My Experience Coaching a 9-10 Year Old Baseball Team in a Rigged League

[Atocep]

It looks like the tournament we played in this past weekend brings an end to Kaden's season and my coaching this year. Kaden is at baseball camp this week, but I've been told there will be no attempt to enter additional tournaments because too many players are dropping out.

I thought the kids did a great job considering what they were up against, but there seemed to be some unhappiness because of the things I mentioned above and I'm not really shocked to see parents decide they have better things to do with the rest of their summers.

Like I said, this was an eye opening experience and further clouds the decision on what we're going to do for next year. There really doesn't seem to be a good option for us. I'm going to talk to some of the parents to my team, talk to the assistant from the Blue Raiders, talk to Kaden and at some point I'll have to make a decision. As of right now it's one I'm not looking forward to making.

[Atocep]

So a lot has happened in the past 5-6 months. Some feedback on my situation with basketball would also be appreciated. This is going to be along post.

What is probably the biggest news is that I'm now the Vice President of Lakewood Baseball Club. I had attended maybe 4-5 board meetings and the position was offered to me as the current Vice President wanted to move into the open Commissioner spot. Up until then I had just been attending meetings to help with general input and suggestions. I had no official title or role on the board though until I was voted in as Vice President.

I'm also dealing the parental drama that stems from basketball. It's a long and somewhat complicated story. I mentioned to my parents at the end of baseball season that if they're interested we could bring them together for basketball. The kids from our team that I knew played basketball were Kaden, Quentin, Nolan, Brendan, Joey, and Magnus. Everyone I spoke to except Quentin's parents were excited about the possibility of getting them all together for basketball. Quentin's parents didn't want to make a commitment that far away from basketball season (perfectly understandable). I talked to Canaan's dad and Canaan and he said he'd be interested in playing, but he's never played organized basketball. Not a problem. He was more than welcome. I was told Christopher and Sean don't play basketball.

October rolls around and I start trying to get this organized. I told them I'd coach with the person I coached with the year before (Frank). Anyone that's interested let me know. If you're not, that's fine. There would be no hard feelings or anything. I just wanted to know. Everyone reconfirms.

We then run into the first problem. The Parks and Rec division here has been told they're being hit with a 3% budget cut targeted at the youth sports division. Basketball is being targeted as the easy way to make the cut. The problem is parks and rec doesn't offer baseball, it doesn't offer soccer, and now they're looking at cutting basketball. What the hell is the point of a youth sports division if it's not going to offer the most popular sports? Not to mention the fact that it's the only way to play organized basketball in Lakewood.

I've known the guy that runs the Youth Sports division since he was hired 5 years ago. I've coached in his leagues since Kaden was in 1st grade. I went back and forth with him on this all through October, November, and into December. I wanted to know what was going on, if there was anything I could do to get the city council to realize the importance of basketball in Lakewood, and I kept my parents up to date throughout via email.

What they finally settled on is registration would open up late. It usually opens up the beginning of November and teams start practicing at the start of December. Then games are in Mid January and February. This year registration was to open up the week after Thanksgiving, practices would start right after New Years, and games would be in February and March. I got this info about 10 days before registration opens up and, once again, I get confirmations.

The Youth Sports director calls me the day registration opens up because he knew I had a group I was looking to get registered and he lets me know that forms are going out to schools and everyone can stop by parks and rec to get a registration form. I send that info out. I then get an email from Joey's mom telling me that Joey and Magnus are just going to play for the same coach they played for last season. This, I know, means Canaan is going to play with them as well. Magnus' dad and Canaan's dad helped me coach baseball and I've spent time at their houses for BBQs, birthdays, ect so I expect to hear something from them on this; at least letting me know personally that they had decided to play with their basketball coach from last year. Nothing.

A few days later I finally get some good news. Quentin's mom emailed me and let me know that wanted to play basketball with us and they'd have him signed up soon. That would give us Nolan (never any worries here), Quentin, and Kaden. Brendan goes to school with Magnus and Joey so even though his parents had confirmed with me I wasn't expecting to have him.

