How involved is your HS Coach in youth baseball/softball?

G

green_genes

Well-known member
There's a Facebook thread in my local community forum re: youth softball registration that has gone from "when is it" to "we don't have enough girls to form a team" to "I blame the HS coach - he and the players should be more involved in the youth program."

Just curious - not sure what the HS coach can do when you can't find 11 kids at each age group. Bat and ball sports have really devolved into "kids who play travel" and everyone else from what I've seen.

Furthermore, what do you do when the best/only facilities are on school property? You can't really make them available during the HS season and presumably you need them for your summer program - assuming you have one.
 
 
Great questions.

From a small town, rural area myself. The best facility is at our local park, not the school, so everyone has unfettered use of it as soon as the weather is decent enough in the spring. the school teams use that diamond and the HS diamond is JV/FROSH.

A HS coach should be out there to help drive the numbers up. Maybe some youth camps, etc, Many are teachers so they have the summers off.

I think they should work with the REC department to get numbers out.

One of the issues I see is many rec depts are starting their youth baseball so early, like March/April and the HC cannot be much assistance. A bulk of our youth baseball/softball does not start until the end of May and as soon as the spring teams are done they can come out and help.
 
green_genes said:
There's a Facebook thread in my local community forum re: youth softball registration that has gone from "when is it" to "we don't have enough girls to form a team" to "I blame the HS coach - he and the players should be more involved in the youth program."

Just curious - not sure what the HS coach can do when you can't find 11 kids at each age group. Bat and ball sports have really devolved into "kids who play travel" and everyone else from what I've seen.

Furthermore, what do you do when the best/only facilities are on school property? You can't really make them available during the HS season and presumably you need them for your summer program - assuming you have one.
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How are the HS Coach and Players supposed to be more involved in something that may not even exist? The summer programs are “renting” the School facility and you and your team could do the same if you so choose?
 
Our former Head coach at Taylor actually ran summer ball teams with kids on it from the district as well. So he was very involved.

Our new HC isn't that deep yet but they are working on a "youth night" and "meet the team" event which I think will help ALOT.

We have been lucky and blessed that our school has had some good baseball come and go the past few years.
this year (i have watched 10+ HS games) baseball doesnt seem to be "as good" as it has in past. Not sure if it's from covid or if #'s are down or what.

As far as the comment above , our home field for HS is open to 15U select teams once the HS season is over , but you have to maintain the dirt after each game/practice. We have one of the nicest baseball facilities in SWO besides the ones with turf IMO.
 
Would be great if it was actually "summer" ball. So many leagues now play in the months of April and May and are done first two weeks of June it makes it tough for the HS coach to get to a game let alone have time to work with them. I wish youth baseball went back to the days of June and July, unfortunately we all know you cannot get in the way of the youth football time where these kids are being asked to do conditioning and put in their offense in early July now
 
HomeRun10 said:
Would be great if it was actually "summer" ball. So many leagues now play in the months of April and May and are done first two weeks of June it makes it tough for the HS coach to get to a game let alone have time to work with them. I wish youth baseball went back to the days of June and July, unfortunately we all know you cannot get in the way of the youth football time where these kids are being asked to do conditioning and put in their offense in early July now
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I cannot agree with you more. Youth leagues start in early April and are done by the July 4th weekend. Makes it very hard for a high school coach to get involved in the youth leagues but he can be seen in June if he is able. When I complained about this to the Waterworks crowd, They said that they have to allow for vacations and then football starts in late July. It is one of the reasons why youth baseball players struggle to gain skills. Not enough time for practice.
 
BASESWIMPARENT said:
I cannot agree with you more. Youth leagues start in early April and are done by the July 4th weekend. Makes it very hard for a high school coach to get involved in the youth leagues but he can be seen in June if he is able. When I complained about this to the Waterworks crowd, They said that they have to allow for vacations and then football starts in late July. It is one of the reasons why youth baseball players struggle to gain skills. Not enough time for practice.
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My sons select team goes from March -July. Once July hits we practice one day a week and are tournament only.
BUT from March to June we have 1 league game , 1 non league game and 2 practices a week.

We have had 4-5 kids the past 3 years split July with baseball and football. It is possible Just coaches have to actually communicate.
 
I wonder this.........

I wonder these days if you asked little leaguers to pick out the HC of their HS team most could not do so.........
 
93 red ls said:
My sons select team goes from March -July. Once July hits we practice one day a week and are tournament only.
BUT from March to June we have 1 league game , 1 non league game and 2 practices a week.

We have had 4-5 kids the past 3 years split July with baseball and football. It is possible Just coaches have to actually communicate.
Click to expand...
Absolutely.
I coached in two towns that had ultra talented sports outside of baseball.
Town A: got nasty voicemails from the basketball program if a kid missed an open gym in June to come play a baseball game and guilting the kids to miss a ballgame for an open gym

Town B: Football coach encouraged the kids to attend the tournament baseball game (ACME Baseball in western Ohio) and skip a 7 on 7. The HC would also allow a pitcher who was throwing in a tourny game that night be a spotter at lifting and conditioning in the morning so he could be fresh for the game that night. For hoops, this town would not schedule anything on a certain night of the week so basketball could have an open gym and teh baseball players attend.

Guess which town had a solid baseball AND other sport?
 
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