High School Ball Issues

[DougR]

I am interested in hearing from players and/or parents who have been shunned or experienced vindictive treatment by their high school coach. I would also be interested in information regarding biases associated with having parent coaches in high school softball. The aim here is to push for policy changes at all administrative levels to help prevent such abuses of power in our public schools. Please email me at dougromrell@gmail.com

[BunnyT64]

High school softball is

High school softball is terrible in Utah. The coaches and assistant coaches solicite players from the highschool teams to their own comp teams giving out the impression that if you don't play for them duirng the summer and fall season your chance for thenn next year in High school is slim or you will be a bench warmer. Stop the coaches from bullying these girls.
Your abilities and talents do not dictate your play, the grade you are in does or if your parent works for the school, or coaches, ect. Freshman and sophmores, you have to put in your time and wait your turn. As they sit the bench thier skills diminish, because they aren't allowed to practice during ball season outside of thier high school practice. In high school ball, hard work and dedication gets you NO WHERE. It isn't what you know or how talented you are, it is WHO do you KNOW.
Ever check out how many girls from Utah get into D1 or D2 colleges. Our own colleges here in Utah don't take many in state girls. Jr college maybe.

[DougR]

High School Softball Abuse of Power

One of the worst scenarios is several dads from a single comp team gaining control of the high school softball program and you coaching your own independent comp team with a daughter on that team. How dare you commit such a sin as having a comp team on, what they see as, their territory. Oh the arrogance and hypocrisy of some people! Don't you know, you don't have any right to have a comp team that is independent from the high school coach's summer comp team. When dads from a single comp team gain control of the high school program, you better be worshiping at THEIR comp team altar or your daughter ain't worth spit in their eyes, and your daughter can kiss her high school softball experience goodbye. It is tantamount to bullying, vindictive bullying. Nothing quite like this type of abuse of power in a PUBLIC school sports program!

I do have the ears of some school board members in our school district on this matter. They are interested in how a district policy might be worded to avoid such abuses. I thank those who have emailed me. I would appreciate continued feedback, particularly with regards to (1) limits on parent-coach usage, and (2) "feeder programs" are not just the head coach's private comp team. Thanks in advance. dougromrell@gmail.com

[UHZ]

high school softball

high school softball is a very short life of about 10 weeks. Thank goodness! The issues raised are not new..... but really chronic problems! My daughter (my oldest to play) went to Bingham HS (back in the early 90's) when Mickey Jackson was the head coach. She played with the lady panthers from the west side area during the summer for many years. They were great people! In her senior year of hs she was told during tryouts that she needed to play the coming summer for the HS summer team called the thunderbirds. She said "no thanks" and was then cut her senior year!! Needless to say my other kids did not play at bingham HS and when other players and parents learned of what happened a few chose a different HS to play at rather than bingham! My youngest chose Jordan High Scholl. We had an excellent experience at Jordan HS with coaches tiff (alta HS head coach when I last checked) and steve Hendricks! The Jordan team won several state title and was the runner up twice! Parents and players need to think about their options well before the start of HS. My fondest memories are from the kids and coaches we played with at another HS than the one we should have gone to. Don't regret our decision!

[DougR]

High School Softball Abuse of Power

Good to hear from you, Kevin (the guy who use to help coach the Shockers when I coached the Rockets way back in 1997ish).

Thanks for your personal experience. What you described with your oldest daughter is an absolute abuse of power, and unacceptable in a public school sport!

[UHZ]

Doug it is soooooo good to

Doug it is soooooo good to hear from you again! We all had a lot of great times and fun games back then. You did a great job with the rockets and won state over the 2 good mustang teams we had back then. The shockers, the one my daughter played on, won the national title in Chicago in 96 I believe! Glad to see that your are still around sir!