OT For Youth Baseball Coaches
- Thread starter Fryowa
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Fryowa
Administrator
Ice fishing this past season was unreal. We’re still eating bluegill and perch from December with a lot more in the freezer to go yet. We have it at least twice a week year round.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
I grew up on the Mississippi. My dad had a fishing boat. I knew the basics of fishing before I picked up a baseball or basketball.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Unreal about the infield fly rule.
My twin boys are 11U. Yes, we've played Prairie quite a few times and play right with them as far as wins and losses go. Goes back and forth. Our AAA Black team that my one boy is on is probably a better team than the AAA Prairie team this year. My other boy is on our AA Red team and the Prairie team is probably a little better than that one. We enjoy playing the Prairie teams.
We've played in the 3 on 3 Prairie basketball league the past few years and doing so again now this year. It's a very well ran 3 on 3 league with a ton of teams.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
The bold above is what is baffling to me. In our club organization, we have 4 teams at the 11U level (AAA, AA, and two A teams). I've wondered what the heck is going to happen when they all get to junior high and high school as looks like some will be left off the team. Many may drop out before then but right now looks to be a ton of kids playing just at this age group.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
As far as knowing the basics, me as well. I grew up fishing Pool 9. That was our go to. We had to travel 90 miles but well worth it. Some of my best memories are in a boat on Pool 9. Love that 'ole river and respect her.
Fryowa
Administrator
To me it comes down to one of three things...
1) Kids (in the more rural areas) want jobs more nowadays. That along with FB and BB coaches demanding they go to workouts and camps all summer. Our varsity coach told me he's lost more kids to basketball and football "unofficial" workouts and camps than to anything else.
2) Places like where you live (IC/CR area if I remember right) have a way higher proportion of families with six-figure income that can support the expenses that come with going full bore on an AAU/USSSA season. Rather than having tryouts and cuts, I can barely scrape together the 10 kids I do have, and I scrounge sponsors for uniforms and entry fees because 90% of the parents won't pay anything. Last year I got unis and entry into 7 tournaments from 5 sponsors and it ended up free for parents. It would be almost $250 per player otherwise and there's no way I'd ever get that kind of money in my town. One thing I do know is that I put in hundreds of hours 100% volunteer, and after 6 years I'm starting to question the benefit...
3) This is the worst one...kids I think see that youth baseball has gotten to be like basketball, where to be competitive you need to be playing fall ball, AAU, and getting a lot of extracurricular instruction, and most kids around here can't do that. It's nuts how good varsity HS baseball has gotten because of it. The competition (especially pitching) has become unreal in some parts of Iowa. When I was in high school ('95-'98) no one even started throwing until April. Now kids are at pitching clinics all through the winter and throwing year-round. "Regular" kids see that and don't even bother. Same with basketball...it gets to be a full time job.
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MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
2) My two boys teams really didn't get any sponsors. Here is the approx breakdown for each of our players. I think they are about within $25 of each other. Again, they are on separate teams.
$650 Club fee
$140 Uniforms
$100 fundraising dinner tickets
$25 Tryouts
Grand Total = $915 per child
I end up eating the dinner tickets which ends up being $200 for both boys because everybody we know are already in the same club and no relatives around. So, we end up with a $50 a plate meal for our family of four.
We need to do a better job of getting sponsors next year.
Yes, after tryouts we will take a break than start practice again during the fall until the snow doesn't allow us on the field anymore. Will have another break until late January when will start indoor practice again until the weather is nice enough to get back on the fields. They are playing about 9 mo out of the year. It's crazy.
You've done A LOT for your club teams and need to pass the torch. You haven't got out of what you put into it with all the organizing, coaching loooong hours etc.. But, just keep in mind the how many kids you have inspired, touched, help molded, instructed, etc.. Maybe you provided an avenue later in life for a kid or maybe turned around a kid who may have headed down a wrong path giving him the sport of baseball to focus on. Look how many kids learned the game that you taught them or learned how to play a team sport. You have to think of the effect you had on so many young kids. They will always remember their youth baseball coach.
