Coaching and Youth Sports

Plot twist and a half.

 

North and South Korean leaders hugging.

Volacanoes and earthquakes in Hawaii.

Nyy going to umpire school.

What next? Gcb wearing jorts?

 

Hey nyy, this is a strike zone, not your ass in a bathroom stall. Tighten the thing up.

 

Hey ump, get the [ejaculate] out of your eyes! He was safe!

 

Still cant believe we won this game. This pic cracks me up, but I like where my sons eyes are and the lack of panic on his face. We were overmatched.

 

His isn't looking at his thighs, poor technique

 

So last night we have practice. And at start time there are 4 kids there. And one of them hasn't missed anything, isn't the best player, but at this point he's there so he gets his pick of where he wants to play next game.

So I ask him where he wants to play. He looks at me totally perplexed and says uhhhhh, right field and continues throwing.

I just stood there in amazement. My assistant doubled over laughing.

 

Most kids know the pecking order. It’s the parents that have trouble with it most the time.

 

I still can't fathom not jumping all over it when I was 8.

 

Picked up win number 3 today. Legit beatdown. After a straight ass chewing after our performance last night we showed up and played ball today. We play like that all season and we have 4 or 5 more wins.

 

In case anyone wants to know what rock bottom for a youth sports coach/dad is, I think I found it last night.

End of season tournament, bottom of last inning, tying run on 2nd, your kid at bat, you can't throw a strike to save your life, and on the last pitch you bounce it off the plate and he strikes out.

 

This thread is bittersweet for me. I had always helped coach my son in baseball from t-ball all the way up to a AA “select” team. His AA team that I helped coach was, to put it bluntly, not good. My son though, seemed to be hitting his stride and was looking good at the plate and decent with his pitching. He wasn’t blowing anyone away, but he was pretty consistent throwing strikes.

Last year when he was 11 going on 12 he wanted to try out for a local “travel ball” team. AAA/majors club with a good reputation and a lot of kids who have gone on to college and minor league success. He went and had a killer try out. Made the top tier team for fall ball. I transitioned from an assistant coach to an interested parent.

Football is his first love, so that fall was tricky juggling between his last year of pee-wee football and baseball tournaments. As the season progressed, it became apparent that he may have outkicked his coverage at the tryout. He went from being one of the top tier on his AA team, batting high in the order and playing center field and pitching, to batting way down in the order and playing RF or subbing in.

I used it as a way to stress working hard and taking advantage of your opportunities, but as the season wound down the coach had a conversation with me and said my son wasn’t quite ready for majors ball, but that he had talked to the AAA team’s coach and he was excited to have him. Cool.

Last spring rolls around and we are on the AAA team. My son does decent at the plate. He is not one of the bigger kids on the team and had not quite grown into his power, but he had some good at bats and had some timely hits driving in runs. He had a good eye at the plate and took several walks too. He looked solid, not spectacular. (I didn’t want to be the crazy father who actually tracked his stats).

Unfortunately, the only start he got on the mound was a combination of poor defense behind him and a team of kids who could rake at the plate. His fastball was just a little too hittable and he got roughed up pretty good. His only off-speed pitch was a decent change up but when they are hitting the early fastballs, it doesn’t come into play. After that, his coach kinda lost faith in his pitching (which sorta pissed me off, but ok) so he transitioned into a solid outfielder. LF mostly.

Last fall comes around and peewee football is over so no more weekend conflicts. I was looking forward to him continuing to grow and honestly just enjoy the experience.

As an aside, High School baseball where I live is crazy competitive. The school where he will go consistently goes to the playoffs and had a pitcher last year who was drafted by the Red Sox in the 6th round. He had a couple of perfect games and a handful more no hitters his senior year. It was ridiculous. Also on that team were the kids of former Rangers Rusty Greer and Bobby Witt. Witt is projected to be a high draft pick when he graduates next year.

The point I am making with this is that I objectively understood that travel ball and _maybe_ JV was probably my son’s ceiling when it came to the baseball experience. But I love the game and I wanted him to enjoy it.

