It's the work behind the scenes that is never appreciated.
In life we take on several roles, we step up when we need to and sometimes just like a puzzle piece we find our place in the big picture.
It amazes me how much work it goes into being a coach. No one really tells you that it's almost like a full time job during the season. You are trusted with around 12-14 kids and the expectations from parents are really high and sometimes unreasonable. You get blamed when a kid doesn't get a hit, field a grounder or has an off day, but parents and players don't take accountability for not working on their game. I have been very lucky to be a part of 2 coaching staffs that just worked.
Having your own kid on your team is a gift and a curse, for both me and my sons. All the hard work they put in, the opportunities they earned are often dismissed because they label it 'Daddy ball'. My coaching style is a mixture of a lot of things, but 'Daddy ball' for sure isn't one of them. I've seen 'Daddy ball' coaches and I know how bad that experience is.
I have been part of 2 different coaching staffs. I had the opportunity to coach my older on for 3 years and I am thankful that I found the right people to coach with. I was upfront with the manager and told him that I was there to develop all the kids and that I was not going to be involved in setting positions and lineups (unless I had to step in when they were out) because I wanted my son to earn his playing time and position. It was tough with him because he didn't want to practice a lot, but his natural ability would help him become a starter and a big part of the teams he played on, he played every position and he earned it. I didn't hand it to him or force it because I was one of his coaches. When my coaching time was up with him, I transitioned to my current team with my younger son.
I landed on the coaching staff for my younger son and with that change I went down to a younger division where it was more about fundamentals and learning how to play the game, so I knew it would be a different experience. The good thing about this staff is that although I wasn't around much to see them coach Gabe and the team, I knew they were good coaches and that they cared about the culture of the team and cared about the kids. So we began our journey.
It's been 2 seasons that I have been with our Coach Johnathan and Coach Manny and I can honestly say that it has been a blessing to be a part of this staff. I like that we have different coaching styles and intensity levels that play off of each other, but most importantly we don't do "Daddy ball". When I joined I let them know that I was going to be a bit hands off with Gabe, the lineups and positions. Gabe has to earn his position and playing time. I told them that they could coach him and I'll coach their kids to make sure we are all ready and we have a pretty good squad. Right now we are getting ready for the Jerry Barry tournament where Gabe and one of his teammates got selected to represent the league and we have other kids that are All stars that we are getting ready as well.
And that is where the hard work that we do in the shadows is rewarded. As coaches we get blamed for a lot, parents don't trust our evaluation of their kids, they blame us if their kids don't do well, but what parents don't know is that when we have the team, they are our kids. We want what is best for them, we practice, build up, try to help them control emotions and understand that baseball is a tough game and they have to put in work, not only at practice, but at home. We spend many nights thinking about how to help our kids, what drills to do, how to get them to not get down when they strikeout and make a mistake. Parents and kids don't realize that some weekends are spent having conversations about the team and not doing other activities because we made a commitment.
Learning 12-14 kids personalities, skill level and where there drive is, is time consuming, it's another full time job for us. Parents don't see how coaches have text threads about the kids and how we feel when one has a bad game or gets down on themselves. They don't see the investments we make, not only buying things for practice, but the emotional investment and commitment we have to them. For me, if we have a bad game or lose, it bothers me, I pass the next few days replaying what happened and how we can turn that into a learning opportunity so it doesn't happen again. But again, parents only see what they want to see and that is 1 practice and 2 games a week. But it's always more.
Now the journey will continue for us as a coaching staff, we are adding Javi to the staff as a roving instructor when he is available, since he will continue playing. We are moving up to the higher division and we are coming for them all. We have the off season and fall season to get ready. I think we will surprise a lot of teams in our first year. But one thing for sure, there isn't a better group of coaches out there to be coaching with.
