What I have to do as Coach:

[Cannonball]

While reading the thread about winning, I recalled a post I made years ago when a member mentioned his attempt to get rid of his son's coach. I tried to make the point that while winning is important, there are so many other things that a coach has to do. So, I made this list years ago:

1. Mow field and all other areas such as the cages.
2. Control the weed growth on the field, warning track and cages.
3. Design uniforms and hats. I know not many have to do this but I have designed our uniforms and caps. We are a “Nike School” and so, we get a lot of cooperation from Nike for our stuff.
4. Repair equipment! The covers ball glove stringing to mending nets.
5. Plyometrics at 6:15 a.m. then weights when the weight room is available.
6. Run camps for fund raising during the summer. This summer we restricted the number to two camps.
7. Initiate fundraisers. This year we are selling candy. I can’t believe I have stooped this low!
8. Check grades throughout the year. I just had my first sessions of catching a player in the halls and getting after him about his grades. NO GRADES = NO PLAY!
9. Order equipment! This is very critical because our budget has been cut so severely.
10. Create practice plans that incorporate team learning and player improvement.
11. Hold a Parent’s Meeting to inform the parents about our philosophy and specific guidelines that we will function under
12. make out lineup and coach games
13. Prepare the field for practice. We have to go to the maintenance shed which is on the other side of the campus in order to get a tractor. We have to buy all of our equipment other than that tractor.
14. We have to be able to throw bp 6 days a week for a minimum of 2 ½ hours/day.
15. Be an advisor and counselor for players.
16. Attend all summer home games to chart players and see where they fit into this next year’s team.
17. Create a player’s profile for recruitment. We start in the junior year sending out feelers and a schedule. By their senior year, we send out emails on a consistent basis which includes at various times, a player profile, GPA, Class Rank, and their ACT score. We also make sure that colleges have my telephone number, email address and our team website info. Additionally, we make sure that we include as much info as the family wants included for contacts at the player’s homes.
18. Join any associations etc. that will help get your players some type of post season recognition. I help pick two area teams for two prominent area papers. I belong to several coaching associations so that my players get recognition throughout the state.
19. Attend as many coaching clinics as we can afford.
20. Build a schedule that allows for you to have played good to great competition while also allowing for some games that will enable you to play inexperienced players. I believe the 1/3rd, 1/3rd, 1/3rd formula is best. 1/3rd of the teams you should beat most of the time easily. 1/3rd of the teams should be equal to your team’s typical talent. 1/3rd of the teams should be better traditionally than you are.
21. Be a mechanic able to fix anything at any time. If that pitching machine goes down, you have to fix it. If the sprinkler system doesn’t work, you had better have a back up plan or you are going to lose your grass.
22. Deal with the media and get your players pictures and stories in the paper. We don’t have a local prominent paper cover us. I have to actively work at getting my kids exposure in towns/cities that already cover 4 or 5 teams within their local coverage. Yet, somehow we get it done and seem to get more than our fair share of coverage in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
23. Attend any booster club fundraisers that occur.
24. Spend out of our own pockets like there is no tomorrow for our program. I own one of our cages. When I came here, we didn’t have one cage. Now, we have 3. I own one of our pitching machines. I have to make several hundreds of dollars worth of purchases each year.



Well, I could go on and on. I thought that it was strange that few posters mentioned winning. If you don’t win, above all else, you will be fired. I also have a full time job teaching classes, grading papers, and dealing with 150 other students and their problems.” In fact, that is our first job and should we be derelict in our duties there, we won’t have that second job. Factor in that in the State of Illinois, you will lose your teaching certificate if you don’t continue your education at I often wonder where being a husband and father come in. I am both and could never do this without understanding support from the home front. What is amazing to me is that now that I am no longer coaching, I actually have more money. LOL!

[tg643]

While reading the thread about winning, I recalled a post I made years ago when a member mentioned his attempt to get rid of his son's coach. I tried to make the point that while winning is important, there are so many other things that a coach has to do. So, I made this list years ago:

1. Mow field and all other areas such as the cages.

Handled by maintenance

2. Control the weed growth on the field, warning track and cages.

Handled by maintenance

3. Design uniforms and hats. I know not many have to do this but I have designed our uniforms and caps. We are a “Nike School” and so, we get a lot of cooperation from Nike for our stuff.