Anyway, the first week of the season last fall one of the players’ families has a pool party. My son is throwing football in the yard barefoot when his big toe catches in the grass and he comes down on it hard, breaking it. Out 4-6 weeks (he came back after 4) but it wiped out the majority of the fall baseball season for him. In the couple of tournaments he got to play, he never got in a rhythm at the plate (an insanely low sample size) and just did not have a good time.

At the end of the fall season he told me he wanted to quit baseball so he can concentrate on football and basketball.

He is a pretty good little athlete and made the A team in football in 7th grade as a safety. (Being out 4 weeks in the middle of the season sucked for that too, btw). He has a great arm and tried out at QB, but he hasn’t quite got the height or instincts to run the stupid spread that everyone seems to want to run now. I thought he might get some time at WR, but his 7th grade team had 3 WRs over 6’ who were athletic, so it was hard for him to get any time on offense.

He also discovered his love of basketball, which was not my game at all. His mother was good in HS until she blew out her knees and her youngest brother played at Baylor in Chattanooga in HS and was apparently pretty good. He gets all basketball talent from that side of the family.

So this spring, no little league baseball for me. I transitioned to a basketball parent. A sport which I enjoy watching but honestly can provide no insight for whatsoever. On the bright side, gyms are air conditioned.

I did help coach my youngest daughter’s 10U softball team this spring, but that is another story and I got way too long winded here.

 

Get your head out of your ass, blue!!

 

Now I want to hear about softball.

 

Oh man. 10 year old girl softball...

In the regular season, once you get to ball 4 the coach gets to come out and throw the girl one or two pitches depending on how many strikes there are, so walks don’t kill you. As long as you don’t hit the batter there are no free passes. I’m pretty sure my daughter led the league in hit batters.

I don’t know how many times I wanted to say “there’s no crying in softball!” Girls crying when they strike out is a thing.

We had one girl who played the outfield a lot based on ability and would whine about it. When she ever got a chance to play second base, you had to make sure she was watching the game and not playing in the dirt.

We had another player whose form throwing and hitting looked pretty off, but by god the girl was a gamer. Strong arm (motion aside) and hit the ball with surprising power with her little frame. Turns out her dad played TE for the Cowboys for a while. (Not Witten). Her mother is also the HS softball coach for a local school and played in college. The girl had talent but keeping her head in the game could be a challenge too.

My favorite though was this was the first year the girls could take a lead once the ball crossed the plate and take a base if it got past the catcher (or straight steals). I was the first base coach, so I would talk to the girls if they got on base and describe how I wanted them to get a good lead behind the first basemen as soon as the ball got to the plate and if the ball is in the dirt take off. This is something we practiced quite a bit. There were a few girls who would take all this in, and literally a second later the pitcher pitches the ball...and they are standing on the base. I don’t want to scare them, so I try not to use my scary voice, but it was challenging sometimes.

My daughter made the All Star team (barely) based on her hitting. She is not afraid to swing the bat and makes good contact. She still has a ways to go in the field though. I get to be just an interested observer during All-Star tournaments. I didn’t make the coach cut (thank God). We had our first one last weekend and got trounced. Now there are no coach pitches and walks are a thing. Oh, and you can take home in All Stars on a past ball. It is a whole new ballgame.

I just found out that we are playing 2 games Friday night. I have Rangers tickets. Sonofa[itch bay].

Edit: it amuses me how relevant the Michael Scott GIF I see on Tapatalk is to my experience helping coach the softball team.

 

I coached by 5 year olds tee ball team as well. It's been theraputic. Ive not focused much (or any) on defense, but by God we crush the ball. 11 players, and only 1 needs a tee in a consistent basis, and that's just because she's too stubborn to not be scared

 

I try to keep an even keel, but it stressed me out watching my daughter pitch. She throws pretty hard but control is tough. It does not appear she is going to get any pitching action in All Stars and that is OK with me.

Despite my inner monologue, I was always an encouraging voice to the girls, though.

 

A friend told me he could hear me on the other side of the park last night. I wasn't exactly encouraging.

 

Lol. I’m a pretty big bearded dude. I’m afraid if I use my “outside voice” I will scar these girls for life.

 

I was told I was "too aggressive" sending kids around the bases