The coaches meeting is called and Frank can't make it. I show up and I'm handed a roster that doesn't have Quentin on it. Oddly, he's on the roster for the team that Magnus and Joey are playing on. I ask for clarification on it and show the director the email from a week ago where his parents told me that he was going to play for us and the director pulls him off of that roster and adds him to mine (what made this one weird is I'm 100% certain that when Quentin's parents say something they'll do it. That's the way they are and that's why they wouldn't commit earlier). Brendan, Nolan, and Kaden are on our roster along with 5 kids I don't know.

1 week before our first practice is scheduled I get a call from Frank letting me know that his work schedule changed after the New Year and he wouldn't be able to help me coach. At this point I'm really coming close to the point where I just say fuck it out of frustration, but I know Brendan's dad has coached basketball so I call him and he agrees to give me hand coaching this team. This is a huge help. He's a great guy, he's an intense guy, he coaches a lot like I do, and he's committed.

This past Tuesday is our first practice and Magnus and Joey's team practice in the same gym right before us. I show up and I immediately see something odd. Christopher and Sean are on their team along with Magnus, Joey, and Canaan. For this to happen there had to be some talks going on while they were still telling me they were interested in getting these kids together on one team with me. Then comes the best part. Magnus' mom comes up to me as their practice ends and says "hey, I didn't know you were coaching. We like our coach from last year and if we knew you were coaching we could have just put the two groups together". I smiled and nodded my head because I had was getting close to saying some things I'd probably regret later.

Later on I talk to Nolan's dad and he tells me that a couple of weeks prior the other group had actually approached him and asked if was interested in joining their group for basketball. He told them, no thanks, they were going to stick with me and he actually seemed both annoyed and pissed at what happened. I told him what Magnus's mom said to me about not knowing I was coaching and he just shook his head in annoyance and disbelief (probably worth mentioning that Nolan, Quentin, and Brendan have played with that other group since 1st grade and that this is the first time they've been split up). I talk to Quentin's dad about him somehow ending up on that team's roster and he told me had has no idea how or why it happened, but Quentin wanted to play for me and that's specifically who they asked for on the sign up form. Now I'm both pissed off and confused. I honestly don't fully understand what was going on or why, but it's easy to put most of the pieces together here. The only thing I don't really understand is why. It seems childish and ridiculous to me, but after 2 practices and 5 groups of parents that I coached in baseball there the only one to come up to me to talk at all was Magnus' mom when she first saw me.

Anyway, I had explained to the baseball parents that since we weren't coming back as a team next year I'd work with them on what their options are. I'd try to keep together as many as we can and I wouldn't make a decision on what Kaden and I are doing without talking to them first. Tony, Brendan's dad and the guy that's helping me coach basketball, happens to be the assistant coach for the Mud Dogs; they're the team that won our 9-10 year old division 2 years ago and won the 11-12 year old division last year. After our 1st basketball practice he tells me they have 2 openings on their roster and they're interested in Kaden. I said if they're willing to take Nolan we're interested. Nolan's dad agreed to play whereever Kaden and I are going. He wants to keep Nolan with me.

Kaden, Nolan, Canaan, Christopher, and Sean all have to move up if they're going to continue playing. The rest are staying behind and have to find a new team. I've already found a team for Quentin. The rest are on their own at this point. I feel bad for the kids, but a friend of mine pointed out that I had done everything I could possibly do for them and probably more. If their parents want to handle things this way with basketball I shouldn't feel any obligation to go above and beyond to help them out with baseball when the time comes.

[Atocep]

A couple of other things:

Britt was added to our basketball team after the first practice. I guess they heard I was coaching a basketball team and he wanted to play. A player from the Tigers baseball team also requested to play for me and was a late addition.

One of the times I was at Magnus' house for a BBQ with a group of parents/kids from baseball I mentioned that I'd like to talk with the parents of those that didn't plan on playing basketball about the upcoming baseball season. They're all on Magnus and Canaan's soccer team. So they told me they'd get me a schedule as soon as they got one and I could come out to a soccer game, watch the kids play, and talk to the parents about what they want to do and what they're looking for next season in baseball. That was the last time I talked directly to any of them. I never saw a schedule.

[Atocep]

This is the only place I really have to rant about this whole basketball thing.

I walked into practice today as the team before us was wrapping things up and Canaan's dad was there. He comes up to me and says "why isn't Canaan on your team?". I told him about how I found the day registration opened about Joey and Magnus deciding to play for their coach the previous season instead of me and apparently they pulled him in without his knowledge. He told me he was under the impression he was signing Canaan up to play for me, but he went with the other group to sign up and asked them what he needed to put on the registration form. That's how he got pulled in. He wasn't happy.

