Collectively, A Thread To Celebrate Our Kids Athletic Accomplishments (1 Viewer)

[Gr00vus]

Gr00vus Jr.'s 12U little league team won their league championship this week. Double elimination tournament, they were the last seed, lost their first playoff game and then ran the table - and none of the games were really close. 1st time he's ever been on an organized sports team that's won a championship.

Jr. played a good first base, threw 9 (mostly low pressure) relief innings over the course of the season with a 1.5 ERA, 10 SO. He finished the year 2nd on the team with a .481 BA, 1st on the team with a .561 OBP, 3rd on the team with a .574 SLG. He also led the team with 12 SB (those experienced with little league know how nebulous SB scoring is though). Best parts of it all were how much he improved as a player over the course of the season, and this definitely was the most fun he (and I as an assistant coach) have ever had in little league so far. This team was an absolute blast.

We have a "tournament of champions" next against the champs from the leagues in the other parts of the region starting next week. We're not taking that super seriously, so don't know how we'll fare. It's kind of a cherry on top thing, we're all ecstatic with how the season's turned out already.

 

[Gilroy34]

So proud of my son who played on varsity as a sophomore for his high school baseball team this spring.  He made the team as a pitcher and sprinkled in some time as reserve at 1st base.  He started out in the bullpen and earned 4 or 5 starts as the year went on.  In his first varsity start he went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk against a 6A team in non league for a win.  His team is 4A.  He followed that up with a combined 6 solid innings against the two 4A teams in the state who played in the state championship last year and are ranked as the top 2 teams this year.  

He started out as the number 4 starter and now has jumped up to the number 2 starter.  His team entered playoffs as the number 5 team ranked in state and they won their 1st playoff game last night.  My son is slated to start on Friday at the number 4 team in state.  This team only has 1 loss on the season so it will be tough.

No matter what happens he kicked butt this year finishing with an ERA just over 1 which led the team.  He made all league as a sophomore so the future is bright.  His ceiling is very high as he is 6'4" and growing, still very skinny and will fill out and get stronger.

 

[Dickies]

Gr00vus Jr.'s 12U little league team won their league championship this week. Double elimination tournament, they were the last seed, lost their first playoff game and then ran the table - and none of the games were really close. 1st time he's ever been on an organized sports team that's won a championship.

Jr. played a good first base, threw 9 (mostly low pressure) relief innings over the course of the season with a 1.5 ERA, 10 SO. He finished the year 2nd on the team with a .481 BA, 1st on the team with a .561 OBP, 3rd on the team with a .574 SLG. He also led the team with 12 SB (those experienced with little league know how nebulous SB scoring is though). Best parts of it all were how much he improved as a player over the course of the season, and this definitely was the most fun he (and I as an assistant coach) have ever had in little league so far. This team was an absolute blast.

We have a "tournament of champions" next against the champs from the leagues in the other parts of the region starting next week. We're not taking that super seriously, so don't know how we'll fare. It's kind of a cherry on top thing, we're all ecstatic with how the season's turned out already.

Love this. My son’s team also lost their first playoff game and have won the last two to keep their season going. They play again today. The losers bracket is a serious grind if you lose the first game. 

 

[Gr00vus]

So proud of my son who played on varsity as a sophomore for his high school baseball team this spring.  He made the team as a pitcher and sprinkled in some time as reserve at 1st base.  He started out in the bullpen and earned 4 or 5 starts as the year went on.  In his first varsity start he went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk against a 6A team in non league for a win.  His team is 4A.  He followed that up with a combined 6 solid innings against the two 4A teams in the state who played in the state championship last year and are ranked as the top 2 teams this year.  

He started out as the number 4 starter and now has jumped up to the number 2 starter.  His team entered playoffs as the number 5 team ranked in state and they won their 1st playoff game last night.  My son is slated to start on Friday at the number 4 team in state.  This team only has 1 loss on the season so it will be tough.

No matter what happens he kicked butt this year finishing with an ERA just over 1 which led the team.  He made all league as a sophomore so the future is bright.  His ceiling is very high as he is 6'4" and growing, still very skinny and will fill out and get stronger.

That's fantastic. Good luck to Gilroy34 Jr. tomorrow!

 

[Gr00vus]

Love this. My son’s team also lost their first playoff game and have won the last two to keep their season going. They play again today. The losers bracket is a serious grind if you lose the first game. 

I don't think I've been so exhausted in my life, working my ### off everyday for my job and then baseball game or practice every friggin day the last 2 weeks. You'd think no big deal, you're not playing just helping with the coaching, but...

Even so, we'll be sad when this season ends (however it ends), it's been a great ride with a wonderful bunch of kids and families. Usually by this time, I'm longing for the season to end to get some of my life back and start physical rehab for all the nagging old man trying to help out in a young kid's game injuries that accumulate over the season. Not this season. 

 

[jobarules]

I don't think I've been so exhausted in my life, working my ### off everyday for my job and then baseball game or practice every friggin day the last 2 weeks. You'd think no big deal, you're not playing just helping with the coaching, but...

Even so, we'll be sad when this season ends (however it ends), it's been a great ride with a wonderful bunch of kids and families. Usually by this time, I'm longing for the season to end to get some of my life back and start physical rehab for all the nagging old man trying to help out in a young kid's game injuries that accumulate over the season. Not this season. 

As a LL coach the last 6 years, ending last year, trust me when I say this you will miss the everyday grind. My son plays travel ball still but its just not the same.

 

[Gally]

As a LL coach the last 6 years, ending last year, trust me when I say this you will miss the everyday grind. My son plays travel ball still but its just not the same.

I was happy when LL coaching ended.  I was a board member, coaches coordinator, and manager and dealing with LL parents and the LL organization in general was a terrible experience.  LL gets all the love from ESPN and TV for the LL world series but overall it is a terrible baseball organization.  If you can find a PONY baseball league I would highly recommend that organization over LL for baseball development.  

As far as travel ball goes that is really dependent on the travel organization/coaches you hook up with as to how good of an experience it is.  Do your research before jumping into an organization.  They can be drastically different so make sure their goals/philosophies match up with your own otherwise it will be miserable.  

