Coaches stealing players what do you think?

What is going on? Have we lost our minds? Why are so many coaches shopping for player as if their in an auction! Do you think it is wrong for coaches to approach players from other teams? When they are happy playing with the team they are with. Don’t you think that if a player isn’t happy that the parents and the player should do the shopping? Not the coaches! How can we teach them to be loyal if we allow this? Folks I want you to know there is a lot of snakes in the grass waiting to bite. If a coach comes to your child and promises the world then it’s to good to be true. There are so many coaches out there that is destroying
Good teams for their on selfish reasons to win at all cost. I like to win too but not at all cost. Folks they don’t have you Childs best interest! Please beware of those coaches.

 

stealing players is not ethical and we respect this unwritten code!

just my two cents worth nonetheless

 

A team can be can be very successful without having to "steal" players from other teams. I started a team 3 years ago which consisited of girls from only 2 local high schools. The goal of the team was to help prepare these young ladies to be more competitive on their high school teams and also lay the foundation for those who aspired to play softball in college, not neccessarily to win every tournament. Although we played every game to win, winning wasn't the ultimate goal. We certainly didn't start with the best players, but by the time we were together for a year, we were one of the top teams in NC. Our team motto is "practice to win, play for fun!" And we did practice- alot, at least 2-3 times a week. We would also rent a a local gym on Sunday afternoons during the winter so we could continue to work on the fundamentals of the game.

This past weekend we played in our last tournament as a team and we still have 7 of the original 11 players from 3 years ago. The way we added new players when needed was by referrals only, never a tryout. I never had to approach any player on another team because those who were looking for a team would come to us. Apparently the word got out about the purpose and quality of our team and that seemed to always keep the phone ringing with girls wanting to play for us.

One thing that I also made our team different from most is that I would get calls from players or parents of players wanting to tryout or play for our team and I sometimes knew this girl was better than some of our current players. However, unless someone had left the team, I would respectfully tell the young lady (or her parents) we had a full team and that I would call her if something changed in the future. I remained committed to those who were committed to the team. (I also learned from other coaches that the most talented player isn't always the best team player.) I'm sure we could have had a stronger team and won more tournaments if we would have had tryouts and added better players as they came along, but that just wasn't the goal of our team. We also had a small amount of adversity we had to overcome over the years, but 99% of the time, we just kept improving, winning games and having fun.

I guess my point is you must first determine the purpose of the team then determine what your defintion of success is. Our way seemed to work just fine. Our 3 year record was 167-58 and we finished in the top 3 of tournaments 26 times. There are 4 young ladies from our team who most likely will play in ball in college, but there are 12 young ladies from our team who are better people just from the experience of being on our team. They all learned success is determined by the effort you put in while trying to achieve your goals, not playing to win at all costs.

 

Stealing Players

Mac sounds like U have had a great run and I admire your dedication. :applause:

 

Well said BMAC1, I do it the same way you do.
Comets coach 14u and 18u.

 

Your talking about club ball/travel teams or high school ?

 

Travel softball

 

Isnt the object of travel ball to WIN ??
I think a player is fair game unless your over your salary cap and cant afford her or him.

 

not sure I'd be so worried about it in travel ball. cause the parents and kids are pretty much paying & playing to win, along with gaining experience. but it's a REALLY bad deal when it happens in High School.

 

coaches/players

cavs, im totally opposite from you. i pay money for a coach to teach me how to be better in what i do and to help me progress. how can a coach teach me how to play if hes too busy stealing other players from other teams just to win?? just my thought.