Gotta vent some on our high school softball coach

[blacklistedbully]

Some of you may know I was the Assistant Coach on last year's Varsity Softball team, the most successful in our school's history. We had made the playoffs 3-year-in-a-row after decades of winning 2-3 games a year or less. Last year we lost a hard-fought game to the eventual Division Champ in the Quarterfinals.

But this year, our HC left the school, and the new HC brought her old basketball coach as her assistant, refusing any and all help I offered her. She has, without doubt, destroyed our program in less than 1/2 a season. We often look like the KeyStone Kops, and are rapidly becoming the laughing stock of the league. We have things like, bases loaded situation, our batter hitting a ground ball toward 3rd, and our runner on 3rd running back to 3rd. We have a game where we play a team that has just one girl who can hit it more than 10 yards past the infield dirt, yet our coaches allow our outfielders to set up 30+ yards beyond that dirt, and make no adjustments as routine fly-after-routine-fly drops in front of them for a hit. The one time in the entire game they finally make a move to bring them in is, you guessed it, when the one girl on the other team that can really hit is up, and she blasts one that rolls to the fence.

Now on to our most recent game. Short story, we played a really bad team of mostly freshmen, who had scored a total of 2 runs in their previous 5 games. We have the league's most dominant pitcher, a young lady who has a scholarship offer to play college ball next year. We lose 9-8.

Our 1B commits at least six errors, 5 of which are simply dropped balls on throws to first that should have been routine outs. She is easily, directly responsible for spotting the other team 4 or more runs in our 1-run loss. But she does go 4-4 at the plate, with 4 charitable singles (the other team was so bad they just couldn't make the play on 2 of them, should have been errors).

My daughter goes a legit 2-for-3 at the plate plus a walk with one strikeout. She steals 2nd three times and 3rd once, scores 3 runs and knocks in another. She goes 5 of 5 in the field, including a beautiful backhand snag of a ground ball in the hole near second and makes a perfect throw to first.

Anybody care to guess who our HC named as Player of The Game?

While it might appear I'm just being bitter about my kid not getting the selection, it's really just another example of how utterly clueless this coach and her staff are. Even the young lady who won the award was in disbelief, saying herself she had an awful game. Other girls on the team are pissed as well, as anyone with half-a-brain knows she was the biggest reason we lost. Not the only, but clearly the biggest, as her drops lead to many unearned runs.

I seriously have to find a way to not care about these games so much, or I'm going to lose my mind watching this debacle, this dismantling of our once proud softball program.

[curmudgeon]

Where the hell is this?

[blacklistedbully]

Where the hell is this?

Northern Cali.

[curmudgeon]

Explains a lot. Softball in that area of the country is big and political - there are high schools (Freedom) where softball has more cloy than football.

Here, no one cares.

[blacklistedbully]

This coach & her assistant were the basketball coaches this past year,and begged to be given the chance to coach the softball team. The HC is young, apparently played college basketball, but never softball. Her assistant, who had been her high-school basketball coach, had previously coached high-school teams, but his teams always finished last, rarely winning a game.

Until the mid-point of this season, she would spend half the practices making the girls run laps because, "she's a big believer in cardio". Finally, the parents started complaining and the AD had a talk with her.

[shoeless joe]

In high school players make the coach. A good coach can't do much with poor players and a clueless coach can look good with top talent. But a coach can do things to improve or lower a teams chance to be successful.

What was the turnover from the last 3 yrs? Just guessing but maybe some top players graduated??

I don't know details but your post sounds like a parent that had some pull with the previous coach and now that that's not the case the new coach can't do anything rite. This may not be the case but as someone who makes a livin coaching young people I see this scenario play out all to often.

One thing is for sure...outside negativity will hurt the team every time. But that may be just what you're goin for.

[starkvegasdawg]

[QUOTE=blacklistedbully;160991]This coach & her assistant were the basketball coaches this past year,and begged to be given the chance to coach the softball team. QUOTE]

Is her name Mrs. Freeze?

[Vandownbytheriver]

Similar thing happened here. They named the Asst. baseball coach the head coach here. Dude has no damn clue how to coach softball. Teaching these girls baseball swings to try to hit fastpitch. He also swore up and down that he would teach fundamentals and this is the worst damn defensive team I've ever seen in any sport. This Pete Carrol looking asshole has no clue how to coach softball, but the wonderful AD here decided to save a few bucks and just give him the job. Only thing he does well is try to force his religious beliefs on his team.

[blacklistedbully]

In high school players make the coach. A good coach can't do much with poor players and a clueless coach can look good with top talent. But a coach can do things to improve or lower a teams chance to be successful.

What was the turnover from the last 3 yrs? Just guessing but maybe some top players graduated??

I don't know details but your post sounds like a parent that had some pull with the previous coach and now that that's not the case the new coach can't do anything rite. This may not be the case but as someone who makes a livin coaching young people I see this scenario play out all to often.

One thing is for sure...outside negativity will hurt the team every time. But that may be just what you're goin for.

You're way off on this one, Coach. As I stated, I was the assistant coach last year. I actually began this year giving this coach my full support.