 

[jobarules]

I was happy when LL coaching ended.  I was a board member, coaches coordinator, and manager and dealing with LL parents and the LL organization in general was a terrible experience.  LL gets all the love from ESPN and TV for the LL world series but overall it is a terrible baseball organization.  If you can find a PONY baseball league I would highly recommend that organization over LL for baseball development.  

As far as travel ball goes that is really dependent on the travel organization/coaches you hook up with as to how good of an experience it is.  Do your research before jumping into an organization.  They can be drastically different so make sure their goals/philosophies match up with your own otherwise it will be miserable.  

I definitely felt lucky and in 6 years of coaching never had a parent complain or bother me.

 

[Gally]

I definitely felt lucky and in 6 years of coaching never had a parent complain or bother me.

As a board member and dealing with the organization itself I also saw how terrible that LL organization is and how it isn't really a baseball organization.  Some of that is on me and my expectations as a baseball coach wanting to teach the game to the kids and how the organization hinders that in many ways.  I have also dealt with PONY baseball and that organization was much better when it comes to actual baseball development.  LL was just too inflexible.  

Great for you that you had a good experience.  

 

[Dickies]

I don't think I've been so exhausted in my life, working my ### off everyday for my job and then baseball game or practice every friggin day the last 2 weeks. You'd think no big deal, you're not playing just helping with the coaching, but...

Even so, we'll be sad when this season ends (however it ends), it's been a great ride with a wonderful bunch of kids and families. Usually by this time, I'm longing for the season to end to get some of my life back and start physical rehab for all the nagging old man trying to help out in a young kid's game injuries that accumulate over the season. Not this season. 

I hear you. I stepped away from coaching baseball a couple years ago (still coach soccer) and have been umpiring instead. It’s a lot of fun, but I’m always a bit relieved when the season ends so that I can get some personal time back. I know I will miss it all as he gets older and the competition to make the HS team starts. 

 

[Dickies]

As a board member and dealing with the organization itself I also saw how terrible that LL organization is and how it isn't really a baseball organization.  Some of that is on me and my expectations as a baseball coach wanting to teach the game to the kids and how the organization hinders that in many ways.  I have also dealt with PONY baseball and that organization was much better when it comes to actual baseball development.  LL was just too inflexible.  

Great for you that you had a good experience.  

Do you have specifics?  My wife was on our LL board for a few years and we are very heavily involved in our LL. We absolutely love it, although my wife didn’t care for the politics of the board.  I think people’s experiences may be league dependent as the LL across town is unorganized and not well regarded, while I feel like the LL we play in is the best youth sports experience we’ve had.

My biggest gripe is that many of the coaches take preseason and regular season way too seriously and do not rotate kids into different positions nearly enough. What I’ve read about PONY seems like it would just encourage more ultra serious coaches to win at all costs. When I coached I made sure every kid played every position unless there was a safety issue or a kid did not want to play a certain infield position, players would not play OF in consecutive defensive innings, and I made sure every kid on the roster, my own son included, sat on the bench for an inning each game. I judged my success as a coach not on our overall record or statistics, but on how many of my former players signed up to play the following year. 

 

[jobarules]

Do you have specifics?  My wife was on our LL board for a few years and we are very heavily involved in our LL. We absolutely love it, although my wife didn’t care for the politics of the board.  I think people’s experiences may be league dependent as the LL across town is unorganized and not well regarded, while I feel like the LL we play in is the best youth sports experience we’ve had.

My biggest gripe is that many of the coaches take preseason and regular season way too seriously and do not rotate kids into different positions nearly enough. What I’ve read about PONY seems like it would just encourage more ultra serious coaches to win at all costs. When I coached I made sure every kid played every position unless there was a safety issue or a kid did not want to play a certain infield position, players would not play OF in consecutive defensive innings, and I made sure every kid on the roster, my own son included, sat on the bench for an inning each game. I judged my success as a coach not on our overall record or statistics, but on how many of my former players signed up to play the following year. 

I dont know about every position but I always rotated with some caveats. My 1B and C needed to show me they can catch without taking a ball off the face. My infielders need to show me they can field a groundball without getting hurt. And my pitchers need to show me they can throw strikes otherwise nobody is getting better in a walkfest.

 

[belljr]

Do you have specifics?  My wife was on our LL board for a few years and we are very heavily involved in our LL. We absolutely love it, although my wife didn’t care for the politics of the board.  I think people’s experiences may be league dependent as the LL across town is unorganized and not well regarded, while I feel like the LL we play in is the best youth sports experience we’ve had.

My biggest gripe is that many of the coaches take preseason and regular season way too seriously and do not rotate kids into different positions nearly enough. What I’ve read about PONY seems like it would just encourage more ultra serious coaches to win at all costs. When I coached I made sure every kid played every position unless there was a safety issue or a kid did not want to play a certain infield position, players would not play OF in consecutive defensive innings, and I made sure every kid on the roster, my own son included, sat on the bench for an inning each game. I judged my success as a coach not on our overall record or statistics, but on how many of my former players signed up to play the following year. 

Outside the local league being good or bad 

The main issues of player development is 

Lead off 

Steals 

Base distance.  Pony has a graduated increase in distance.

LL is 46, 60 up until 12. Then one year? Of 50 70

 

[Dickies]

I dont know about every position but I always rotated with some caveats. My 1B and C needed to show me they can catch without taking a ball off the face. My infielders need to show me they can field a groundball without getting hurt. And my pitchers need to show me they can throw strikes otherwise nobody is getting better in a walkfest.

