I coached baseball for several years, and settled into coaching the kids in the junior/seniour divisions that were preparing to enter high school.  I did this for almost 10 years before my schedule pulled me away from coaching. 

 

A few years ago, my brother suckered me into coaching my nephews little league team because they were short on coaches.  These were 8-10 year olds, and it was more or less an instructional league using pitching machines.  Because I was the new coach, I basically wound up with the cast-offs.  A lot of kids who had never played before.  It was as close to the Bad News Bears as I've ever seen, minus the cooler full of beer. 

 

When I coached previously, you could make the kids run laps, and do other things to wake them up and to participate, and it was usually an effective tool.  When I came back, the league had changed so dramatically that no coaching tactics I'd used with a good deal of success previously were permitted.  Parents would coach from the bleachers, and when you asked them to stop, they'd just ignore the request and continue doing what they were doing.  When I asked them why they didn't just come out on the field and coach the team, they'd share select expletives and walk away. 

 

This team was really, really bad.  Most of the kids had no interest in being there, and those who did weren't very talented, but at least they were eager to learn.  Still, this was a team that would basically be the little league equivalent to the 2013 Jaguars.

 

It was league policy to give out game balls after each game.  One morning we had the early game at a neighboring ballpark.  The kids were half asleep, and the score was 20 something to nothing in two innings.  The other team just kept running the score up until we got to the point where the umpire called the game.  There was nobody that did anything remarkable, so I decided not to give out a game ball.  I explained to the kids who were still awake why nobody was getting one, and started packing up the gear.

 

A mother of one of the kids on my team came up and started shouting at me for not giving out a game ball.  I asked her what she saw on the field that would warrant one, and she said "Nothing, but you're still supposed to give out game balls.  It's not fair to the kids!"

 

I just shook my head and told her she needed to think about what she'd just said.  She did, and subsequently went to the president of the association and filed a complaint.  He was one of those slide pant wearing coaches who fancied himself to be some potential major league manager.  He called me up to the field and sat me down and started to explain to me why it was bad for the kids psyche to deviate from the league rules.  These kids look forward to getting a game ball, and we shouldn't disappoint them. 

 

It was at this point I realized that if we continued down this path of rewarding kids for nothing, it would eventually create problems when they became adults. 

 

I still have kids from my earlier coaching experience who keep in touch with me, including at least one who posts here periodically. These guys are all closing in on 30 years old now, and starting families of their own.  One of these kids in particular was a guy who was doing poorly in school, and his parents forced him to come to play baseball just to get him out of the house.  It took a lot of tough love to crack that kid, but I finally got him to quit resisting and to start participating.  Over the next few years he really got involved in baseball, and while he wasn't talented enough to play at the HS level, he developed such a passion for the game that he started to coach, and eventually became an umpire for the city (still does it).  Every time I hear from him to this day, it starts with "Hey coach!" and usually ends up with him thanking me for continuing to work with him despite the attitude.  His parents thanked me as well.  Not only did he spark an interest in baseball, but he also started to do better in school, and to behave better at home.  His dad still tells me if he'd known making the kid run laps would have broken the attitude, he would have done it sooner!  Today the "kid" is an engineer.

 

When I see all these associations who don't keep score because there are no winners or losers, or like our association, give out rewards even when it's not warranted, it makes me sick.  How can a kid find success if they don't ever learn what it means to fail?

 

Kudos to this bunch for bucking the trend by not giving out participation trophies.  Let the kids earn their rewards by actually earning them, and not simply because they show up and continue to breathe. 

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