Had players choose from the book

4. Repair equipment! The covers ball glove stringing to mending nets.

Made the players do any maintenance that wasn't done by district. He supervised

5. Plyometrics at 6:15 a.m. then weights when the weight room is available.

Had assistants head morning workouts and fall ball

6. Run camps for fund raising during the summer. This summer we restricted the number to two camps.

He did this. He also used players as slave labor (no pay).

7. Initiate fundraisers. This year we are selling candy. I can’t believe I have stooped this low!

Done by the mothers group

8. Check grades throughout the year. I just had my first sessions of catching a player in the halls and getting after him about his grades. NO GRADES = NO PLAY!

Gets a printout every Friday

9. Order equipment! This is very critical because our budget has been cut so severely.

Agreed. No budget issues with all the money raised from camps and clinics

10. Create practice plans that incorporate team learning and player improvement.

Agreed. Mostly lookng a like Ripken practice video. Eventually became more college oriented

11. Hold a Parent’s Meeting to inform the parents about our philosophy and specific guidelines that we will function under

One time effort. Says same thing every year.

12. make out lineup and coach games

No kidding

13. Prepare the field for practice. We have to go to the maintenance shed which is on the other side of the campus in order to get a tractor. We have to buy all of our equipment other than that tractor.

All handled by maintenance

14. We have to be able to throw bp 6 days a week for a minimum of 2 ½ hours/day.

Agreed

15. Be an advisor and counselor for players.

Agreed. Some kids more than others

16. Attend all summer home games to chart players and see where they fit into this next year’s team.

Not a chance. Attends a few summer games for parts of games

17. Create a player’s profile for recruitment. We start in the junior year sending out feelers and a schedule. By their senior year, we send out emails on a consistent basis which includes at various times, a player profile, GPA, Class Rank, and their ACT score. We also make sure that colleges have my telephone number, email address and our team website info. Additionally, we make sure that we include as much info as the family wants included for contacts at the player’s homes.

No. Most players recruited through summer team. He does offer to help in any way

18. Join any associations etc. that will help get your players some type of post season recognition. I help pick two area teams for two prominent area papers. I belong to several coaching associations so that my players get recognition throughout the state.

Won't go near this stuff. Doesn't care. It's about the team to him.

19. Attend as many coaching clinics as we can afford.

I'll assume he does.

20. Build a schedule that allows for you to have played good to great competition while also allowing for some games that will enable you to play inexperienced players. I believe the 1/3rd, 1/3rd, 1/3rd formula is best. 1/3rd of the teams you should beat most of the time easily. 1/3rd of the teams should be equal to your team’s typical talent. 1/3rd of the teams should be better traditionally than you are.

18 of 20 games are in conference. Play the same two preseason and two non conference games every year.

21. Be a mechanic able to fix anything at any time. If that pitching machine goes down, you have to fix it. If the sprinkler system doesn’t work, you had better have a back up plan or you are going to lose your grass.

All done by maintenance

22. Deal with the media and get your players pictures and stories in the paper. We don’t have a local prominent paper cover us. I have to actively work at getting my kids exposure in towns/cities that already cover 4 or 5 teams within their local coverage. Yet, somehow we get it done and seem to get more than our fair share of coverage in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Sent article I wrote along with box score I assembled. The three times my son got individual attention once at was at the recommendation of an opposing coach and twice it came through the travel coach.

23. Attend any booster club fundraisers that occur.

Made an appearance. Left early.

24. Spend out of our own pockets like there is no tomorrow for our program. I own one of our cages. When I came here, we didn’t have one cage. Now, we have 3. I own one of our pitching machines. I have to make several hundreds of dollars worth of purchases each year.

Camps and clinics raised a lot of money.

Well, I could go on and on. I thought that it was strange that few posters mentioned winning. If you don’t win, above all else, you will be fired. I also have a full time job teaching classes, grading papers, and dealing with 150 other students and their problems.” In fact, that is our first job and should we be derelict in our duties there, we won’t have that second job. Factor in that in the State of Illinois, you will lose your teaching certificate if you don’t continue your education at I often wonder where being a husband and father come in. I am both and could never do this without understanding support from the home front. What is amazing to me is that now that I am no longer coaching, I actually have more money.