That other group is already complaining about our team being stacked and how their team isn't very good.

I really don't care who plays for who. I simply tried to organize something for the kids and was told one thing by a couple of parents who not only did something entirely different, but tried to "steal" players that had every intention of playing for the team I'm coaching.

[Atocep]

I won't be able to give consistent or as thorough of updates as I did last year, but did want to share what's going on with Kaden and I this baseball season.

We took a brief look at select organizations in the area and honestly didn't see anything that interested us. What we did instead was decide to look for the best situation we could find for 1 year and look at select teams again next year. In the meantime Kaden has been working with a hitting instructor and did a catching camp.

As I mentioned in a post above, I ended up taking over as coach of the Mud Dogs. This is a team that's won 12u last year and won 10u the two years prior to that. However, this is essentially a different team. The entire coaching staff is gone along with a total of 4 players; with 3 of those players widely considered the 3 best on the team.

The star player on the team last year was a big kid that was arguably the best pitcher in the area. He's the son of the previous coach and they relied heavily on his arm. They were known as a weak hitting team that ran the bases aggressively and hoped their top pitcher could just shut down the opposing team. More often than not it worked for them, but it left the team heavily underdeveloped in many areas. First, the only experienced pitcher on our roster coming into this season is Kaden. Second, these kids had absolutely no idea how to swing a bat or hit a baseball.

Last year I had a group of kids that had never won a baseball game in their lives (0 for 2 seasons) so my goal with that group was to win as many games as we could to give those kids the best experience possible. This year I have a group that's won before, but the remaining players aren't as developed as they should be. This year my focus is on developing talent and using the regular season to prepare for the playoffs. I don't want to be in a situation this year where the playoffs come around and because of injury/illness have to put a kid in a situation he's not comfortable with.

I stepped in and got practices started the first Saturday in February and brought Kaden along with Nolan and Canaan from my team last year. The first two orders of business were to identify our pitchers and work on hitting. Pitching wise, things weren't as bad as I had feared. One of our player's dad actually knows a good deal about pitching and was able to find 4 that were good enough to pitch the early part of the season with and the rest we'd work with from there. After running out of pitchers during last season's playoffs my goal was to identify at least 8 kids I could put on the mound and use all 8 (or more if I can) throughout the season.

One thing I've learned about pitching is it's all about getting the kids out there and through the nerves. The first time out there kids are so nervous they forget everything they've been taught and go back to whatever mechanics they were using before you made changes. The 2nd or 3rd time out they've typically settled down enough to start applying the things they've learned so it's best to get them through that as early in the season as possible.

For hitting, it was going to take some work. These kids had never been taught how to swing a bat and from what I had been told by the kids as I talked to them the only practice they had swinging a bat was live batting practice. No tee work or anything of that nature.

I had many kids sent home with simple homework like holding the bat in their hands with the knocking knuckles aligned and the bat in their fingers instead of the palm, beginning their swing to get rotation on the back foot then stop and repeat, and simply swinging a bat in the back yard over and over again with the fundamentals they had been showed. The early part of the practice season was 100% tee work and we've slowly balanced that out to around 50/50 between tee work and live BP.

Because of the loses this team had and how unknown the rest of the group was we are not really considered the favorites by most heading into this season despite being the only returning 12u team.

Two teams from University Place Rec have moved into our league this year. The first, the Knights, won that league last year and think they're a top select level team. They requested as many games against select opponents as we can provide them with. They're also still playing in University Place Rec so I have no idea when this tea is actually practicing. They feel they're going to roll through our league though.

The second team is the Reds. They lost 3 players to the Knights this year and are mostly here to learn how to play "real baseball" and let their kids have fun against better competition. They know they're not going to be all that competitive this year and their coaches are some great guys.

The Blue Raiders from 10u last season have moved up although they lost half of that team because they stayed behind in 10u select. Their coach was down on his team early on because he wasn't happy that I took Kaden and my two other players to the Mud Dogs instead of joining his team. He's since calmed down and feels like things are up for grabs this year.

