Organizational Allegiance

How is allegiance to a travel organization viewed. Or does it even exist? In the past few years, I have seen a number of individuals that were key to a specific team or an organization, walk away for any number of reasons. In my early involvement with travel ball, I believed that coaches and parents needed to hold their commitment to an organization as just that. I soon became aware that in many instances they did not. I have seen some families "commit" to as many as three organizations in one season. I just got to wondering how the TBR family views this.

 

This is a great question. I'm looking forward to the replies, but I would make one suggestion. If you are wanting honest answers, do not tolerate those that attack one's reasons.

I'm more interested in why someone would jump teams; not to hit 'em over their head for doing so. But if one is trying to correct "team jumping", we need to find out why they do this in the first place. They may have legitimate reasons...and that's what needs to be corrected.

 

Committments

Very interesting topic.....from our experience some players and or parents seem to think the grass is always greener on the other side. For some it is but for most it is not. We have had reasons such as they want to play for the team that their HS is part of, that it gives them a better chance of making the team. But if you want to be honest, coaches of HS teams should have the BEST 12-14 girls on their team, no matter what Travel Team they play for. Our TT always stresses the importance of school functions and always work around school team practices and games. Now a days it is very hard to find a group of young ladies that can get along and play good ball together. Just when you start climbing the ladder to winning here comes a downfall where you have 1 or 2 players to jump ship. And face it, now a days team fees are no object to some families. It is also very hard to have 12-14 good sets of parents to go with the 12-14 good set of teenage girls.

Just my opinion...we all know what opinions are like and everyone has one.

BTW~ We have an awesome group of parents & players now in our 2 age groups!!

 

So many reasons....

I agree with you on the point that there should be some commitment to a team. But I like you notice, that there are just certain players that know no commitment to anyone. It is really rare when you find a team that has stuck together through loses and wins! There is always that one player that thinks they are the cream of the team and they just keep moving trying to find that one team that thinks they are too, (or the parents think that)!
I also think that there are very few teams that show commitment to the players either. Some coaches are always looking for that player to be the cream of the team, when they already have that. It is so irritating to see a coach constantly taking on new players when they have a good team already and taking a starter and putting them on the bench to bring in what they consider to be the new cream of the team! That is WRONG!
It is wrong for a player to not be loyal to a team and it is wrong for a team/coach not to be loyal to it's players. JMO

 

Commitment.....is that not the rare attribute just recently named to the endangered species list?

Commitment beyond self is something being lost in today's society.

ERMS

 

Not Make Excuses...BUT !!!

I agree that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the hill,but sometimes we as parents have to make what we think is a better situation for our kids..think of it as an investment..a good stock broker will try to convince you that pork bellies(IE..) is the way to go, so you try it ,and it just isn't making the money that you thought it would,so what do you do hold on or trade ??? I'll also agree that maybe the stock you trade into might not be the way to go either,but sometimes it's the risk you take to better benefit your situation....on the other hand the team that you play for might not need a SS or 3RD baseman,and the playing time has decreased from 85% to 50%...what would you do??? Yes I believe that a player should be committed, but also you need to consider committed to what sitting the bench 50% of the time. I don't know a parent or player that only wants to see 50% of the playing time...DO YOU ?? Also coaches promise kids that if they come play for them we will give you a large percentage of a position,and it never comes to pass, so be careful on passing judgement on those that move on...if they are just trying to find the perfect team then they are in the WRONG !!! I helped coach over (5) years one of the best teams in N.C., but like all good things they come to an end at some point !!! When that happens you still love them,but you have to move on !!!

Guru

 

That's an interesting line. In fact, many time I've seen where it was more like what you said earlier in your post, the girls were friends and the between game/motel hanging out was as important to them as the game itself. If not more so. As a result, performance was not what it could have been, so the parents started looking around for a "winning" team. I guess that brings up part two of the topic. How important should winning be? If a team of friends play well, are learning to play the game, having a good time enjoying life, is that enough? Who is winning more important to, the parents or the players? And why?

 

if you find a good situation where your DD is appreciated, where you give as much back to the organization in terms of hard work and prep of skills as they put into you in terms of good instruction, college contacts and recruiting work you better be thankful for what you have and stay put!

If these items are not present on both sides of the fence you need to reevaluate the whole trip.

Most parents have no idea what it really takes IMHO. Next time you are at the ball park look up one of the parents whose DD has signed and ask them about that road in terms of both softball skills and academics.

 

I agree with some of the posts about leaving because the grass is greener but I moved my DD for another reason. It was playing time she is a young pitcher that was on a team that was not using her to pitch or to come in and close a game that was already lost. She is a starting pitcher and for some reason the team would not use her for that. I am glad we had the option to move her to another team that saw her skills (Denver Dazzle)thanks Coach Chad and thanks Bobby for starting this organization. She did very well and improved as a pitcher. So I guess in my DD case the grass was better not greener.