Both Sides Of The Fence

A famous man said one day, " If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all". He must have been a softball coach--LOL--but this wisdom is so true and fits for todays attitudes. I have been coaching softball for approximately (9) years and in those (9) years I've seen a growing problem with parents / kids complaining and insulting coaches that give their free time in helping those kids reach their goals in playing college softball. Remember,coaches are not perfect just as the average parent is not perfect,and yes coaches may make wrong decisions in games or just in general life, but they are doing the best of their abilities. I do not regret any part of my softball coaching years watching young girls growing up and maturing into young women...sometimes telling the coaches of personal natures that we don't need to know---LOL---driving cars, boyfriends, and just good ole funny stories..biting my nails during tough close games, and hopefully helping each and every one of them becoming what they want to accomplish...now it is time for me to step aside ,and let the next level of coaches do their thing..I just want to thank Dan,Meredith, & Emily in taking the baton and carrying on the race to success for these young women, and I will support them on the other side of the fence, and if they make a wrong decision so be it, I'll just remember at one time I was on that side of the fence....GURU

 

Where is Guru???

To quote Will Farrell from the movie "Kicking and Screaming"...."are you some kind of Robot??? are you some kind of Robot?? Where is the Guru?"

Guru,
You and I are buddies for sure, but you are making me sick with this melancholy, sappy, riduculously feminine post.....Snap out of it man....

this is softball, remember, "nothing soft about it", "if it were any easier they would call it baseball", "my boyfriend baseball player is the batboy", etc....

You act like you are riding into the sunset and all you have on your tv to watch is ping pong and horseshoes......

I guarantee anytime you are feeling low, come to watch my 8 year olds team and you will see that through the years you (and most every other positive coach) has made a huge impact on these kids lives. it is up to us to know when to say when, you did it, now enjoy Becca and the other kids as they go and dominate other 16 year old teams.....they are better players because of you......

Now, please forward my check for saying nice things about you....oh, sorry, was that supposed to be a private message and not on the public board???

(that is me starting over with an 8u team after all these years and getting caroline and her teamates to 14u....

 

Other Side

John You kill me! Your so funny. I though the IV thing last week was hilarious.

Sometimes the "Other Side" ain't so bad, just now getting a taste of it myself. Sometimes the toughest part is staying on the "other side". My wife can attest that I love the game as much as my daughter. But we should do what is right for our girls regardless of our own desires. (I bet they never gave a college scholarship d/t an entusiastic parent if the dd doesn't have the skills!) Finding a team/coach that you can trust with your dd's development and girls they enjoy spending time with is difficult but there out there!

I heard someone recently say there ar more teams than girls to play and I believe its true. If you look at the message boards there are coaches and teams that seem desperate with multiple posts and posts under different login's or even start having the players post too. This is evidence enough that there are too many parents who think that they can do it "better" than the current coach. All this really does is dilute the talent pool and create sub par teams that spend a lot of time and money with little success. There are enough rec leagues that run spring and fall prgrams that if the girls and the parents want to do this only for fun they should play there lot less time and headaches for all involved. This is true I believe in the younger age groups 12, 14 and some 16's. Don't know about the older girls teams yet.......

Love it or Hate it at times it still provides some great time spent with our kids!

Just my .02

 

Well, well, well, THE Guru has finally came over to the dark side of the force. Welcome young one, your studies have just begun. lol. Welcome to how the other half live my friend, and it may not be as tough as you think. No more late night calls about why you didn't do this and did do that. No more going to bed with tomorrow's line up playing out in your head. No more playing last weekend's tourney over and over and over again the entire next week. And most importantly no more talking on the phone for hours on end trying to explain yourself to some who only cares about their own dd and could give two shakes about the other 11 girls on the team, meanwhile they are taking what precious little time you have to spend with your family talking about theirs. Coaching travel ball is one the most thankless jobs in the world. Until you've done it, you can not even fathom the time and effort these travel guys put into their teams. For 6 years i was ACCUSED of coaching only my kids. When i gave it up, I decided that it was time for me to do exactly that. Now all my coaching energies are put into just my two dds (AT HOME all you wannabe fence coaching parents and the proper way, teaching against your coaches is not doing anyone any good, if you disagree that strongly with your coach that you would undermine them then find somewhere else). So come find me at a tourney, we'll pull up a chair under a shade tree and sit back and do the one thing that you can't do while coaching (no not drink) and that's sit back and enjoy watching your kid play the game that they love so much...... or you could try out for scorekeeper thats what i did. lol:229031_ha ALL HAIL THE GURU

 

Prkland--- I have been wondering where you have been, missed hanging out with you at the park..........WELL ,we can now !!!......See you at the diamond......GURU

 

I don't know John..... made me a little misty over here...

 

Did Somebody say FENCE?????

 

yep.......how's it been?

 

Hey Guru, been indisposed for a couple of weeks with a little break from ball. Volleyball going on and with Morgan now in high school and being the setter for JV and playing some varsity and Ashley playing varsity that takes up alot of our time too. still been practicing and working out but with us reorganizing up here just as i'm sure alot of teams are doing right now we may not play alot this fall (2-3 tourneys). hope things are going well for you and yours and we will see ya soon.