buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
as many of you know, i'm a coach (actually co-head coach) on my son;s little league baseball team.
the league is broken up into 2 age groups: 9 - 10 year olds, and 11-12 year olds.
we had a tryout day a few weeks ago where all boys showed up and were evaluated on things like throwing. catching, fielding grounders, and hitting. actually, the 9-10 year olds didn;t get to hit due to time restraints.
because there were about 115 boys, each test was very brief. the coaches had only a few minutes to evaluate each boy on each task and mark our judgement based on an id number given each boy on a sticker on their chest.
a week after, we had our draft. since the 11-12 year olds are more "important" (they get to play for the official little league world series in williamsport, pa.) they had their draft first. a few 10 year olds were selected to play with the older boys due to their advanced ability.
but that's where the problem started.
we had our (the 9-10 year olds) draft next. there was a large chalkboard in the office where all of the boys' numbers were written. there were the noticeably few missing numbers from what should be a consecutive list (the boys taken "up" to the 11-12 year olds), and then there was a few boys listed as 11 year olds.
i thought it was strange that a few 11 year olds were available to be chosen to play with the younger boys, but the league president explained that some of them were placed there having to do with their ability (or lack thereof, apparently); some because they had too many boys to play on the older 11-12 year old teams.
that seemed weird to me since they took some younger, more talented boys up with the older ones, but i let it go.
after going over our ratings, my co-coach and i selected one of the 11 year old boys. granted, he wasn't our first pick, or even in our top 6 (out of 12 picks), but our ratings were decent on him, and i had noted that he was a big kid. almost as big as me! just somewhat ungainly. so we picked him over other boys hoping he was teachable.
after our team meeting and first team practice (where this kid towered over the rest of the team), his mom called me to tell me that he was quitting because it was embarrassing for him to play with the little kids since he was about to turn 12. i told his mom that i understood and would speak to the league about it.
when i called the president of the league to tell him, he said that they would review their evaluations and get back to me on it. at our last practice, the president told me that they weren't going to move him up, and asked me to call his mom to ask her to call him to discuss it. he also mentioned that his uniform (adult xl!) had been ordered, and his mom had yet to pay his registration fee.
when i questioned why such a big kid that wasn't necessarily terrible (but not great) wasn't being taken up, the president said that they felt he could get hurt if he played with more talented kids. he repeated that he wanted me to contact the mom to have her call him to discuss it.
the whole thing just isn't sitting right with me. i mean, my first thought is that this could permanently scar the kid and cause him to shy away from sports altogether. as i said he's really big for an 11 - about to be 12 year old, and he just needs to grow into his body. you never know; he could be a great athlete if he's that big so young.
but i'm not sure how far i should go with this. the people that run the league have been doing it for upwards of a decade or more, so maybe they have experience with this.
i think i'll bring this up monday at our coaches' meeting, but i know if i do that it might really piss off the president since all discussions get logged publicly in the meetings' minutes which are available online to the public the next day. he's already told me their decision, but i feel that it should be discussed further in the open. maybe a coach of the older boys would be willing to take a chance on him?
also, the fact that they are still interested in getting his $75 registration fee while this goes on kind of bothers me. if he pulls out because of their decision, they should eat the fee.
but still, the boy's family did sign a contract of sorts for the tryouts and to order the uniform by showing up at the first team meeting.
so, what should i do? should i make this a matter of public record and stick my neck out for a kid i don't really know?
i was thinking of asking some of the older boys' coaches on the side to see if any of them might be willing to take a chance on him.
but again, that might seem as trying to go around the powers that be. i'm only a probationary coach and no one really knows me there, but i've never been afraid to speak my mind, either. also, i can't do any good going forward if i can't coach, so there in lies my conundrum.
what does everyone think i should do?
the league is broken up into 2 age groups: 9 - 10 year olds, and 11-12 year olds.
we had a tryout day a few weeks ago where all boys showed up and were evaluated on things like throwing. catching, fielding grounders, and hitting. actually, the 9-10 year olds didn;t get to hit due to time restraints.
because there were about 115 boys, each test was very brief. the coaches had only a few minutes to evaluate each boy on each task and mark our judgement based on an id number given each boy on a sticker on their chest.
a week after, we had our draft. since the 11-12 year olds are more "important" (they get to play for the official little league world series in williamsport, pa.) they had their draft first. a few 10 year olds were selected to play with the older boys due to their advanced ability.
but that's where the problem started.
we had our (the 9-10 year olds) draft next. there was a large chalkboard in the office where all of the boys' numbers were written. there were the noticeably few missing numbers from what should be a consecutive list (the boys taken "up" to the 11-12 year olds), and then there was a few boys listed as 11 year olds.
i thought it was strange that a few 11 year olds were available to be chosen to play with the younger boys, but the league president explained that some of them were placed there having to do with their ability (or lack thereof, apparently); some because they had too many boys to play on the older 11-12 year old teams.
that seemed weird to me since they took some younger, more talented boys up with the older ones, but i let it go.
after going over our ratings, my co-coach and i selected one of the 11 year old boys. granted, he wasn't our first pick, or even in our top 6 (out of 12 picks), but our ratings were decent on him, and i had noted that he was a big kid. almost as big as me! just somewhat ungainly. so we picked him over other boys hoping he was teachable.
after our team meeting and first team practice (where this kid towered over the rest of the team), his mom called me to tell me that he was quitting because it was embarrassing for him to play with the little kids since he was about to turn 12. i told his mom that i understood and would speak to the league about it.
when i called the president of the league to tell him, he said that they would review their evaluations and get back to me on it. at our last practice, the president told me that they weren't going to move him up, and asked me to call his mom to ask her to call him to discuss it. he also mentioned that his uniform (adult xl!) had been ordered, and his mom had yet to pay his registration fee.
when i questioned why such a big kid that wasn't necessarily terrible (but not great) wasn't being taken up, the president said that they felt he could get hurt if he played with more talented kids. he repeated that he wanted me to contact the mom to have her call him to discuss it.
the whole thing just isn't sitting right with me. i mean, my first thought is that this could permanently scar the kid and cause him to shy away from sports altogether. as i said he's really big for an 11 - about to be 12 year old, and he just needs to grow into his body. you never know; he could be a great athlete if he's that big so young.
but i'm not sure how far i should go with this. the people that run the league have been doing it for upwards of a decade or more, so maybe they have experience with this.
i think i'll bring this up monday at our coaches' meeting, but i know if i do that it might really piss off the president since all discussions get logged publicly in the meetings' minutes which are available online to the public the next day. he's already told me their decision, but i feel that it should be discussed further in the open. maybe a coach of the older boys would be willing to take a chance on him?
also, the fact that they are still interested in getting his $75 registration fee while this goes on kind of bothers me. if he pulls out because of their decision, they should eat the fee.
but still, the boy's family did sign a contract of sorts for the tryouts and to order the uniform by showing up at the first team meeting.
so, what should i do? should i make this a matter of public record and stick my neck out for a kid i don't really know?
i was thinking of asking some of the older boys' coaches on the side to see if any of them might be willing to take a chance on him.
but again, that might seem as trying to go around the powers that be. i'm only a probationary coach and no one really knows me there, but i've never been afraid to speak my mind, either. also, i can't do any good going forward if i can't coach, so there in lies my conundrum.
what does everyone think i should do?