C and 1B are the two I took seriously when it came to safety issues, and with C I would try to keep kids back there who can keep the ball in front of them so that the game isn't slowed down by passed balls every pitch.  1B I didn't really care if they were super adept at being able to catch, but they needed to show me they paid attention in the game and weren't building sand castles in the dirt.  Every kid got the opportunity to pitch.  Sure it lead to some walkfests, but some kids who would have never gotten the chance with other coaches really showed a lot of improvement.  One of them is now one of the most consistent strike-throwing pitcher in AAA

 

[Gally]

Do you have specifics?  My wife was on our LL board for a few years and we are very heavily involved in our LL. We absolutely love it, although my wife didn’t care for the politics of the board.  I think people’s experiences may be league dependent as the LL across town is unorganized and not well regarded, while I feel like the LL we play in is the best youth sports experience we’ve had.

My biggest gripe is that many of the coaches take preseason and regular season way too seriously and do not rotate kids into different positions nearly enough. What I’ve read about PONY seems like it would just encourage more ultra serious coaches to win at all costs. When I coached I made sure every kid played every position unless there was a safety issue or a kid did not want to play a certain infield position, players would not play OF in consecutive defensive innings, and I made sure every kid on the roster, my own son included, sat on the bench for an inning each game. I judged my success as a coach not on our overall record or statistics, but on how many of my former players signed up to play the following year. 

The way coaches behave and the way LL organization is run/setup are two completely different topics and really don't have anything to do with each other.  Any youth organization is going to have good coaches and bad coaches regardless of how well run an overall organization is.  

I have also heard/talked to many people that have had good LL experiences like you have expressed and I do believe much of that depends on the people on your local board and the local district offices you have to deal with.  In my area our board was terrible which is why I decided to get on the board to try and improve it.  We basically replaced all the board members with a whole new batch that were like minded and wanted to improve the baseball development of the kids.  We also were a fairly small area (only had enough kids to make 3 majors teams and that included drafting ten 9 year olds into the league).  I will say some of the new board members that did get elected ended up eventually morphing to change things to help their kids (all star formats, selections etc) and we still had some old board members trying to cause problems as well.  

However, the biggest issue was our district office.  They were of very little help and tied our hands on many things that we felt would be a benefit for our specific league.  One of which was all start numbers.  For example, with our league being so small we really didn't have a lot of kids that were all star quality.  Because of this we wanted to limit the team to 11 players which would really help with substitution and lineups to get everybody maximized playing time in the all star tourney.  We weren't going to win many or any games let alone go to the world series but our district wouldn't allow us to have 11 players.  We had to have 12 or 13 because they "wanted as many kids as possible to feel good about being an all star".  That sounds all good however the LL substitution rules really hamper how you can play players when you have that many.  It made it so almost half the team had to play close to a minimum while the other half had to play the entire game.  We told the district this will be a problem and make everyone unhappy.  It would be much easier to have less players so you had more substitution options and everyone would play more and have a better all star experience.  We were turned down and told if we went that route they would not allow us to play in the district tourney.  Well we took 13 as they required and of course 6 or 7 parents and players were pissed and the whole experience was tainted.  Just bad overall.  That was just one example of the inflexibility of the LL district office and their rules were. 

As far as baseball development I believe a more gradual change to real baseball is better for the kids.  This is what PONY baseball does.  More field size increments and smaller age divisions to allow for a baseball progression.  They are also a lot less stringent on safety rules and coaching rules to allow better baseball development (on deck batters as an example). 

As far as coaches not rotating players and teaching all players that is a coaching issue and will happen in whatever organization you are in.  Finding good coaches is hard.  Finding organized coaches is hard.  Finding coaches that want to develop players over winning is hard.  Unfortunately winning has become a priority over learning/teaching for many coaches & parents.  That is a real problem.  

 

[jobarules]

Outside the local league being good or bad 

The main issues of player development is 

Lead off 

Steals 

Base distance.  Pony has a graduated increase in distance.

LL is 46, 60 up until 12. Then one year? Of 50 70

Yeah, my son played 50/70 in travel ball at 11u while playing LL also. Most travel ball kids play both.

 

[jobarules]

C and 1B are the two I took seriously when it came to safety issues, and with C I would try to keep kids back there who can keep the ball in front of them so that the game isn't slowed down by passed balls every pitch.  1B I didn't really care if they were super adept at being able to catch, but they needed to show me they paid attention in the game and weren't building sand castles in the dirt.  Every kid got the opportunity to pitch.  Sure it lead to some walkfests, but some kids who would have never gotten the chance with other coaches really showed a lot of improvement.  One of them is now one of the most consistent strike-throwing pitcher in AAA

Id give kids the opportunity to pitch in practices until they show they could throw some strikes.

 

[Gally]

Outside the local league being good or bad 

The main issues of player development is 

Lead off 

Steals 

Base distance.  Pony has a graduated increase in distance.

LL is 46, 60 up until 12. Then one year? Of 50 70

Exactly this.   

There are also a lot of safety rules that don't need to be in place that prohibit some teaching moments.  The one that frustrated me the most was that a coach couldn't warm a pitcher on game day or that pitcher would not be able to pitch.  I could never get a good answer as to why this was a rule but the best they could come up with was they wanted kids to get the chance to be a catcher so they didn't want coaches doing that.  To me that is asinine and blew me away.  

On deck batter is another one.  The on deck batter has a job and it is time to prepare to hit.  It is part of the mental  development of the game.  I know many will say this is really not a big deal but it is for overal preparation and mental development for the game.  It's something that has to be learned.   As far as the safety part it also has to be learned so the guy with the bat is aware of his surroundings and isn't just swinging wildly when people walk by.   It's just a little thing but still a sample of of things I don't care for.  

 

[Dickies]

Outside the local league being good or bad 

The main issues of player development is 

Lead off 

Steals 

Base distance.  Pony has a graduated increase in distance.

LL is 46, 60 up until 12. Then one year? Of 50 70

I like the idea of gradually making the diamond bigger.  Having done travel ball with leadoffs I think I prefer LL in this area at least at my son's age.  I can see both sides of the argument though.

I also think I prefer LL's age/league divisions being more skill-based and not just purely based on age.  It has created a lot of parity amongst teams in our LL.  There is a reason why the 11yos playing AAA aren't in majors and in my experience most of the 9yos playing up in AAA are better than the 11yos.  This might be a function of our league being bigger in size and having a large player pool.