There's no doubt in my mind my son's high school coach was dedicated and worked hard at being a coach. But I know the task wasn't as hard as your list. It takes a certain passion for the game. High school coaches don't do it for the pay.

[Cannonball]

tg, most HS coaches love the game. I was asked this past week if I would consider moving and coaching at another school. I'm too long in the tooth now and miss it. When I came to the school I am at, they didn't have any equipment. I bought the catcher's equipment and the first couple of dozen balls. I asked a friend to borrow his cage net. Somehow we made it work. When I left, we had 3 full cages, two half cages, two rolling backstops for BP, 6 hitting mats, several pitching protectors and screens, and just about everything else you would need. I wish the maintenance department would work for us like your scenerio. Last year, I had to remove the tarp all by myself 4 times after rains and during my prep period. I was covered in mud and physically exhausted. Yet, the maintenance crew will not touch a tarp here. Physically, it is hard for me to believe I could remove that tarp by myself and yet, I did while our maintenance crew sat in a John Deere Gator watching me work. In the end, there is so much more to coaching than just what happens on the field. I do miss is a lot.

[songtitle]

'Maintenance'????

[tg643]

'Maintenance'????

Everything relating to sports facilities is handled by the school district maintenance department. The teams can't touch a thing about the field. It would be in violation of the union contract.

When new dugouts were built it could have been done free. Arrangements had been made for all materials and labor to be donated. The job had to be sent out to bid for the materials. The union had to do the work. None of the companies providing free materials were on the approved vendor list. Instead of a storage facility, concession stand, umpires changing room and two professional looking dugouts two mediocre dugouts were built. It's all the district had in the budget for in it's "facilities renovations" budget.

[CoolHandLuke]

My guess is that the coach in question of the previous poster didn't do all those things you list. You list all the things a "good" coach does to build his program.

And at the end of the day, you're a baseball coach. And you will be judged by how well your kids understand the game and play the game. That's the measuring stick. It doesn't matter how good you are at repairing nets or mowing the grass, your players need to play well.

[JCincy]

I coach rec league...

Two years ago we had a makeup game on an 'abandoned' field. It had puddles throughout. So it was in need of fixing up before game time. I left work early to get to the field at 3:00 with my rake and bags of sand from the local box store. It was a hot and humid day in the middle of June here in Southwest Ohio.

Stop the tape... months before this make up day was ever scheduled...

I volunteered to donate blood in the morning. While draining me of this most precious resource the vampires convinced me to give a 'double'. This meant extracting red blood cells in addition to my blood and then giving me the plasma back. They said I'd be fine, as long as I drank plenty of fluid. (They lied. And I'm an idiot).

Back to the ball field...

I spent 2 hours filling the puddles with sand and raking the field to get it ready. I also lined the field, placed the bases, etc... At 5:30 I got the boys started on warm ups. At 6, game time, I was light headed and spent. My two umpires that I contacted the prior week were MIA. I finally reached one of them... The irresponsible bleep was in Florida! The other team was getting ridiculous... "Where are the umpires... blah, blah, blah...". I finally get the umpire supervisor to send me someone. It turned out to be my other umpire! The game started about 40 minutes late. I was a mess. I gave the roster to my other coaches and sat with the parents of the team. I don't remember if we won or lost.

I think it took about 3 months to feel human again.

[omg]

What CB wrote is what most high school coaches would say and they also would say he is just skimming the surface. What Tg said is also accurate in that a coach can do more or less depending on his situation and, really, his energy level or dedication.

It is really untrue that high school baseball coaches are judged on winning although that can play a part. The other stuff is deemed very important. I've seen unbelievably good coaches not get a job over lesser coaches due to a variety of different factors. I've seen state championship coaches (this is true in all sports) get run out by a crazy parent or administrator or, in certain cases, the coaches deserved it for being abusive or something. Some guys get too big for their shoes type of thing.

As for the winning, a coach may get judged as to whether or not he is winning enough based on the talent he has. That's pretty much it. If he is a solid person and does all the things CB mentioned then he can keep the job.

Personally, I've seen a pretty high attrition rate with varsity head coaches and mostly they leave of their own accord. It can be time consuming and physically demanding. Not like pulling a rack of basketballs out of a closet and practicing for an hour.