Yes, there was some turnover, and we were expecting to rebuild some. But the problem isn't the new players. Our veterans are also regressing, making numerous errors, bad decisions, etc. In reality, we have 3 players who have no experience, and one of them turned out to be pretty decent. 2 of the new girls are outfielders, where they should not be a major factor in most games, as our pitcher is a stud.

In the game I mentioned where we had the bases loaded and our girl on 3rd ran back to 3rd on a ground ball, what I didn't mention is that our HC was the 3rd base coach. I coached 3rd last year, and like any 3B coach who has a clue, knew part of my job was to make sure our runners knew the # of outs, and what to do in case of grounder, line-drive, short-fly, deep fly, caught foul, etc. Our girl running back to 3rd on a grounder was clear evidence she was not being coached at 3rd.

Our girls are constantly complaining that nobody is giving them any instruction in-game. Nobody tells the girls if and when they should steal, round the bag, hold up, etc. Until this year, we'd always had signs for our base-runners. This year, the HC decided to not have signs, as she "wanted to keep it simple for the new girls". Guess what, we have had new gils join the team every year, and it doesn't take more than a few minutes to teach the signs, and a few practices to make it second nature.

When you are coaching, and you allow your outfielders to set up extremely deep, then watch as the other team proves time-and-again that they can't hit it within 20 yards of your outfielders, it's on the coaches to move those girls in.

When your practices are so basic that they never include game-situatioanal things, and the most you'll do is tell the girls on a bunt situation that 1st & 3rd crash, 2nd covers 1st and short covers 3rd, then you get a game where there is nobody on, a girl bunts, and our SS covers 3rd, as she has been told to do by the coaches, allowing the batter to beat out the throw, then jog into second standing up because nobody is covering 2B, that's on the coaches.

When you are one run from being run-ruled, the other team has players on 1st & 2nd with 1-out, and the batter hits a sharp grounder right to our 3B who is playing 2 steps off the bag, and your 3B elects to throw to first instead of at a minimum getting the lead runner with a shot at a double play, that is on the coaching when all your coaches do at practice is hit grounders to her and have her throw to first, or perhaps occasionally to 2nd, with no explanation or discussion on when, where & why you do things, and no instruction on thinking-in-advance, game-awareness, etc.

When you have returning players getting sloppy on the base-paths, sliding safely into 2nd, only to come off the bag after to be tagged out, that's on the coaches for not teaching and reminding them. Coach, that has happened twice this year in two different games with 2 different players. We don't spend much time practicing base running.

But one thing we have done is spend nearly 1 hour of our 2 hours practice running laps around the school grounds because this HC believes cardio is more important than actually teaching these young ladies what to do.

Lastly, I am not alone in this thinking. Every parent that has attended games is dumbfounded by how bad the coaching has been, including one parent who has coached both his daughters into college scholarships as softball players. We even have umpires during games shake their heads and laugh at times, it's so bad. Some of them ask me after the game, "What happened to you guys?".

[blacklistedbully]

Oh, and another thing. The HC, when she does coach, coaches the outfielders almost exclusively, and asks our 4 seniors to coach the infield because she has discovered her assistant doesn't know what he is doing.

We have a 4th year varsity player who is playing her second season as catcher. Last year, I moved her from 3rd to catcher because we lost our previous catcher to transfer. She showed a lot of promise, but we did heave to work her hard to get her to hold onto the ball, block, etc. She was a hard-worker and got really good by year's end. This year, she gets little work at practice. No more drills like we did last year. Subsequently, she has started regressing, allowing several passed balls, dropping numerous 3rd-strikes, several that have then resulted in the batter reaching 1b safely. Passed balls then become runners advancing.

I could go on and on with examples, as they are numerous, but the bottom line is the ladies are not being coached. Their practices are little more than a rudimentary pre-game warm-up with an inordinate amount of cardio mixed in. The veterans on the team feel embarrassed and humiliated.

Nobody, including myself has once complained about a new player making a mistake or committing an error. We recognize there is a learning curve and those things are going to happen. But nearly halfway through the season we are witnessing an utter lack of coaching in practice, a decline in the play of our experienced players, and zero in-game coaching.

We gave this staff the entire pre-season and 5 games before any of us started getting really pissed. And we are pissed, not because the new girls struggle, not because we are losing, but because we know damned well there is little-to-no coaching going on. The last game we lost was to a team that replaced EVERYBODY except their pitcher and catcher. We have 4 returning starters, a returning player with significant playing time last year, and a new player who is an extremely experienced club-ball SS who has played for years and is actually a significant upgrade defensively over the starter we lost to graduation. In short, we had the more skilled players by a wide margin, yet bumbled our way, once again to a loss. There are no signs of improvement, no signs the coaching staff have made any adjustments. That's what's got us all riled up.

[Joe Schmedlap]

Cue Allan Iverson:
"Softball, main. We talkin' 'bout softball"

JK

[shoeless joe]

Understood. But without all the facts my first instinct is to defend a coach and not a parent. This case may be different.