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Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
Fished many times around Prairie du chien. Grew up on Dubuque's North end where many fished. I traveled maybe 900 yards to the river give or take.
Fryowa
Administrator
Holy cow. A thousand bucks per kid is crazy. I can’t recommend getting sponsors enough. It made travel ball free for my parents last year other than their own travel expenses, and this year was only $25 each for 7 tournaments. I don’t take any salary myself, and we’re not AAU or USSSA so that’s part of it, and I don’t have any admin costs (other than my own time and equipment) or sanction fees. We aren’t close enough to anywhere with AAU stuff going on and don’t have enough commitment from families to put a full AAU team together and I’m not sure I’d want to for free. I have a few kids who are really good who I might push towards an AAU team in Sioux Falls so they can get max benefit, but like a lot of times, those are the kids with lower income parents. Parents who aren’t going to want to drive an hour and a half one way, three times a week not counting tournaments.
It just sucks that money is so much of a factor. But for sure, I’d knock on some doors if I were your team. In your area if you could get say, $5-6,000 total you could cut the all in costs way down. What we did at the end of the year is have the kids visit the sponsors with a framed team photo (a huge print and an inexpensive but tasteful frame from Walmart cost me $6 ea) and say thanks, and we bring a meat and cheese tray with some other goodies. One other thing we do to keep fees down is only provide a jersey, and their hats are the same as the rec ones. I only stipulate the pants color and black shoes.
We do have a totally different situation though, which is enlightening. When travel ball starts I am always sweating whether I’ll get enough kids to even have a team. Tryouts are out of the question
I do love the coaching part, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just me and another half-time coach/parent for 17 kids during the week, and 11 on Saturdays. It’s mainly the other admin stuff and never having free time in the summers that gets to me. I have parents of my current kids with younger brothers and they want me to stay on, but our rec dept gives coaches a $10 discount and that’s not enough lol. After my kid is done with 6th next year my plan is to bow out with the excuse that I want to watch his junior high games. Sneaky, but true...
My ideal situation is after next year to pass on the free coaching gig and start umping rec league and local youth tournaments. Something about that age group in baseball is a so much fun. On top of that all I’d have to do is show up for a few hours, have a blast, and go home!
Fryowa
Administrator
Is there a pizza place in Prairie du Chien that’s accessible from the water? I remember as a kid a trip I went on with some relatives where we put in in Lansing, trolled walleyes south til like 1:00. Then we reeled up and boated the rest of the way to PdC (I think), ate pizza and then drove the boat back up to Lansing before dark.
But maybe I’m thinking of a different place.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
That's a full day! You would have locked through at Lynxville. Twice.
To answer your question a boat accessible pizza place in Prairie would have been after my time. (I would have been in high school if not college when you took those trips). But my backyard neighbor is your age 38, 15 years younger than me, grew up in Prairie du Chien, and is an avid outdoorsman. He would remember if one existed.
No fishing experience on the Mississippi is complete without hauling in a catfish as long as your leg. I usually stuck to perch, walleye, and bass but occasionally would apply the stink bait and go trolling closer to the main channel. My biggest was 23 lbs but many others have doubled that with ease when it comes to channel cat.
Fryowa
Administrator
Maybe it wasn’t PdC. It was a bunch of years ago. I do know we locked but I couldn’t say where. I’m probably way off.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
There are small towns on the Wisconsin side between Prairie du Chien and LaCrosse that have restaurants with boat access. And they're very picturesque towns.
That 60 mile stretch of Highway 35 is one of the jewels of the Midwest. I drive it two or three times a year when we go to LaCrosse for something.
Fryowa
Administrator
You just have to be able to ignore parents and assertive enough to toss the ones who won’t quit. Helping kids learn the game at that age, even passively as an official outweighs the shit bird parents. I’ve umped a lot of HS games and I don’t care for it.
We play in a tournament a half hour away from here every summer, and they deal with parents the best I’ve ever seen. When you sign the entry form it says that the coach is responsible for his team’s fans. The first outburst a parent gets warned, the second one they’re kicked out and have to stay a block away. It’s on Catholic school property so they can enforce it. The game stops and all kids leave the field until the parent complies. Basically they shame you death in front of everyone and no one wants that hassle. I’ve seen it happen once in the 5 or so years we’ve played there (I think the guy was drunk), and other than that the tournament has the most civil crowds I’ve ever seen because they don’t F around with shitty parents.
