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Politicing for kid to be selected on a certain team...

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by qtlaw, Sep 2, 2009.

  1. Rhody31

    Rhody31 Well-Known Member

    I coached a youth basketball team and a lot of parents wanted their kids to play for specific coaches.
    But some of the parents didn't want their kids to play with certain kids because they didn't get along. That really pissed me off.
    It's one thing if you want your kids to play for a coach who's going to put important on learning. On the team I coached, I prided myself on our C players turning from scrubs to B players by the end of the season.
    But don't tell people your kid can't play on a team with another because they got in a fight or one picked on the other. I grew up playing with a kid who I couldn't stand, but on the court it all went away. It's part of learning how to work as a team, a lesson that gets lost in a lot of youth leagues.
     
  2. BadgerBeer

    BadgerBeer Well-Known Member

    I think what you are doing is just fine. If it helps your kid enjoy himself, more power to you. I will however question why 5th grade kids need to be coached up in flag football. I am 47 years old. When we had flag football we coached ourselves(school teams). I was the QB and I took it upon myself to organize practices, get schedules to players and make sure we had enough kids to play. We were a terrible team but we all had fun(I was actually pretty damn good and ended up with a scholarship after HS). Every other school managed to have their teams show up and play as well. All without any meddlesome parents getting off on their "Lombardi like abilities". With everything organized today I believe we are actually doing our kids an injustice...leadership skills that were once developed by "getting the gang together" for a pick up game or organizing a 5th grade "practice" are left uncultivated because mom or dad need to have their hands all over every God Damned event in which a 5th grader participates. Less organization should be the goal going forward as far as I am concerned.
     
  3. Seahawk

    Seahawk Member

    During my high school/college years, I coached a Little League baseball team, and also coached my youngest sister's softball team. Coaching was incredibly rewarding, especially those moments when the kid who didn't know how to hold a bat at the start of the season gets their first hit (or at least works up the nerve to take a solid hack at the ball.

    Sure, the parents were a pain at times, but the part I really didn't like was the the pre-season draft meeting, whch was one of the most eye-opening things I've ever seen. Adults yelling at each other, shouting and doing whatever it took to make sure they got certain kids on their team (not the way qtlaw is talking about, but the bad way, trying to stack teams with the "stars" of the league). I had no allegiances to any particular kids, so I picked our team based on what I saw during the tryout day. Pissed off some people in the room who said I couldn't take someone their father was going to be like the sixth assistant coach on the team. Funny how at the start of the season, the other teams all seemed to have a half-dozen "assistants" though none of them were ever at games.

    Umpiring? That is a different animal. There is not enough money to get me to ump or ref youth sports ever again. It's the parents. They turn into bad people with a penchant for name-calling and general idiocy. Actually had a kid once apologize for her dad's behavior as she stepped up to the plate. She was embarrassed for him, but he was too busy running his mouth to notice how ashamed she was.

    If it was just the kids, it would be nothing short of a great experience.
     
  4. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    I don't think this is politicking. I think you're just asking your friend to keep an eye out for your kid. It's not like you're threatening other coaches he won't play if they draft him, etc.

    You're good.
     
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I asked that my kid could be on a team with two friends -- so that we could carpool to practice.
     
  6. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    When I ran the draft for the 9-10 Pony League for a couple of years as commissioner, that was the worst. One year there were a couple of expansion teams starting from ground zero, with coaches who were nice, newbies. The jockeying for position was like you say, lip service to the expansion teams but push back on absolutely any sort of concession to them, fear that they would "win." Sick I tell you. Well end of the year, one team won 1 game, the other 3, out of 20.

    And in this flag football league, heard that several kids were told to run a slow "40 yd dash" time.
     
  7. If this is any kind of city-run parks and rec or ymca league, there has to be parental supervision, it's that simple. Unfortunately, the days when a bunch of my buddies and I would go to the school baseball field and play for like 6 hours at a stretch on a nice summer day are long gone.
     
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