 

[Dickies]

Exactly this.   

There are also a lot of safety rules that don't need to be in place that prohibit some teaching moments.  The one that frustrated me the most was that a coach couldn't warm a pitcher on game day or that pitcher would not be able to pitch.  I could never get a good answer as to why this was a rule but the best they could come up with was they wanted kids to get the chance to be a catcher so they didn't want coaches doing that.  To me that is asinine and blew me away.  

On deck batter is another one.  The on deck batter has a job and it is time to prepare to hit.  It is part of the mental  development of the game.  I know many will say this is really not a big deal but it is for overal preparation and mental development for the game.  It's something that has to be learned.   As far as the safety part it also has to be learned so the guy with the bat is aware of his surroundings and isn't just swinging wildly when people walk by.   It's just a little thing but still a sample of of things I don't care for.  

Agree on the on deck batter 100%.

As for coaches warming up players the explanation I got in the umpire training is that they want the kids developing their throwing and catching as much as possible, so if there are 12 kids on a team it should be easy to find one of them to put a glove on.  I tend to agree with it, but I'm not going to bend over backwards defending it either.  

 

[Gally]

I like the idea of gradually making the diamond bigger.  Having done travel ball with leadoffs I think I prefer LL in this area at least at my son's age.  I can see both sides of the argument though.

I also think I prefer LL's age/league divisions being more skill-based and not just purely based on age.  It has created a lot of parity amongst teams in our LL.  There is a reason why the 11yos playing AAA aren't in majors and in my experience most of the 9yos playing up in AAA are better than the 11yos.  This might be a function of our league being bigger in size and having a large player pool.

PONY baseball doesn't prohibit kids playing above their age group if they are good enough.  You have to try out and show they can compete so it can be skill based also.  

Our league didn't have enough kids to have skill based divisions.  We barely had enough to have three majors teams regardless of skill level.  That also led to some dissent because there were 9 year olds drafted to majors over 11 year olds that just weren't good players.  Part of that issue was also the format we used that kept players on the same majors team for the duration of their time in LL.  So it benefited the coaches to draft talented younger player because they had more time to develop them.  I was against this system and thought teams should be redrafted every year to create a more balanced league.  What I saw happening is a team drafting young....developing them for 2 or 3 years then dominating for a year.  This happened every year so you always had one dominant team, one team that was ok, and one super young team that couldn't really compete for a year or two.  Just a bad format but I couldn't get anybody to change it.  I eventually just gave up and we took those ten 9 yr olds (my son was one of them) and created a travel team.  We asked the parents if they wanted to try a couple tourneys so we did the summer after the 9 yr old LL season in majors.  We did three tournaments and those kids improved more in those three tourneys than they did for the entire LL season playing against 12 year olds.  After that the parents decided they didn't want to go back to LL and we just did travel from then on.  We played from March thru August averaging two tourney's a month and practicing 2 times a week.  We played about 50 games a year and then let the kids do other sports from August through February (football, basketball, soccer seasons).  Everyone really benefited and watching the LL seasons go on it was the best decision for development that we could have done.  Those kids are all now finishing up 10th or 11th grade and are doing well for their HS teams.   I have no doubt if they stayed in LL they would have been hindered (and I may not have made it out sane....hahah).

So LL can be different if you have enough kids to keep it competitive and worthwhile but with the push to travel these rec type leagues are getting more and more diluted to the point they are almost useless.  It has become pretty sad. 

 

[Gally]

Agree on the on deck batter 100%.

As for coaches warming up players the explanation I got in the umpire training is that they want the kids developing their throwing and catching as much as possible, so if there are 12 kids on a team it should be easy to find one of them to put a glove on.  I tend to agree with it, but I'm not going to bend over backwards defending it either.  

That is where practice time comes in.  For game days I want the pitcher to be focused on getting ready for a game and as a coach I can prepare him better if I am catching them.  Plus it goes much quicker as having a bench player warm up a pitcher usually ends up a disaster.  

It also causes delays for in between innings as a player that isn't already playing is likely a lesser player that may get hurt if they try and catch a pitcher so it just slows everything down.  

It really doesn't do what their "intent" is and just causes more problems than it is worth.  Bottom line practice is the time to develop kids catching and throwing for the most part so do it then.  Not when you are trying to prepare for a game on limited time as you are getting there from work or just getting the field because the game before you lasted too long.  

 

[jobarules]

That is where practice time comes in.  For game days I want the pitcher to be focused on getting ready for a game and as a coach I can prepare him better if I am catching them.  Plus it goes much quicker as having a bench player warm up a pitcher usually ends up a disaster.  

It also causes delays for in between innings as a player that isn't already playing is likely a lesser player that may get hurt if they try and catch a pitcher so it just slows everything down.  

It really doesn't do what their "intent" is and just causes more problems than it is worth.  Bottom line practice is the time to develop kids catching and throwing for the most part so do it then.  Not when you are trying to prepare for a game on limited time as you are getting there from work or just getting the field because the game before you lasted too long.  

Yep hated this rule and got the same explanation as you both did.

 

[Gally]

Yep hated this rule and got the same explanation as you both did.

It also is quite contradictory to their usual overboard safety rules as you are putting a kid back there that is likely unqualified to catch a pitcher because they can't protect themselves.   As other's have said up thread, catcher is one of the few positions that you cannot really rotate kids through due to safety concerns.  Now you want me to use a weaker player to warm up a pitcher to get in extra work?  Just makes no sense. 

 

[belljr]

Wait LL got rid of on deck batters?

 

[Skipdog77]

Found out today that my daughter was was selected for a week-long USA Hockey multi-district development camp, one of 10 girls selected from NY State (from the 2007 birth year) after state tryouts a couple of weeks ago.  She is thrilled, as her goal is play hockey in college.  She wanted to make the National camp, but now has that in her sights for next year.  

Looks like our summer vacation just got moved to Bowling Green, KY.  Slap it high? 

 

[Gally]

Wait LL got rid of on deck batters?

yes.....many, many years ago.

