Favorite Age Group to Coach?

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What is (or was depending on your status) your favorite age group to coach and why?

 

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12U. They were enthusiastic, held onto every word..sometimes literally and were for the most part without drama.

 

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12u... they can actually do high level plays when one would think they can't... boy, they are so good at this age! Aaaaand they will only listen...um... one more minute before they "know it all" and become 13 and lost... lmao. 10u has it's own rewards but 2nd year 12's is hard to beat.

And what Coach2 said above, so true!!!

 

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I would say 12u also. You can play as much as you want and the girls are very enthusiastic. Very little drama from parents is the key though. As you become 14u and older the drama mounts and I cannot figure out why. Please enlighten me if anyone has an answer for that.

 

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Middle School.

I spent 6 years with my oldest in travel with the Canal Lady Indians,then I coached my next child for the next 5 years in the Xtreme program.

I was offered a school job 3 years ago at my daughters rival school.Caught flack from friends that I wont see my kid play.I see her for fall,winter and summer so why not take a school job?Best experience I ever had was coaching a school team my daughter was not on.Could have been her best experience too-on an undefeated team her dad didn't coach-undefeated as the school pitcher......until my school team handed them thier 1st loss 8-0!She powted for just 1 night.She's old enough now where I can brag about it without her crying.Plus Murph,Goodin and Hack help to remind her-but they're still best of friends.

1st 2 years of middle school,I was blessed with players like Murph,Goodin,Hack and again my kid(Lucas) when she transfered.I had a school team with players associated with Championship,Stingrays,Lasers,Classics and Xtreme.Those kids felt the joy of playing with school mates and it was fun.Those kids were not set back playing school ball.The experienced travel kids were not snobs-the other schoolball kids wanted to play with the group I had because they were out of the travel zone and all enjoyed helping each other.We wanted to win(and did) but at the end of the day,we were not worried about an ASA qualifier.They wanted to win and looked forward to a end of the year junior high tourney!Winning is a good environment,so maybe I was blessed with my situation.Our league also were put into check when we played the Marysville,Jester's Johnathan Alder,Liberty Union(Mix's kids) and Coop's team-cool playing those kids at thier younger years when they growing into the Laser Gold-Silver,Stingray,Classics,Buckeye Heat,etc. futures they have.Will be cool to see them play at the varsity school level and know where they are travel wise and remember playing them when they were 7th and 8th graders.

May have a different answer later since I am stepping away from my kids 16u team and starting over again for the 3rd time at the 10u age in my organization-again without one of my kids on the team.I just need to adapt again to dealing with loud dugout cheers,maybe some powting and no worries of drivers licenses,boys,puberty and adolecense.