The last team here is the Tigers from 10u last season. They're the only team we were unable to beat last season. We lost to them a total of 4 times and the last two times (including our first playoff game) we lost in the final at bat. They lost one player they didn't play much and added a 12 year old who's team had disbanded. This is the team most seem to think is going to run away with things this year. They were the odds on favorites last year and came up short. They have talent and have been together for 3+ years, but they're not the most well coached team and it's starting to catch up with them after being together for so long.

[Atocep]

We played our first game of the season against the Knights. Practices had been going well the two weeks prior to play beginning and I was confident that we could beat anyone if we play the way we're capable of playing.

We decided to start David, considered to be pretty much even with Kaden as our 1 and 1a pitchers. He was nervous out on the mound, his control was all over the place, and he simply wasn't throwing hard. The ump wasn't helping matters by having a major league strikezone. If it was above the belt it was a ball.

The Knights scored a run on us in the 1st inning and we countered with 3 in the bottom of the first. In the top of the 2nd they scored 2 more as we got really sloppy in the field and tied the game at 3. No more scoring until the bottom of the 3rd when we tacked on a run to go to 4-3 and they had to change pitchers. At that point things started to fall apart for the Knights as we learned they simply don't have pitchers.

We had a 6-4 lead heading into the 5th inning when the ump told us that we're running out daylight and need to pick things up. He told us to plan on the 6th being the last (12u is 7 innings) unless we really pick up the pace. They didn't score in the top of the 5th and we scored 3 runs as they made 3 pitching changes (using a total of 4 pitchers that inning). They went down quietly in the top of the 6th and the ump called the game.

That's when things got interesting. The Knights coach wasn't happy about them calling the game. This is despite being told to pick up the pace of play if we wanted to complete the game and he still decided to make 3 pitching changes in 1 inning. I then tried to explain to him that just getting them their at bat in the 7th wouldn't be enough. To finish the game we had to complete another inning and a half and it was already 8pm. Even if we got them their at bats in the 7th and they took the lead if we couldn't complete the bottom of the 7th the score rolls back to the last complete inning.

We then compared scorebooks before signing off on pitchcounts, ect. The coach then accused us pitching our starter too many pitches. I explained the pitch count rules to him and at first he wanted nothing of it; he threw too many pitches. Finally, after going through the pitch count rules with him age group by age group he relented and signed off on our pitch count and scorebook.

Then the next day I'm told he called the division coordinator and complained about the game being called early because of darkness and because by noon the next day the scores hadn't been posted to our website. The division coordinator was at the game and told him if he wants to complete a weeknight game in April it probably isn't a good idea to change pitchers every 5 pitches after being warned by the ump that he's running out of time.

We honestly played poorly, but that was kind of expected considering the fact that most of these kids are being asked to do far more than they've ever been asked to do. I'm expecting some early season bumps. This was one of them. We were at least 10 runs better than the Knights. The umpiring definitely favored them though. They don't have hitters and they wanted to stand at the plate with the bat on their shoulders and were rewarded for it with the tiny strikezone. Any team we play is fully capable of beating us, but for a team that had a banner hung up for their University Place Rec title and was asking to play as many select teams as they could they certainly didn't impress me.

[Atocep]

Our 2nd game was Saturday against the Tigers. I went out Thursday night and watched the Tigers dismantle the Reds 18-2 and knew we were going to see their best pitchers based on what they had out there. Our plan was to use Isaac (our number 3 pitcher), Johnny (our number 4 pitcher), and have Kaden to close out things if we need emergency innings. I sticking with the plan of getting our pitchers work and not focusing solely on wins in April and May.

We were the visiting team and came to bat first. We led things off with 2 walks by Isaac and Kaden and then a line shot down the first base line by David that ended up being a triple and a 1 base error to plate 3 runs. We loaded the bases again in the 1st, but didn't get any runs out of it. They went down easily in the 1st. Isaac doesn't throw particularly hard (he's a small kid), but he's accurate and has a sink to his pitches so everything is down in the zone and heavy. He's tough to hit hard and doesn't walk many.

The second inning we scored 3 more runs almost immediately before they changed pitchers 1 out into the 2nd inning. The three runs came off of a moonshot by Kaden that probably went around 200 feet down the left field line. They then brought in their 2nd best pitcher from last year who was considered one of the two or three best in 10u last year. During the pitching change the appealed Kaden missing the bag at first and he was called out. I honestly don't have any idea how a single ump working a game could make that call considering he was watching the ball down the line in left and stayed behind the plate. Kaden swore he cut the bag at the corner like he was taught, but it didn't matter. For the ump to make that call Kaden would have had to have missed the bat by a foot or more. I told him next time hit the ball hard and touch all 4.