ETA:  and technically no player shall have a bat in their hands until they are actually going up to the plate to hit.  

 

[belljr]

yes.....many, many years ago.

ETA:  and technically no player shall have a bat in their hands until they are actually going up to the plate to hit.  

Ok. So can you be on deck without a helmet. Basically work on timing etc?

 

[Gally]

Ok. So can you be on deck without a helmet. Basically work on timing etc?

no.  You cannot be out of the dugout.  You cannot hold a bat.  You must stay in the dugout without anything in your hands until you are going to the plate.  Then you can grab a bat and go directly to the batter's box.  

 

[nirad3]

Looks like our summer vacation just got moved to Bowling Green, KY.  Slap it high? 

You into Corvettes?  Only thing I know about that city is that there's a Corvette museum there.  Uh, enjoy?

 

[Skipdog77]

You into Corvettes?  Only thing I know about that city is that there's a Corvette museum there.  Uh, enjoy?

Saw that about the Corvette museum, not sure she'll be into that and I know I'm not. 

I did tell her that it's the city where bowling was invented, so I'll let that dad-joke play out a bit.  

 

[Bluesbomber]

Grandaughter's husband drafted and signed by the Vikings, nice little bonus and if he sticks the 4 years should be fine. Late bloomer due to getting serious once  ,twice a father so see him succeeding if health holds up.

 

[SpurrierisisGod]

That's a fantastic individual season for your son- congrats!

My cousin's kid put up big numbers like that senior year, was named the league MVP, got college interest but had zero interest in playing college ball. Went and enjoyed himself at a big sports school and then got a graduate degree afterwards.

And then...picked up the sport again and played men's league ball...still does afaik. That could even happen during college...or intramurals- still more to play if your kid has the interest.

He just went to club tryouts as he can still play as an '04.  Wasn't entirely thrilled with the kids that showed up but keeping his options open.  Him and a friend are looking into the college club team so he may do that and I think the semi pro u19 team has tryouts soon (he played a couple of games with them last year).

I think he still has interest just not college level interest.  No biggie. He's 18 and more interested in making some cash right now.

Also, I need to take down his recruiting profile....just got a message from a coach in Washington, "saw your profile and video and would like to talk about joining our team for fall".  Lol.  Not even the normal "we'd like to see you at our camp".

 

[SpurrierisisGod]

Wouldn't mind hearing about thr loooooong story in another thread if you ever get the time.

Man, it's a long drawn out situation.  I've also just told the school I'll stay on and coach.  I'm not sure who all reads these forums.  Chances are, no one of importance in my area but still...

The only way to put it for now is I am a contract coach.  I don't work at the school.  They tried to widen our field to regulation and add seating areas but made it worse by hiring "2 dudes and a backhoe" instead of getting engineering involved.  Field holds water bad - worse tham before. Jersey company we used is a school family.... multiple issues there - wrong shorts, messed up numbers, cheap socks, etc.  Having to share field with baseball (due to above mentioned issue) and admins blowing it off as no big deal.  Having to spend hours at my real job fixing ref issues etc due to field issues....

There was a fight in another sport so we got put on probation meaning any other incidents could lead to state suspension.  AD put out an email that any yellow cards will require speaking with him.  I was told "we hear your team is chippy".  Team played hesitant all year.  my son got yellow at a tournamnet for asking the ref a question.  I got a text 29 minutes later "heard some unfortunate news and if true he sits the rest of the weekend".  Wtf?  Didn't even ask what it was for AND someone ratted him out even before the game was over.

I'm just supposed to coach.  There is no one, not one person, at the school that can help me coach or admin.  I had 37 kids, jv/Varsity, and no help.  Found a dude on Facebook thank God, but he wasn't ready for full time jv job.  My son's senior year and a year we should've made a deep playoff run, turned into an administrative nightmare.  I could tell it changed the entire mentality of what was a playoff bound team.  Ended up 2 games out of the playoffs.  I'm ever the optimist but thought we'd be maybe 18-4,  16-6 at worst.  We ended up 8-13-1 and lost to some teams we'd normally beat by 3.

Long winded way to say, "crappy year.  Son didn't have fun. Hung up his boots".

 

[Chadstroma]

Man, it's a long drawn out situation.  I've also just told the school I'll stay on and coach.  I'm not sure who all reads these forums.  Chances are, no one of importance in my area but still...

The only way to put it for now is I am a contract coach.  I don't work at the school.  They tried to widen our field to regulation and add seating areas but made it worse by hiring "2 dudes and a backhoe" instead of getting engineering involved.  Field holds water bad - worse tham before. Jersey company we used is a school family.... multiple issues there - wrong shorts, messed up numbers, cheap socks, etc.  Having to share field with baseball (due to above mentioned issue) and admins blowing it off as no big deal.  Having to spend hours at my real job fixing ref issues etc due to field issues....

There was a fight in another sport so we got put on probation meaning any other incidents could lead to state suspension.  AD put out an email that any yellow cards will require speaking with him.  I was told "we hear your team is chippy".  Team played hesitant all year.  my son got yellow at a tournamnet for asking the ref a question.  I got a text 29 minutes later "heard some unfortunate news and if true he sits the rest of the weekend".  Wtf?  Didn't even ask what it was for AND someone ratted him out even before the game was over.

I'm just supposed to coach.  There is no one, not one person, at the school that can help me coach or admin.  I had 37 kids, jv/Varsity, and no help.  Found a dude on Facebook thank God, but he wasn't ready for full time jv job.  My son's senior year and a year we should've made a deep playoff run, turned into an administrative nightmare.  I could tell it changed the entire mentality of what was a playoff bound team.  Ended up 2 games out of the playoffs.  I'm ever the optimist but thought we'd be maybe 18-4,  16-6 at worst.  We ended up 8-13-1 and lost to some teams we'd normally beat by 3.

Long winded way to say, "crappy year.  Son didn't have fun. Hung up his boots".

That sucks. Really sucks. 

As a contract employee is the money worth it at all or is this for the love of sport/coaching?

You think if not for all that drama your son would have taken one of the scholarships?

