks a really good question and from a parent's perspective.

If you are going to spend time and money on a team; shouldn't there be some understanding about what our daughters are going to get out of it. If the coach makes promises and then doesn't deliver, the coach shouldn't be surprised to see these players vanish. A whole summer season sitting on a bench while others play makes for a very long year and very little personal progress.

Most of these posts do not acknowledged that the coach 'promised' this player (and her parents) right or wrong. He recruited her, so she passed up other opportunities with other teams and is now finding herself in a secondary role that was clearly not part of the deal. The coach seduced her and her family, took her money and then didn't deliver.

We all make these decisions based on a myriad of factors including who else is on the team, who the coaches are, what the anticipated depth chart looks like, the tournaments that they are likely to play, the anticipated cost, the quality of the team, their placement history, the integrity of the coaches and organization ....etc. . You don't want to spend a entire summer as the 5th pitcher on a 4 pitcher rotation.

 

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She hears what she wants, your first indication is when she says "All of our DD's teams since 12U have promised us sunshine and roses." That is called selective hearing. This is a respected coach who has been in a successful organization for years and doesn't have a dd on the team. I find it hard to believe he would have gotten this far by playing favorites and making empty promises.

 

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All My Children has less drama. And, I don't like to listen to that either.

 

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I don't know "Mom" nor do I agree with most of what she has said, however, I do feel that there are MANY MANY coaches out there that are always looking for something better. I agree that it is the coaches decision to play whomever is right for the position and what is best for the team, however, I also feel that there needs to be commitment on both sides. A coach who continually brings in new players and benches current paying players is only looking for destruction and a lack of support and dedication from his team.

I have seen this occur in the past, not on our current team (which really works hard for the girls) and it ended up in a total collapse of that team. There needs to be open communication on all aspects of a team. Both from the parents, players and the coaches. If someone is not playing as you would like, talk to them, assist them, etc. If no improvement, you don't ask that player back next season.