Our hitting didn't slow down despite the new pitcher. He entered with us up 6-0 after an inning and a third and left after 4 with us up 11-3 (4 straight errors in the 3rd inning scored all of their runs). That's when they brought in the kid that's considered their ace and was the top 10u pitcher from a year ago. The ump said we were on pace to hit the time limit after 6 so all we had to do was not fall apart and Johnny was pitching well in relief of Isaac.

Our hitting continued and we put 3 runs on their top pitcher over the 5th and 6th innings while Johnny wore down in the 6th and had allowed 1 run and loaded the bases with 2 outs in the 6th. I decided to pull him and brought in Kaden to get us the final out, which he was able to do in 2 pitches. Final score was 14-5 in what was probably a huge statement to everyone else in 12u.

The highlights of this one were Isaac's pitching and Johnny's pitching. Our overall hitting was ridiculous. Isaac was 3-4 out of the leadoff spot, Kaden was 4-4 with a walk and 2 doubles, Sean (number 10 hitter last year and cleanup hitter this year) was 2-4 with 2 doubles, David had a triple and a double. It just went on and on throughout the lineup.

[Atocep]

So once again quite a bit has happened since I last posted here.

My team won our 12u league this year. We went 11-1 in league play, 18-3 overall, and had a run differential of +116. Kaden hit somewhere in the .450 range with an OBP over .600. I haven't seen the stats since the playoffs started so those are rough guesses, but should be fairly accurate. He also had 12-13 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homers. He had a big year at the plate; especially when you consider that he was one of the 5 youngest kids in 12u this year.

The 3 kids I sent to play select ball with the Lions in 10u this year (Magnus, Joey, and Quentin) were part of a team that won their 10u select league, 2 made their 10u all star team (Britt and Brendan), and 1 (Nolan) is playing on an 11u tournament team for the summer.

I took 8 of the kids from my team (all of my 12 year olds plus Kaden), 2 from the team Kaden's hitting coach runs, and 3 from a friend of mine's team to a 12u tournament this past weekend and we took 2nd. The best showing a Lakewood team has had in one of these summer select/all-star tournaments in years.

I've also received an offer to coach next year in a select program run by a former pro player. It's effectively a paid coaching position. I won't receive pay directly but all training fees, ect would be waved we're talking multiple thousands of dollars in professional training would be free.

So I have a decision to make. Getting the professional training for Kaden and furthering myself as a coach seems like an easy decision, but leaving the kids and coaches I worked with all year isn't easy. I was prepared to move up to 14u with the kids I'm currently coaching. It would be a big step up for Kaden, but he's been practicing off and on with a friend's 14u team this year and held his own. He and I both know he could very well have a rough year in 14u next year, but it seemed like the best option available. Now this comes along and is great and flattering, but it does complicate things quite a bit.

[Simbo Klice]

I thought this dynasty was really interesting last year and it's cool to see the incredible amount of progress you made in a short period of time. Best of luck!

[Atocep]

Well, I'm officially the head coach of a 12u select team for next season. It's an impressive organization that has professional instructors that meet twice a week with teams from October through February/March (whenever teams decided to head outside) to work on specific areas (hitting, pitching, fielding).

It was really hard to move on from the team I coached this year, but this is a difficult opportunity to pass up. Nolan will be the hardest one to see go. Between basketball and baseball the only kid I've coached more than Nolan is Kaden.

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

I thought this dynasty was really interesting last year and it's cool to see the incredible amount of progress you made in a short period of time. Best of luck!

Honestly, 2 years ago I would have never imagined I'd be coaching a select team in an organization everyone here is trying to get into, coming off a year in which my 12u team won the league title, and Vice President of a league that has improved to the point where it's the destination place to play baseball in this area.

This past season I was able to make it to at least one game for each of the Rough Rider kids that played in our league again this year that I didn't coach. Every one of those kids had great success this year with their teams and Kaden will be the 4th to move on to a select team from a group that almost everyone had given up hope for.

There aren't many things out there more rewarding than seeing kids you coached continue to have success after you're done coaching them.