 

[SpurrierisisGod]

That sucks. Really sucks. 

As a contract employee is the money worth it at all or is this for the love of sport/coaching?

You think if not for all that drama your son would have taken one of the scholarships?

I do think had the season been more "fun" he would probably be at bellhaven right now or maybe faulkner.

I've been coaching for 26+ years.  It's kinda what I do.  I had quit coaching my son when he was about 12 - it was time to move on.  We changed schools and the guy coaching soccer at the high school was coaching Varsity girls, JV girls and Varsity boys by himself.  There were enough sign-ups after my sons freshman year that there could be a jv boys team for the 1st time.  That's when they asked me to coach.

It's a small private school.  They paid me a little that 1st year but then I told them to not pay me just give me a discount and they did.  I still have 3 kids there and the discount is nice.  The boys that were on the 1st jv team will now be sophomores...I kinda want to see them through.  Should make the playoffs next year even with 11 seniors graduating.

Sorry for the side rail here.  My daughter will be a sophomore and is a pretty good keeper.  No college aspirations though. I'll hang around and maybe have stuff to post about her

 

[SpurrierisisGod]

On a more "on topic" note...

My son was cleaning out his room and sent me a picture of the plaques he's gotten over his high school career:

Freshman (I didn't coach) - golden boot

Sophomore - cancelled due to covid but he already had 10 goals in 9 games

Junior - golden boot

Senior - golden boot.

He essentially led the team in goals his entire 4 years.

60 goals, 34 assists in 54 games

 

[El Floppo]

Rough tennis tournament for 10yo Floppinha. 0-3 and a quick exit in tears to wrap up her 10u tennis career. She played like a kid who spent 2 nights at a school camping trip this week, and the last 3 weeks concentrating on rehearsals and performances of her school musical and not practicing tennis.

She's developed a hitch in her backhand that has destroyed it...usually her strength...and I have no ability to fix it.

She did have some great ground strokes at times, and was consistent with getting her serve in (even if the other girls were teeing up on it).

Have to get her coaching or this will be a rough go for her.

 

[Gilroy34]

So proud of my son who played on varsity as a sophomore for his high school baseball team this spring.  He made the team as a pitcher and sprinkled in some time as reserve at 1st base.  He started out in the bullpen and earned 4 or 5 starts as the year went on.  In his first varsity start he went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk against a 6A team in non league for a win.  His team is 4A.  He followed that up with a combined 6 solid innings against the two 4A teams in the state who played in the state championship last year and are ranked as the top 2 teams this year.  

He started out as the number 4 starter and now has jumped up to the number 2 starter.  His team entered playoffs as the number 5 team ranked in state and they won their 1st playoff game last night.  My son is slated to start on Friday at the number 4 team in state.  This team only has 1 loss on the season so it will be tough.

No matter what happens he kicked butt this year finishing with an ERA just over 1 which led the team.  He made all league as a sophomore so the future is bright.  His ceiling is very high as he is 6'4" and growing, still very skinny and will fill out and get stronger.

Well his team lost 10-4 and got knocked out in quarterfinals of playoffs.  The weather was awful with constant rain throughout the game.  The only reason game wasn't cancelled was because we travelled 350 miles to the game and the infield and mound was turf with the outfield grass.

We were the visiting team and my son was our starting pitcher.  Both pitchers struggled a bit in the rain with control.  It was scoreless through 2 innings and we took the lead scoring a run in the top of the 3rd.  He struck out the 3 hitter to open the 3rd and then walked the 4 hitter before giving up back to back singles and game was tied at 1 with runners at 1st and 2nd.  Next batter bunts and 3rd baseman launches the throw past 1st base(hit with error).  Sac fly and then ground out and down 3-1 after 3.  His coach took him out after 3 and the other team jumped on our pitchers scoring 7 runs over the next 2 innings.  

Not a great outing but very respectable 3 innings with 2 earned runs against a very good team who has a great shot at winning state.  He was bummed obviously but coaches and parents gave him very good praise after the game for the year he had.

 

[Chadstroma]

Would it be totally wrong to celebrate my own sport accomplishment? 

I had my son in a rec soccer camp. There isn't much development that happens but it gives him some extra practice time against kids his age. 

In most of these rec camps they have the parents play the kids for thr last 15-20 min. 

Three things accomplished in order of importance 1) No injuries for me. 2) I scored a goal. 3) Parents won 2-0. 

I never played soccer other than some time on grade school school yard pick up stuff, it just was not a sport I was ever interested in. 

It was nice because though I admittedly don't know soccer, I understand sports and any time I said anything to my son about his playing he would not listen because "you don't know soccer". This got me a tad of street cred with him. 

 

[Chadstroma]

Rough tennis tournament for 10yo Floppinha. 0-3 and a quick exit in tears to wrap up her 10u tennis career. She played like a kid who spent 2 nights at a school camping trip this week, and the last 3 weeks concentrating on rehearsals and performances of her school musical and not practicing tennis.

She's developed a hitch in her backhand that has destroyed it...usually her strength...and I have no ability to fix it.

She did have some great ground strokes at times, and was consistent with getting her serve in (even if the other girls were teeing up on it).

Have to get her coaching or this will be a rough go for her.

I have been trying to communicate "embracing failure" to my kids. The only thing I ever heard about losing was "as long as you tried your best" and looking back, though being content with putting your best effort is part of the message, I think I needed to hear about accepting failure/losing as part of the game, part of the process, part of getting better, part of improving. I think it is a crucial idea not just for sports but a life lesson. Not failing means you are not trying. Not having a healthy relationship with failure is not just hard emotionally but a waste of opportunity. 

I have struggled with communicating it in ways that I think my kids can really understand and internalize. My daughter is very uncaring about winning and losing so that is a challenge. My oldest son is hyper competitive and emotional and winning and losing. My youngest son is just young. Each have their own obstacles in communicating this idea effectively. 

Not a post directly for your daughter, just had me thinking of how I approach an experience like this with my own. 