[d-mac]

It is really untrue that high school baseball coaches are judged on winning

Around here, football is king. The baseball coaches are usually assistant football coaches who played high school baseball. If they can teach Math or Science, they are much more likely to be hired as head baseball coach than the guy who has 4 state championships, but can only teach P.E. or History.

[tg643]

Not like pulling a rack of basketballs out of a closet and practicing for an hour.

Is that all basketball coaches do?

[omg]

Not like pulling a rack of basketballs out of a closet and practicing for an hour.

Is that all basketball coaches do?

No, not at all. I'm just saying that baseball is a physical, grinding job. A lot of equipment, a lot of fieldwork, a lot of bp/fungoes,etc. It lasts a long time: home team bp/visiting bp/home team if/visiting team, etc. Weather issues. Not putting down basketball, just saying it's different.

[scorekeeper]

CB,

I’m a little disappointed to see you mentioned nothing about the numbers. I never got the idea that you were someone who thinks the numbers had no value, so I’m guessing you were lumping that part of the job in with things like dealing with the media or working on the team web site.

Actually, I wanted to add a little something that a lot of folks don’t realize. This may happen slightly differently in different places, but in general at the end of the season, the coaches in the league get together and present the cases for why their players should be given league awards in recognition of their play.

I’ve never been privy to one of those get-togethers, but I’m guessing the can be anything from cool, quiet meetings, to some in-your-face hellfire and damnation scrums. What always lurked in the back of my mind about those sessions, was that there would probably be coaches who “fudged” a bit, not for personal gain, but to help his players. But I’d never had a coach admit that, until yesterday.

When I read what he wrote, (the entire post), I wasn’t surprised because I thought it was happening anyway, and truth be told, I understand the feelings that cause such behavior. But I never thought anyone would actually seem proud to have lied and cheated, even though the ultimate reason was somewhat just.

Think about it. Is that really the kind of scruples and integrity parents want to see in the people who are supposed to be teaching their children life lessons, and are pillars of the community? Is recognition so important that lying and cheating is considered acceptable behavior?

Here’s an excerpt, “…I went to these all whatever meetings and would look at what the other coaches put up and I would put my guys name up there. Then I would put numbers up that were comparable to the ones up there already. Now my guys started getting all whatever and making all star teams. Were the stats right I put up there? No but based on what I saw in the past neither were there's but I had to do something to get my guys to compete with the other players. …”

In all honesty, I can’t imagine folks like yourself, Jake, Mud, and many others on this site I’ve come to respect if not agree with, sinking that low. And I won’t lie, my guess is, a HS kid is so happy to get that kind of recognition, he likely doesn’t care, and would rationalize it as being “fair”. But I’ll tell ya what, if I ever found out that’s what it took to get my kid an award, I wouldn’t allow him to accept it, and I think most parents would feel the same way, or at least I hope they would.

I think this is one of those "very important" things that OMG was talking about, but I wonder how many times they know things that that go on.

[Cannonball]

SK, certainly keeping score is important. However, I have often mentioned that I had a gentleman do that for me all of my coaching career. He has been a great friend during it all and we have made a pact that I never question any of his rulings. He called in the score and then when the St. Louis Post Dispatch went hi-tech, he put in the numbers.

You are spot on at the all conference meetings. I have seen it all at those meetings. For the most part, my experiences have been professional. In our case, all area coaches now use sportsstats and so, we can see exactly what each coach enters per game. We can also go and change stats reported. If I am the home team, I don't appreciate it when we call in the game and a day laters some creative changes have been made for our opponent. We did go in one year with "corrected stats" of one conference opponent who's coach was padding like he worked in a mattress factory. I won't put up with that. While we all know that occassionally scorekeepers might disagree on a hit etc. this new coach was out of hand. Once called, the rest of the conference coaches jumped in as well. SK, you understand that the game requires integrity of the numbers in order for the game to be respected. If the coaches don't respect the numbers and game, then who will?

d-mac et.al, I hate the football coach scenerio. I also hate the references to history teachers. I teach history and if you took my class, I guarantee you that your experince would be conducive to learning. I love the game of baseball and greatly miss the honor of being a baseball coach. When my child finishes her playing career, I want to take a serious look at getting back in. I'd hate to think that I'd not be acceptable because I was not a football coach. Still, I know you speak the truth!