From what you describe my next inclination would be that there is a lack of situational reps of both offense and defense. The coach may be assuming because she told the players something they should execute in game but without pressurized situational reps just saying it is pointless.

And my last point will be this...it's just a game. Believe me I know what it's like to work hard day in and day out to try to achieve an on field goal. But it's not life or death it's a game played by kids.

Good luck and hopefully things turn around for y'all.

[blacklistedbully]

Understood. But without all the facts my first instinct is to defend a coach and not a parent. This case may be different.

From what you describe my next inclination would be that there is a lack of situational reps of both offense and defense. The coach may be assuming because she told the players something they should execute in game but without pressurized situational reps just saying it is pointless.

And my last point will be this...it's just a game. Believe me I know what it's like to work hard day in and day out to try to achieve an on field goal. But it's not life or death it's a game played by kids.

Good luck and hopefully things turn around for y'all.

Believe me, I get that, and was prepared for thsi team to take some lumps. My anger stems from the horrendous job of coaching that's being done. My kid plays every inning of every game, and is the only one with the green light to steal whenever and wherever she wants. She bats 2nd in the order, so it's not like I'm complaining about lack of playing time.

It is truly about the disservice this coaching staff is doing to our young ladies, and the tearing down of a program we worked so hard to build up. I am not alone in thinking there may not even be a softball program at this school within 2 years, perhaps next year. We attracted players because we were the only sports team at our school that was successful and had fun. After this year, 4 players are graduating, and with the way this team has self-destructed, I imagine they may not even find 9 girls who want to be a part of it next year.

It's a real shame.

[blacklistedbully]

OK, had another game today. This time we started a new pitcher, using our ace at 3rd base. Among many, many additional screwups by the coaching staff was this little jewel:

Our coaches used a courtesy runner for our 3rd baseman today. Yep, it is 100% against the rules, but we got away with it because...wait for it... our "in over her head AD" neglected to arrange for umpires to work the game.

Even after I pointed out to the staff that it was against the rules, they continued to do it every time she got on.

There were so many transgressions again today that I just stopped counting. Six games into the season and we still have base runners taking off on a fly ball and getting doubled off because they apparently haven't been told you have to either tag up, or return to the base on a caught fly ball.

Today, we played our catcher at SS. With a runner on first, our SS doesn't even pretend she's going to field her position. Before the pitch is even started she walks over to 2nd base and stands on it to receive a potential throw on the expected steal attempt. I watch this in disbelief, waiting for the coaching staff to say something to her. 2 pitches go by and nobody but me seems to notice, so I finally yell out to her, "You have to field your position first, then move to cover second if a steal is attempted!" She hears me and makes the adjustment. I'm not mad at her, though she should know better. I am PISSED at the coaches who do absolutely nothing to correct it themselves.

Still think I'm possibly exaggerating the situation, shoeless?

[M.Fillmore]

This sounds worse than T-ball.

[Vandownbytheriver]

The worst ones are the travel coaches. These dudes actually think they are some high level coaching experts. We were at the dog park last week and there was a travel team that was probably 7-8 year old kids practicing next to us. Two kids made errors and the boys both went back to the end of the line. The next kid bobbled the ball and the coach came unglued. Picked up a baseball and threw it into the woods next to the field. He then proceeds to tell the kids that he will not accept anything, but perfection and his goal is to take them to the championship. At this point he makes them all drop their gloves and run foul polls. None of the parents seemed to mind. Completely blew me away.

[blacklistedbully]

Yeah, it's so bad I hesitate to put all the stuff out here because it would strain credulity. People would think I was making this stuff up, or embellishing because I have a hard-on for this staff. But my "hard-on" is 100% attributable to what they are doing.

I got a call yesterday from the guy who was our HC last year, the year I was his assistant coach. They called him to see if he'd consider coming back this year, admitting they'd made a big mistake. But in the end, they decided by the time they got all his credentials in order, there'd only be a couple of games left. So it looks like they're just going to "mail it in" this season and hope we have enough talent to overcome the brutally bad coaching.

[blacklistedbully]

The worst ones are the travel coaches. These dudes actually think they are some high level coaching experts. We were at the dog park last week and there was a travel team that was probably 7-8 year old kids practicing next to us. Two kids made errors and the boys both went back to the end of the line. The next kid bobbled the ball and the coach came unglued. Picked up a baseball and threw it into the woods next to the field. He then proceeds to tell the kids that he will not accept anything, but perfection and his goal is to take them to the championship. At this point he makes them all drop their gloves and run foul polls. None of the parents seemed to mind. Completely blew me away.

What an asshole! Any parent who would let their child of that age be taught that way is an idiot. And parents paying for it are morons.

Unless it's a matter of kids not giving effort, it's always better to be positive, and make the experience enjoyable. A dick like that is more likely to ruin these kids desire to play, than create good ball-players. Even if he does improve their skills, he could end up taking away their desire. To me, desire is important. I tell you this from the perspective of a coach who does believe in hard work, challenging players and discipline.

At that age, these kids haven't even much developed their motor-skills and/or muscle-memory to be held to such a high standard.