 

[Andrew74]

My son finished successful first seasons of lacrosse and rugby.  I wanted him to pick lacrosse; he likes it but he loves rugby.  He told me he likes it better than football (by a little) because it doesn’t stop.  He was selected for the lacrosse team to play in the state tournament but wanted to play rugby instead.  He was selected as an all star for U12 (the only 5th grader selected).

Now kids these days are freaking gigantic. My son is 11 and 4’ 8” and 85 pounds.  If one of his opponents wasn’t 6’, 200lbs, I’m officially blind.  Judge for yourself (my son is sandwiched between #1 and #16).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15qOXgQ2iV0jE-SQVwcQkKDGYqb8ZcfRy/view?usp=drivesdk

And the kid was fairly athletic (not one of those big kids that can’t move).  Opening kick-off (or whatever it is called in rugby) my son races down the field and solo drops the kid.  Then does it twice more during the game.  I’m both proud of his fearlessness and terrified he’s going to kill himself.  

 

[ex-ghost]

State track meet just finished today. On day 1 my boy finished a disappointing 6th (4:20.03) in the 1600 when he was seeded 3rd. He decided that he did not want to hang back with the slower pack so he went for it. The top two kids were just too fast (4:08), he kept up for about 1000m and faded the last 600m . He was not happy.

Day 2 was 800 prelims where he was in the same heat as a senior (my son a junior) headed on full ride to U of Arizona. Hung with him and finished 2nd, enough to move on to the finals today. Problem was that the dude he finished 2nd to won the mile the day before and for some crazy reason decided to sprint the final 300 - well it seemed crazy but he just crushed everyone. It was one of those moves where the whole crowd ohhhed and ahhhhd as he took off. It was incredibly impressive. He was now in my son's head.

Today the gun goes off. The two of them surge to the lead and immediately open a 1-2 second lead. They go through the first 400 in 55 seconds, pretty damn fast. They stick together, my son on his shoulder until the final 100. He slides into lane 2 and it is a full out sprint. Around 10m the other guy starts to trip which causes my son to begin to stagger. The other guy starts falling and my son dives across the finish line, both of them laying still on the track. My son gets up with his arms in the air as if saying, "who won?" - and it was him by .10. Great race, state championship. Still feeling the high and I did nothing but watch.

 

[El Floppo]

State track meet just finished today. On day 1 my boy finished a disappointing 6th (4:20.03) in the 1600 when he was seeded 3rd. He decided that he did not want to hang back with the slower pack so he went for it. The top two kids were just too fast (4:08), he kept up for about 1000m and faded the last 600m . He was not happy.

Day 2 was 800 prelims where he was in the same heat as a senior (my son a junior) headed on full ride to U of Arizona. Hung with him and finished 2nd, enough to move on to the finals today. Problem was that the dude he finished 2nd to won the mile the day before and for some crazy reason decided to sprint the final 300 - well it seemed crazy but he just crushed everyone. It was one of those moves where the whole crowd ohhhed and ahhhhd as he took off. It was incredibly impressive. He was now in my son's head.

Today the gun goes off. The two of them surge to the lead and immediately open a 1-2 second lead. They go through the first 400 in 55 seconds, pretty damn fast. They stick together, my son on his shoulder until the final 100. He slides into lane 2 and it is a full out sprint. Around 10m the other guy starts to trip which causes my son to begin to stagger. The other guy starts falling and my son dives across the finish line, both of them laying still on the track. My son gets up with his arms in the air as if saying, "who won?" - and it was him by .10. Great race, state championship. Still feeling the high and I did nothing but watch.

 

[jobarules]

My son came into a game today 3ip, 0h, 1bb, 5k. When he's on he's absolutely filthy. No idea where he got this arm. So ####### proud.

 

[Gally]

I have been trying to communicate "embracing failure" to my kids. The only thing I ever heard about losing was "as long as you tried your best" and looking back, though being content with putting your best effort is part of the message, I think I needed to hear about accepting failure/losing as part of the game, part of the process, part of getting better, part of improving. I think it is a crucial idea not just for sports but a life lesson. Not failing means you are not trying. Not having a healthy relationship with failure is not just hard emotionally but a waste of opportunity. 

I have struggled with communicating it in ways that I think my kids can really understand and internalize. My daughter is very uncaring about winning and losing so that is a challenge. My oldest son is hyper competitive and emotional and winning and losing. My youngest son is just young. Each have their own obstacles in communicating this idea effectively. 

Not a post directly for your daughter, just had me thinking of how I approach an experience like this with my own. 

This is something we started doing when we started our travel baseball team.  Baseball is a failure sport.  You will fail more often than succeed in almost every aspect of the game.  The players that can accept that and move forward are the ones that end up having a chance to excel at the sport.  

When you deal with young kids in baseball that are good typically they don't fail much in rec type leagues because they are so much better than the kids that are only playing because the parents force them.  So when a strikeout or error happens it is usually devastating as it isn't normal and expectations are that they will succeed every time.  Once you start playing stiffer competition that is to your level (or better) the "failure" occurs much more often and in baseball (or softball) it is common and not a totally bad thing.  Learning how to fail, accept it for the moment, learn, and move forward is huge.  

We started using the word failure and talking through what it means and that it is almost expected in the sport.  You will get out.  You will give up a hit.  You will make an error.  It's how you react and move on is what dictates if you are good and can better.  Once this idea of failing being acceptable (to a degree) and not a bad thing things got better.  The kids that could figure out and accept that were the ones that were able to move on and get better.  The key was getting them to understand that it is ok to get out or make an error.  There will always be another play to make up for it and it happens to EVERYONE that plays the game.  It is part of the game.  

It really is a key component to growing up and getting better in any sport.  

 

[jobarules]

This is something we started doing when we started our travel baseball team.  Baseball is a failure sport.  You will fail more often than succeed in almost every aspect of the game.  The players that can accept that and move forward are the ones that end up having a chance to excel at the sport.  

