HS Ball Resolution

[BonezMom]

No, this is a larger AA school (almost AAA, probably 800+ students), with a history of having good teams in girl sports. They had several more sign up than is needed for a varsity and a jv team.

I was talking to a dad of a 9th grade girl last night, probably one of the top 3 incoming freshmen that I can think of, and he said that she may not even go to try-outs

If I was you and I wanted DD to play HS Ball to warm up for the travel season ... then I think I would phone the AD and say WTF? Maybe there is no one to Coach it ... ( no pun intended, that statement would imply there are people who Coach HS teams ) ...

When doing that its always good to mention lawyer and Title IX in the same sentence

[jofus]

Actually, one of my buddies, who is the head girls basketball coach, has called the softball coach and left several messages, but she hasn't called him back. He is willing to coach the JV (volunteer), do all the scheduling, hiring of the umps, take care of the fields for the JV games, etc., but it seems she is avoiding him.

His daughter is only in 7th grade.

Edit to add....the volleyball coach that got the job this year is horrible, all of the girls and parents hate her, and she doesn't know much about volleyball. The parents demanded a meeting with the principal to talk about it after the season...17 of 18 parents showed up, begging/demanding they get rid of her, and the principal said "there's not much I can do if she wants to continue"

I'm thinking of writing the school a letter expressing my concerns as a parent with a daughter going there next year. I'm sure it will do a bunch of good.

The bad thing is, in the school trophy case, is a few wrestling state championships, and a bunch of volleyball and softball state championships, and not much else...3 years ago, I thought "at least their girl sports do well", but now I'm starting to worry.

Oh well...at least it's just high school

[GIMNEPIWO]

You need to follow the chain of command and go to the Athletic Director asap ... tell your buddy to call him ...

[ECSB]

I feel your pain. I don't know if you remember some of my old posts, but I was a bit smug - our Varsity coach was pretty good, didn't take bull from parents, and was good to my kids. His backup, the JV coach, who was also pretty good, knows a bit about softball and the kids loved him. He is a grandpa to one of the varsity kids and coached hitting and pitching around town often for free. Well....things change fast. The Varsity coach got sick and has dropped out. The AD told the JV coach he was too old to coach varsity - the kids were all pretty upset. They are interviewing for a new Varsity coach. Hopefully it will be the former D1 all american and travel softball coach who applied (please, please). If not...I could have some good stories this year too....

[GIMNEPIWO]

I'm here for you ECSB ... good luck ... but whatever happens, as I believe my OP states ... learn from the experience ... like just yesterday ... I learned that catchers are not supposed to give pitchers a target, but rather hold the glove facing away from the pitcher, in the dirt between your legs ... Ya see, its just a mechanic that I would have never thought of ...

[Tucson]

"The AD told the JV coach he was too old to coach varsity"

Surely to G*d, that didn't happen..... Although I did have an AD tell me once that they needed to hire a man for a PE position, because a woman couldn't supervise the locker room. I asked him who was going to supervise the girl's locker room and he acted like he hadn't thought of that.

Yes, I second mentioning that "when I was talking to my attorney about Title 9 ...."

[GIMNEPIWO]

The AD told the JV coach he was too old to coach varsity

Along with Lawyer and Title IX ... it smells like discrimination ...

[ECSB]

Thanks for the kind thoughts guys. Yep, it really happened, the AD (who is no spring chicken either) told the JV coach he was too old (he is probably in his late 60's or early 70's but he is in good shape). The kids and parents would have fought for him but he asked us not to, so we did what he wanted. He also coaches JV basketball and coaching is his hobby, so he didn't want to mess things up with the AD by making trouble. The things people say and do....

Hopefully we won't get a coach like the catching coach you described......ouch.

[Ace]

Maybe he IS too old.

[hit4power]

I guess I'll count myself (and my DD) lucky after reading all this and some previous threads on HS ball. DD's head coach knows what he is doing and so far its been a good experience (DD is a freshman, but we have a dozen games logged so far). My big observation is that HS ball has a much wider variation than I've seen in TB. So far we've seen everything from 40mph to 60mph pitching, and teams that couldn't beat a decent 12U rec team to teams that could play 18G and do pretty well. Tomorrow, we face off against a major D1 signee who was clocked at 64mph today in the game ahead of ours.