1hawkeye1
Well-Known Member
Officiated a girls youth basketball game once. The coach chirped at me the entire 1st half. At halftime I was standing by the scorer's table when he comes up to me. Pointing at the score book he says, "Look how many fouls you've called on my team!" I looked and said, "Coach, those are the quarters played. Not the fouls." Walked away and left him speechless.
Fryowa
Administrator
Had a parent approach me after a high school game (have to give him credit for waiting at least) to complain about me striking his kid out on a caught third strike foul tip. Said it was a foul tip, and foul balls can't be a third strike. Never wanted to have a rule book in my pocket so bad as I did right there.Officiated a girls youth basketball game once. The coach chirped at me the entire 1st half. At halftime I was standing by the scorer's table when he comes up to me. Pointing at the score book he says, "Look how many fouls you've called on my team!" I looked and said, "Coach, those are the quarters played. Not the fouls." Walked away and left him speechless.
That one was the worst because he wasn't yelling or causing a scene, he genuinely thought I was an idiot and was really condescending about the whole thing. He kind of acted like he felt sorry for me not knowing the rules and told me I might want to get that straight in future games. Had a smirk on his face when he walked away like he had put me in my place or something.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Holy cow. A thousand bucks per kid is crazy. I can’t recommend getting sponsors enough. It made travel ball free for my parents last year other than their own travel expenses, and this year was only $25 each for 7 tournaments. I don’t take any salary myself, and we’re not AAU or USSSA so that’s part of it, and I don’t have any admin costs (other than my own time and equipment) or sanction fees. We aren’t close enough to anywhere with AAU stuff going on and don’t have enough commitment from families to put a full AAU team together and I’m not sure I’d want to for free. I have a few kids who are really good who I might push towards an AAU team in Sioux Falls so they can get max benefit, but like a lot of times, those are the kids with lower income parents. Parents who aren’t going to want to drive an hour and a half one way, three times a week not counting tournaments.
It just sucks that money is so much of a factor. But for sure, I’d knock on some doors if I were your team. In your area if you could get say, $5-6,000 total you could cut the all in costs way down. What we did at the end of the year is have the kids visit the sponsors with a framed team photo (a huge print and an inexpensive but tasteful frame from Walmart cost me $6 ea) and say thanks, and we bring a meat and cheese tray with some other goodies. One other thing we do to keep fees down is only provide a jersey, and their hats are the same as the rec ones. I only stipulate the pants color and black shoes.
We do have a totally different situation though, which is enlightening. When travel ball starts I am always sweating whether I’ll get enough kids to even have a team. Tryouts are out of the question
I do love the coaching part, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just me and another half-time coach/parent for 17 kids during the week, and 11 on Saturdays. It’s mainly the other admin stuff and never having free time in the summers that gets to me. I have parents of my current kids with younger brothers and they want me to stay on, but our rec dept gives coaches a $10 discount and that’s not enough lol. After my kid is done with 6th next year my plan is to bow out with the excuse that I want to watch his junior high games. Sneaky, but true...
My ideal situation is after next year to pass on the free coaching gig and start umping rec league and local youth tournaments. Something about that age group in baseball is a so much fun. On top of that all I’d have to do is show up for a few hours, have a blast, and go home!
Much of that $650 club fee is paying for indoor practice facilities from late January to when can get on the fields. It ends up that each family probably ends up paying about 3/4 $$ of a tournament.
Yea, we need to do a better job of fundraising. I tried a couple years ago and just didn't have any takers. YOu really need to try to get a big corporation or a small mom and pop business that you do business with. If they don't have a kid of an employee or really don't know your child, it doesn't help much getting donations from them. I find the businesses between the large corp and the small mom & pop don't help much.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
I've fished pool 10 quite a bit as well. A couple buddies have a cabin on the hill at N. Buena Vista.