When you deal with young kids in baseball that are good typically they don't fail much in rec type leagues because they are so much better than the kids that are only playing because the parents force them.  So when a strikeout or error happens it is usually devastating as it isn't normal and expectations are that they will succeed every time.  Once you start playing stiffer competition that is to your level (or better) the "failure" occurs much more often and in baseball (or softball) it is common and not a totally bad thing.  Learning how to fail, accept it for the moment, learn, and move forward is huge.  

We started using the word failure and talking through what it means and that it is almost expected in the sport.  You will get out.  You will give up a hit.  You will make an error.  It's how you react and move on is what dictates if you are good and can better.  Once this idea of failing being acceptable (to a degree) and not a bad thing things got better.  The kids that could figure out and accept that were the ones that were able to move on and get better.  The key was getting them to understand that it is ok to get out or make an error.  There will always be another play to make up for it and it happens to EVERYONE that plays the game.  It is part of the game.  

It really is a key component to growing up and getting better in any sport.  

I literally told my son this this past weekend as he struck out with game winning run on 3b and he was upset at himself. The opposing pitcher struck out 13 batters in the game and we scored 2 runs (one of them due to an RBI groundout by my son in the 1st inning). "I told him, hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Sometimes you have to give the opposition credit and the pitcher was dealing today. I know you are disappointed because you wanted the walkoff but you just have to realize how difficult this game actually is and move on. Sometimes you can do everything right and still strike out. Im proud of you." This is the same game he dominated on the mound I mentioned above. Without him we wouldve lost the game. Instead we tied. "Focus on that and not striking out."

 

[Gally]

First summer travel tourney last weekend.  6 games in three days.  They went 5-1 and won the tournament.   The tournament was a 16U wood bat tournament.  There were 8 teams in the bracket with every team playing four games and then get seeded for bracket day on Monday.  Only the top 4 teams move on with 1v4 & 2v3.  

We lost the first game 9-1 as the boys were trying to get their bearings.  Our starter was ok for 3 innings and then had a little adversity and went in the tank (pretty typical for this pitcher).   The team we played is the #1 14U team in the country (or so they said repeatedly - I have no idea how true it is but they were really good.  The kids were just as big as our 16U players and were well skilled).

We won the next three games including a 1-0 shutout where my kid pitched 5 IP, 9 K's, 3 H, 0 BB, 65 pitches.  He had everything working.  That set us up as the #3 seed (lost on run differential to the #2 seed).  The team we lost to went 4-0 and was the #1 seed.

We won the semi-final game after being down 5-0 (on 4 unearned runs after a dropped fly ball in the 1st inning).  We chipped away and came back to win in an extra inning with the international tie break rule being instituted.   That set up a rematch with the cocky 14U team that didn't miss any chance to let everyone know they were only 14.  

They expected to cruise against us and I wasn't expecting much because we were basically out of pitching (only had 3 players that pitched this HS season and had another 3 or 4 players that have pitched in the past but not really worked on it over the last year or so).   The guy we started was decent but kind of hit and miss.  He was able to keep it together for 5+ innings holding them to 4 runs.   We were able to put up 8 runs the first two innings and were frustrating the heck out of these guys to the point they were mouthing off in the field to our guys and being all around cocky mo-fo's.  I would have been embarrassed if they were my kids.  With all the talk of course our guys started to engage to the point their coach went to our coach telling him to shut our team up.  I couldn't believe it as his kids were the mouthiest bunch I had seen in awhile.  Totally crazy.

Anyway our starter got in a little jam in the B6 and loaded the bases with no outs (it was 13-4 at the time).  They brought in my son and he struck out two of the next three and induced a pop out on the next guy.  Not that I condone it but after he ended the inning by blowing a FB by the last batter for the 3rd out he looked right out the dugout and "sheathed the sword" as they like to call it.  Their team went nuts.  It was actually quite comical. 

Anyway he shut the door in the 7th with another K and a couple pop outs and we got the title.  Needless to say there were no shaking of hands as they just huddled in the dugout and wouldn't come out (probably for the best).  

So for the tourney he went 6-14 with 4 or 5 BB's.  Pitched 9 innings, 1 ER, 14 K's, 3 BB and had outings of 30 pitches, 65 pitches, and 30 pitches.  It was a little much for my liking but his arm is in good shape and he had no soreness at all.  He also isn't the type of pitcher that max's out his arm on every pitch so he can go more pitches than most without soreness/fatigue.  But it is definitely something we will be monitoring moving forward. 

In addition they had their HS banquet last night and he ended up getting the team MVP award to go along with his 2nd Team All League honors.  Not bad for his sophomore season.  

 

[Gally]

I literally told my son this this past weekend as he struck out with game winning run on 3b and he was upset at himself. The opposing pitcher struck out 13 batters in the game and we scored 2 runs (one of them due to an RBI groundout by my son in the 1st inning). "I told him, hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. Sometimes you have to give the opposition credit and the pitcher was dealing today. I know you are disappointed because you wanted the walkoff but you just have to realize how difficult this game actually is and move on. Sometimes you can do everything right and still strike out. Im proud of you." This is the same game he dominated on the mound I mentioned above. Without him we wouldve lost the game. Instead we tied. "Focus on that and not striking out."

This is the other component that is really good to try and teach.  In every aspect of the game there will be someone that succeeds (the pitcher in this case) and someone who fails (the batter).  By definition this will always be the case for every AB that happens in your career.  Sometimes the other guy is just better that particular encounter.  Don't let it affect your next encounter.  Every individual AB is a new chance to succeed so letting the failure of the previous AB affect the next one already puts you at a disadvantage.  Getting to the point of understanding that and being able to use that is such a huge step in the process of accepting failure to a point of making you better.  

 

[belljr]

i remember when my daughter was 11.  We were playing in a tourney that was "above us".

Her first AB she hits her first legit HR over a 200 ft fence. 

2nd AB - she hits a Double about a foot from being another homer, RBI.

So I think we are down 4-3 maybe?  My daughter has 2 RBIS and 2 runs scored.

Runner on third with no or one out.  Daughter comes up  - strikesout  :(

We lose. So of course thats all she focused on was the strikeout and how losing was her fault

She did learn from that but still tough