Parent Involvement in Fed ???

[Mountaincoach]

Originally Posted by Multiple Sports

Scrounge,

I will admit it one of my pet peeves about softball. I feel as though of all the hs sports and I officiate baseball, basketball and soccer that high softball has a "parks and rec" approach by administration / coaches at time. Dad will walk into the "dugout area" and show Suzie how to swing the bat. Some weekend "club" coach will give the head coach some advice during the game ( especially if coach isn't a teacher at the school).

Ever see a soccer goalie have his dad warm him up, a field hockey goalie by her mother, a dad under the basketball while Johnny jacks up 3's in the pre game???

I also on occasion have had to tell a parent he couldn't coach 1st base in a girls JV softball game. He didn't take the care and prevention course offered by our county and the background check as well.

I think the reason you see a difference is because pitching a softball is one of the most difficult things to learn in athletics. As a result, most of those girls have a private pitching coach that isn't necessarily on the field as a regular team coach. As a result, the responsibility of warming up the pitcher falls to the parent who hauls their daughter to every pitching lesson and learns the mechanics themselves. They become the "other pitching coach". I'll be very honest--unless the head coach has a daughter who pitches or they pitched themselves in their younger days, they are usually the least likely person to coach that pitcher. As a result, you see the "parks and recs" look on the field during warm-ups when it comes to the pitcher. Just my opinion after watching it happen for years.