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Another factor that most overlook is that in my experience, coaching high school may make a travel ball coach a better coach and coaching travel ball may make a high school coach a better coach!!!!
Another factor that most overlook is that in my experience, coaching high school may make a travel ball coach a better coach and coaching travel ball may make a high school coach a better coach!!!!
Wow, you almost confused the heck out of me with that one.
Remember, most travel coaches are volunteers not being paid.
It always amazes me how many people lose sight of this fact. I can recall often telling parents that they were not paying for coaching, that their fee was going pretty much 100% toward team expenses such as tournament fees, insurance, a bit of equipment and uniforms.
If people want to expect to complain about coaches not being good enough in travel ball, then they should be willing to pay another $500-$1000 per player in the fee so that the coach can make $5000-$12,000. If that seems like a lot, high school head coaches at a Division I school are usually somewhere between $3000 and $8000 and they only officially can coach from late February through late May, while travel ball coaches are now expected to coach year round except for the school season at 16-U and 18-U. With travel ball being at a higher level in most instances and the coach dealing with more personal expenses than a high school coach, anything under $7500 is peanuts.
To everyone complaining about volunteer coaches (or coaches who receive only expenses such as hotels and gas), come on, give them a break. If a coach is verbally abusive or something like that, that's one thing, but to ride coaches who are doing their best and giving hundreds and even thousands of their hours to your daughters is incomprehensible and just abhorrent. They should receive nothing but a genuine thank you and maybe a really nice gift card at the end of the season.
By the time I was finishing up running the Buckeye Heat, I had zero patience for parents complaining about coaches, unless it was about verbal abuse or anything else that no child should have to bear. I often reminded parents that they were paying zero for coaching and that didn't seem to stop them from saying that they were paying good money to be on this team and expected professional coaching.
Often it was the case that a coach wasn't even a parent and just enjoyed coaching. Even then, rarely would a parent let up once they started complaining. Think about that; you have a volunteer non-parent giving up all of his/her weekends all summer and a ton of time in the fall and winter, and usually hundreds or thousands of dollars just because it's hard to avoid spending your own money at times, and people still complain. What's next, people complaining about those who volunteer to work in hospitals or with the elderly?
Whenever I had parents complaining about volunteer coaches, I knew I was dealing with incredibly immature human beings or personified today's entitlement mentality.
I coach travel and high school. I am not going to lie, it certainly complicates things from March through May, but if you are willing to move your travel practices to Sundays, there really isn't much of a conflict.
For example, instead of practicing on Wednesdays or Fridays, my travel team will just practice for 3 - 4 hours on Sundays (on top of playing our Sunday league games). Essentially that is 6 hours of work...which is actually more than we do during the week now. For this arrangement to really work, though, you must have girls and parents who work on their own during the week. It also helps to keep in contact with the parents during the week to let them know what to work on.
For travel coaches, I definitely recommend getting involved in high school ball. Coaching softball 6 days a week really allows you to hone your coaching, especially when it comes to trying to teach and instruct fundamentals. Believe it or not, working with the less focused, less committed and less talented high school kids is a positive, because it forces you to step up your game and find ways to really motivate the girls, simplify your instruction and find ways to give your team an advantage outside of their individual softball talent - i.e. using substitution rules, small ball, etc.
I personally think that for travel coaches who are interested in coaching at the college level, a successful high school head coaching history helps tremendously, particularly if you are not a former collegiate softball player. I have seen very few non-collegiate softball players go on to coach at the collegiate level without first having high school head coaching experience - in particular, very successful high school head coaching experience (for example, coaching state championship teams). I am not saying it hasn't happened or doesn't happen, but if you are not a former collegiate softball player, then not having some sort of high school experience reduces your chances of coaching at the collegiate level.
In short, I think coaches with high ambitions should coach BOTH travel and high school. If he or she can do so without affecting the practice time of either team, then parents should be pleased they are getting such a dedicated and committed coach!
coachjwb:
Thanks for the thoughts. I think all of us have been exactly where you were at the end of last summer, wondering "what the heck, and why am I even doing this?" With that lack of appreciation you mentioned, on one hand you don't want to be a woe-is-me person, but at the same time it's just bewildering and leaves you wondering how people can so completely lack perspective and feel so entitled.
By the time I was finishing up running the Buckeye Heat, I had zero patience for parents complaining about coaches, unless it was about verbal abuse or anything else that no child should have to bear. I often reminded parents that they were paying zero for coaching and that didn't seem to stop them from saying that they were paying good money to be on this team and expected professional coaching.
Often it was the case that a coach wasn't even a parent and just enjoyed coaching. Even then, rarely would a parent let up once they started complaining. Think about that; you have a volunteer non-parent giving up all of his/her weekends all summer and a ton of time in the fall and winter, and usually hundreds or thousands of dollars just because it's hard to avoid spending your own money at times, and people still complain. What's next, people complaining about those who volunteer to work in hospitals or with the elderly?
Whenever I had parents complaining about volunteer coaches, I knew I was dealing with incredibly immature human beings who personified today's entitlement mentality.