Church and travel ball

[crystlemc]

Do you feel that a player should be penalized for missing practices or games in order to attend church?

 

[fastjay]

absolutely not as long as conflicts are communicated as far in advance as possible. also, the coach should tell the parents about the conflict and acknowledge that he or she is totally on board with the players comittment. i had this exact scenario three years ago. i was so flexible with them, however, that they ended up working with me and meeting me half way, so to speak. it couldn't have worked out any better simply due the fact that we communicated with each other very well up front.

 

[crystlemc]

Every Sunday?

 

[CARDS]

Do you feel that a player should be penalized for missing practices or games in order to attend church?

This can be a tough situation especially; if the coach has not laid out expectations in the player / parent commitment contract before the season.

In my opinion, if a family feels that they cannot play on Sundays or at least will miss games on Sundays or practice you have to go with the ladies that can. I do not see this as penalizing a player just a team situation that has to be addressed as outlined in the commitment contract.

If a family feels that strong about these issues it should have been discussed prior to them joining the team. I have had players that are currently in faith based college education programs that found ways to maintain their faith obligations without effecting their team.

There are faith based teams available for ladies to play on if the parents want to go that way. FCA is a great place to start.
http://southwestohiofca.org/ Kentucky and Ohio have several of these teams. http://www.fca.org/

 

[Laser05]

In my opinion this is not even a debate! Church, Family, and school come before ball at any level. I am more then happy to open up extra practices to athlestes and honestly I never hold practice in conflict with church unless games or scrimmages. I set our games in advance so families can prepare for Sundays with games, but never would I ask them to miss for practice only. I just avoid the conflict by not practicing early Sunday's even when our Saturday practice time is not an option!!!! Games and tournaments for select team is another story.

 

[Chad Strahler]

I don't think they should miss games. They know what they signed up for (or should) and we all know that we expect everyone to commit 100%. Just because its church doesn't mean it's any different then something else someone might be into that isn't church and would conflict. Would those players be excused? And not punished? Travel ball isn't school ball, you get to pick your team and be picked by someone and all that goes with it you should be sure your all (coaches included) committed to everything. As long as you know what your signing up for. I'm sure that won't be popular because it's not all roses for the girls but that's my opinion only.

 

[JoeA1010]

So we have the Midwest where families insist upon no more than 12 girls on a team. And now it's bracket time on Sunday morning and 3-4 girls are missing because of church. What now?

When I coached travel ball, I gave each player one weekend off of their choosing (other than Nationals or somewhere like Colorado if we went there), but only two could choose the same weekend. It was first-come, first-served. That seemed to work out pretty well. But you can't have three or four players announcing on Saturday night that they won't be there in the morning; that's not fair to the rest of the team.

 

[Irish196]

I guess it depends on what the penalty is and how unavoidable it is to miss.
We haven't missed a Sunday of church (with the exception of serious illness) and we have one daughter who plays travel ball. We have also never missed a game, scrimmage or tournament for church. We have always found a Mass to go to so we could work around the softball schedule. This has meant on several occasions that she misses a celebratory dinner with the team Sunday evening or that we go straight from a Saturday game to a local church looking like disasters, but we make both a priority and she understands that and is actually ok with it (maybe mopey now and then but still ok).
I guess if it's a chronic problem then they have some thinking to do about how to better accommodate both activities. But if it's only a minor practice issue here or there (like maybe 4-5 times a whole season for practice) I don't think that should be an issue. If it was an issue to a coach we played with, that would be a problem for us.
I guess it's possible (but not likely) that the day will come that we can't find an 8:00 Sunday night Mass at some college campus close to the field or a Saturday evening Mass. If that's the case I would hope that the coach would understand if we had to miss warm up for a game or the like. We'd never leave a team high and dry though.

 

[wow]

Travel ball is a commitment. There are sacrifices. It's not fair to the team to miss bracket play for church. With that being said there are options depending on your faith. Saturday service, if it does not conflict with pool play. Many churches offer wends services as well. I think when you play at the elite travel level commitment is important. It's only for a few months and there are usually breaks to attend church. You can not have different levels of expectations for kids who are faith based and those who are not. We tell everyone we belong to the first church of fastpitch May to July.. I am
Not sure how you attend church every week and attend bracket play on Sunday's? Can't be in two
Places at the same time..

 

[spartansd]

You can attend mass outside of softball practice.

Honestly, if you are Catholic you have mass starting Saturday night, and as early as 6am on Sunday.

You wanna attend Church go early to go late.

We always find time to do both. Never an issue.

 

[okiedad1961]

Agree w Spartan, You can find time to make a mass,service before after or during the week if you have midweeks.Don't think it would be right to have your team short on Sunday.Our HS players can miss a practice due to a church function.

 

[okiedad1961]

"We tell everyone we belong to the first church of fastpitch May to July" Or you could get a official blessing by the Pope for the season.

 

[SOFTBALLS14]

Hey God loves softball!! That's why its played by Ladies on a Diamond!! The Two toughest things he made!! Say a prayer before or after game! LOL

 

[flygirlsdad]

Let the kid and their family go to church. Pick up another player if you have to. As a coach you need to manage your team. If you want said player to be a part of your team, you will find a way to make it work or they will find another team. There is a reason schools dont play on Sundays.

 

[okiedad1961]

Much rather have them miss for church,than parent overslept from prior nights partying,or couldn't make the tourney due to unspecifyed injury and was seen on a family vacation w no apparent injury and those are real. Lol

 

[Lenski65]

Do you feel that a player should be penalized for missing practices or games in order to attend church?

Did the player and parents let you know up front at tryouts about their necessity to miss practice and games due to church? If so, and she makes the team, no penalty. If not, it should be the same penalty any kid gets for missing practice or a game.

 

[hot corner]

Did the player and parents let you know up front at tryouts about their necessity to miss practice and games due to church? If so, and she makes the team, no penalty. If not, it should be the same penalty any kid gets for missing practice or a game.

I agree with Lenski. The player needs to be upfront with the coach at tryouts about their position on attending church on Sundays. Then both coach and player can make an informed decision and is this the right fit. If the player isn't upfront with the coach at tryouts and makes the team, then the same rules apply for missing a game or practice.

 

[Static_97_North]

What about when they get to college and play ball. They play on Sundays. I have nothing against church but all parents and players know that tournaments are on Sundays before they commit to a team. There should be no reason to miss tournaments on Sunday for church. Again, not against church by any means but service can be given during the week.

 

[WWolff]

I think Church is very important and should be a part of our youth ! The lack of belief in Christianity is a big part of what is wrong with our great country (Along with liberals ). Being raised in a Christian home I know there are other options besides Sunday morning's. We had Wed. and also Sunday evening service. So I believe there is a way to fulfill your commitment to your faith and your team.

 

[daboss]

Do you feel that a player should be penalized for missing practices or games in order to attend church?

Now there's a double-edged sword!!!