re: Proud dads, at which point did you realize you are not a coach?

After we won the league championship and they never asked me to coach the high school team

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I'll say this for organized sports and as a kid I played them all, pickup games on the schoolyard were always better.

You should’ve told him to meet you at sonic for post game treats

I coached Dixie Youth for 21 years. I've had former players sign pro contracts (none have made it to the show), play college baseball (one at Clemson now) and had multiple All State selections. Of those 21 years, I coached my own children for 4. Coaching your own child is difficult and it opens up parents to criticize if they feel you're playing favorites. In other words Daddy Ball.

I don't have anything against travel/club ball, however I will tell you that if you don't make Jaxson stay put in a few difficult situations, he will want to bolt the first time he encounters difficulty at the HS level. Then you find yourself rotating from public to private to public, all because when he was young he was taught that when things became tough, he could run to the next team where he could hopefully become a star.

On my kids teams we always use Eugene’s dads. I don’t know how it works but there’s 2 of them. They are so bonded with the kids on the team it’s crazy. They even shower with them

What’s a club?

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Why do guys continue to do this shite when they are clearly ineffective?

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I've learned that there are 3 different types of little league coaches, across all the sports my kids have played.

1. The dedicated volunteer that loves the sport and wants every kid to do well. This type is the most rare.

2. The volunteer that begrudgingly took on the coaching role, but really has little idea how to coach the sport. But they love the kids and everyone generally has a good time. This type was the most common.

3. The former high school meathead living vicariously through his/her son's/daughter's performance. The absolute worst, especially in my daughter's case with cheerleading. A very close second to #2 in frequency.

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Why don’t you sack up and be the coach?

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You know u suck?

I loved coaching when I was in my 20s. I started when I was 19 as the OLine coach for my HS alma maters 8th grade team. Going into year 2, the head coach quit coaching a week before we started fall practice due to health issues. The varsity coach (my HS head coach )asked me to assume that responsibility. It was a big school in Ga’s highest classification. I did it for 12 years while I was single and young. I loved it. It was exciting and fun to lead a roster of over 80 kids year in and out. Won a lot of championships during those years.

After my first year as HC, I adopted a policy of no dads would be on my staff. My DC and assistants were all guys I played with who were either going to Kennesaw State or Southern Tech or were just good football players who went straight into the work force. By the time I decided it was time to “volunteer” my time to my wife and young kids instead of 8th grade football, the majority of my assistants were kids who I had coached in my first 2 seasons as HC and had already played college ball and came home to start working in Atlanta area. It was a blast. We practiced from 6:30-8:00 Mon-Thursday and played our games at 7:00 on Saturdays. Every night after practice most of us would stay and play a goofy punt, pass,kick obstacle course game for an hour or so. Most of us were all unburdened at the time of having kids.

Fast forward to now. I am 49 and my son is 13. I have a work schedule that does not allow me to commit the time to be a head coach.....of anything. I often don’t know when I might have to entertain customers at a Braves game or a concert, etc..until a few days before. In the fall I have hunting and fishing trips booked months in advance. Every year, there is a desperate call for coaches in football and baseball. I always volunteer to assist when available. Most of the coaches are dads of players on the team. Last year, his baseball team had 1 coach and he didn’t want to do it but he did so that they could have a season. I volunteered to help and was there for 80% of the practices but missed 3 games. Interesting enough, the dads with players on the team who didn’t volunteer to help were at every practice and game sitting in a folding chair behind the backstop fence. The same ones who mumble under their breath and bitch and criticize the guy or guys actually working with the kids. These are not old men, most of them played the sport their kid is playing. Yet they want to spectate and criticize. I only reluctantly Coach now as a civic duty and would prefer that more 19-25 year olds would coach the Rec teams and get the dads off the field. Eight out of ten of them don’t want to be there to begin with. Rec departments take who they can get and often have to beg for volunteers.