Rec League Coaching Quality

In my opinion, the most important commitment a baseball rec league board can make is to to make a consistent, dedicated effort to providing the best quality coaching it can provide; even if it means a reduction in the number of fathers who coach.

Soon after I agreed to join our rec league's board, our board president led us into making just such a commitment. For the previous 25 years, we'd largely acquiesced by "making do" for the most part with whatever dads were willing to assist as coaches. As a result, the quality of our coaching was extremely uneven. Some dads were excellent, while others detracted substantially by offering little in the way of baseball knowledge and/or showing little more motivation than that of protecting their son's interest on the field and in the lineup.

As a result, our league's first 25 years could be characterized as "ho hum" in virtually every respect. We grew very little, we lagged in our ability to attract volunteer and monetary support, and not once had our all-star team succeeded in winning our district. "Mediocre" was about the best summary comment one could hang on us. However, once we agreed that if we did nothing else well, we'd provide high quality coaches, it was amazing how many of the other elements improved.

The way we went about it was this: First, we recruited some young men who had played baseball to serve as both head and assistant coaches. Because we were in Charlotte, we focused mostly on young professionals downtown...20-somethings, most of whom had played college ball. As a minimum qualification, they had to have played on their high school varsity.

Occasionally, recruiting one such coach brought one or two more; as a number of them saw this as a fun way to involve their buddies in something beyond work. Invariably, the young coaches transferred their knowledge and love of the game to the young players; and, significantly, it was always a given that they brought along none of the favoritism (or, conversely, the unnecessary toughness) that a handful of dads brought to the coaching of their sons.

Simultaneously, we approached a handful of dads...ones whose coaching left something to be desired...thanked them for their prior commitment, and told them that we'd no longer need their involvement as coaches. In the process, we lost a very few dads and their sons, initially; but, the positive results greatly outweighed the loss.

Dads who were quality coaches, of course, were made aware of the board's commitment and knew how important they were to making the new emphasis work. In a number of cases, they took on one of the young coaches as assistants; or, occasionally, the dads served as assistants to a young coach. We ended up having a great mix of dads and young coaches once we'd integrated the young coaches into the ranks.

Once the coaching ranks were established, we provided regular training in baseball coaching fundamentals and how to help make practices both fun and instructive.

The results were virtually immediate. Overall enthusiasm of everyone associated with the program rose markedly. With improved coaching, players' skills rose; and, after a couple of seasons, the league sent its all-star team to the state tournament for the first time in its 28-year history.

As all of this occurred, interest in helping; whether through time or money or both also rose dramatically. The quality of our fields improved tremendously over the first several years; and, for the first time, we were put in a position to host a district tournament when our turn came around. Today, the league continues to prosper and send high quality baseball players on to neighboring high schools, legion teams, and travel teams.

Consistent commitment to high quality coaching. Such a simple concept...but, as is so often the case, the challenge is in the execution. Based on the above experience, I'd commend it to any rec league that wants to improve itself on any number of fronts.

 

Congrats

This is obviously a very committed Board and a great master plan for all rec leagues to follow.

 

I am so glad you posted this. I was talking to a mother of one of our former players 2 nights ago and asked him what he was doing this summer. Great kid, all state HS player 2 yrs and a 4 year college player. When she said she didn't know I told her that he needed to go find a youth league team to coach. He would be outstanding. Her response to me was, "I bet he hasn't even thought of that. How would he go about it?" A lot of these guys out there that would love to do it if approached.

Sometimes our youth leagues become too much of an old boys club and are afraid to take the steps you have done. To get these young guys in takes a little recruiting. The kids will benefit tremendously and will love it.

 

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