Has HS baseball coaching become harder?

Youth Baseball is Just as Bad

I volunteer to coach youth baseball (aau/usssa). I played in college and professionally. Daddy is intolerable at these young ages. Even worse than HS. In HS Daddy has realized some undeniable "truths" about little Johnny's ability but prior to HS Daddy is faced with a dilemna. Do I push Johnny to become a Hall of Fame Pitcher or do we chase the Home Run record together. Just me and my boy. After all, it's only 755 away!

 

in some ways yes and someways no.
yes the parents have become more vocal (i think they have always thought little johnny is the greatest) about their son's playing time etc. with the emphasis that has been put on scholarships and signing early i think this has gotten worse. with people moving schools etc. it has made it tougher to deal with. however, if you have a good program and are always honest(wether the parents like it or not) and you have the backing of the administration, then it is probably about the same. ( i remember when a parent and especially a kid would never think about talking to a coach about these things.

the relationships that are built between a coach and player are still the main reason to coach. hopefully we have given good direction and leadership along the way. and then if you get one that developes and moves on to college and especially pro ball then you feel as if everything is worth the time and effort you have put into your program.

i still think the disgruntled parent is far outnumbered by the happy parents. it just that the digruntled parents are more vocal about things.

aau and showcase ball has also brought in some problems of it's own but that is another topic.

i still feel lucky to get paid doing what i love to do, and i still think it is the best job available no matter the low wages and 70 hour weeks of mowing dragging etc.
hope this makes sense

as far as the head coach being a teacher, i think it is important that he/she is in the school full time. for all the obvious reasons. staying on the about academics. seeing them in the hall way etc etc.

 

Great feedback...thanks guys. I think it's important to ask a question like this because it is a rare opportunity to get immediate feedback from a parent and coaches point of view.

There have been so many good points made so far...keep them coming!

What about a school that allows an inexperienced, unqualified young man coach their program because there is not anybody else in their system? (there are situations like this)

Also, does anyone else feel this way? I can tell if a coach is good or not in the 1st 5 minutes of watching his team practice

 

You can tell watching infield before the game.

You can tell how good a coach & team are by watching them take infield before the game. Two perfect examples of outstanding programs that come to mind from my past four years of high school competition are Wakefield & South Granville. They run on and off the field, are crisp and mistake free in their execution, put simply they look and act like winners. I won't mention any poor examples but I remember several.

As far as inexperienced and unqualified young men coaching various programs, I think that's one of the outcomes of requiring coaches to be teachers also. I've seen this situation manifest itself with experienced and unqualified older men who head up various programs.

As far as most of the answers to the coach as teacher question, judging by most of the answers I'm assuming that most of these posters are coaches themselves. Let me say that you are all good company men according to your answers and I'm sure your principals will be proud of your answers should any of them visit TBR. In theory I agree with all of you, but let's look at things realistically. If your a coach & teacher in a high school program you should actually reverse the title to teacher & coach, because your principal is more concerned about your teaching responsibilites and classroom results and the coaching and team results are secondary (in theroy I don't have a problem with that). I hope your principals all do back your programs as you've said. At my sons high school the principal never came to a baseball game in four years. It took two years of begging and persistance to get the principal to convince the superintendant to let us put ads on the outfield fence to raise extra monies for the baseball program that didn't have to come out of the regular school budget.
As far as teaching & coaching combined it's already been said these fine men aren't in it for the money, I myself had a 30 yr. law enforcement career and I wasn't in that for the money either. I think by school systems having rules prohibiting people from coaching who aren't teachers you are eliminating a large pool of talent that other wise would be interested in the coaching positions without the teaching responsibilites and time restraints that entails. Just food for thought and my opinion is based on my personel experience over the past four years. I salute you men that have chosen to dedicate your lives to our kids. THANk YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:229031_ha

 

You've been taking lessons from lefty with your candor...seriously, whether people line up on the side of agreeing or disagreeing, what a well thought post. Thank you Big Byrd

 

besides

Besides some of the reasons already given for why coaches should also be school teachers, another one comes to mind for me. Isn't this also a way to even the playing field: if you want to coach a HS team, then you also would need to be a teacher or employee of that school. You know this is a "school/team" thing and bringing in outsiders sort of takes away from that concept.

Maybe some schools that don't have this teacher/coach rule bring in a ringer for a coach???? examples?

 

It's important, mostly to create a reciprocal relationship between the academic side of the school and the sports side.

Yes, especially when there is a lack of support from the administration. My father retired after 30+ years of coaching baseball in part because of incidents such as one where a disgruntled parent took out ads in the paper and anonymously sent out letters to every parent of the school asking that my father be fired. No explanation was given, but the motive appears to be that his son was not played enough the previous year and thus didn't get a trophy at the end of the season. The administration didn't back up my dad despite him being at that high school the entire time and getting the baseball field plus lights funded all by himself through private donations. He stayed on to coach another couple of years after that, but it really ruined the experience for him and the administration basically ushered him out the door. And just to give some background, keep in mind that my dad was an assistant coach for the first State Games, head coach for a later one, and was generally considered one of the most respected high school baseball coaches in North Carolina. (he's nowhere near the ass that I am, so please don't bug him about it if you know who he is)

Very much agreed here as well. To continue this sorry tale, my dad continued to coach Legion and fall baseball, but had to deal with an AAU coach calling players and telling them that my dad had a stroke and therefore that the Post wouldn't have a team anymore. Another coach later called all the regular fall league players and stole them away by promising to get them scholarships when he'd never gotten anyone a scholarship and my dad has sent any number of players on to play college ball.

 

Great Post BigByrd

As far as teacher or not I think there have been some good responses to that so I really have nothing to add. As far as seeing the first five minutes of infield and being able to see if they are well coached or not let me add this.

I dont have to see any infield much less five minutes of it. I can watch them get off the bus and watch the way they carry themselves. I can watch how they go through their pre game warm ups before infield. Do they stretch and if so how? How do they warm up and throw? Do they have good throwing mechanics and do they catch with a purpose or do they just throw the glove out there. Do they stretch out their arms or do they just throw from the same distance the whole time? I watch how the pitcher and catchers get ready before the game. Do they stand around the cage while one guy takes hacks , half heartedly bunting or bunting with a purpose? Or do they all take soft toss and t work and do they approach pregame bp with a purpose? To be honest with you I know if a team is well coached and properly schooled in the fundementals of the game way before infield even starts. We have played some very talented teams that had some outstanding players over the years. But their approach to the game has been poor. These teams do not put fear in my heart as a coach. Regardless of how talented we are we can be fundementally sound. We can make the routine play. We can put the ball in play and force you to make the routine play. You will beat these teams more often than not by being fundementally sound. The teams that put fear in your heart as a coach are the ones that are talented and dont act like thats enough. If you know what I mean.

 

Collin...Wow..not just because of what happened. I have seen things similar before, but the fact that it happened to your dad. Was this in Greenville?

 

great

great post coach 27. hypothetical question: on average, how many ground balls are hit to your infielders during practice per day?