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Prince Ford (Justin's brother) into the portal

ElrodGrizzly said:
Ask you who I am? Golly. Hope I didn't make the parents too angry, lol. I was meaning it to be a general statement about sports parents, I wasn't trying to take cheap shots at Griz parents specifically.

You're welcome to tell whoever to text me, if I offended them. Zero problem talking to anyone.
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Yeah, IDK what that's about. I was also responding to you regarding SOME sports parents in general. I'd say ALL want to see their kids play, but SOME can express that desire in not-so-great ways.

I'm not sure about FB, but I think it's more prevalent in baseball. An acquaintance of mine who coaches prep and club baseball at a high level says he and the rest of the staff get "my kid should be pitching" or "my kid should bat leadoff" texts/emails from SOME parents regularly. I'm no coach, but I would be tempted to just put the kid on the mound in an exhibition or other meaningless game. If he gets shelled, they'll hopefully shut up. If he kills it, they might have a point.
 
At parent meetings for say frosh high school sports, I've heard coaches say something like this. If you have suggestions or questions about playing time, use the public website I will set up for that. On playing time, please be specific. Say how much more your kid should be playing, and who he/she should replace with that playing time. My father-in-law was a longtime high school and then college coach. After he career was over, I asked him if parents contacted him the way parents were doing in about 2000. He thought about the question for a moment, and then said: "Some...but no one ever contacted me twice."
 
mthoopsfan said:
At parent meetings for say frosh high school sports, I've heard coaches say something like this. If you have suggestions or questions about playing time, use the public website I will set up for that. On playing time, please be specific. Say how much more your kid should be playing, and who he/she should replace with that playing time. My father-in-law was a longtime high school and then college coach. After he career was over, I asked him if parents contacted him the way parents were doing in about 2000. He thought about the question for a moment, and then said: "Some...but no one ever contacted me twice."
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I’ve heard similar things about HS coaches regarding specifics. I bet stat keeping is pretty critical to deal with that stuff, too. If you can point to an OBP of .143 when responding to a parent who is mad that his kid isn’t leading off, you don’t have to say much more I’d assume.

Lol re: your FIL’s take.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
Yeah, IDK what that's about. I was also responding to you regarding SOME sports parents in general. I'd say ALL want to see their kids play, but SOME can express that desire in not-so-great ways.

I'm not sure about FB, but I think it's more prevalent in baseball. An acquaintance of mine who coaches prep and club baseball at a high level says he and the rest of the staff get "my kid should be pitching" or "my kid should bat leadoff" texts/emails from SOME parents regularly. I'm no coach, but I would be tempted to just put the kid on the mound in an exhibition or other meaningless game. If he gets shelled, they'll hopefully shut up. If he kills it, they might have a point.
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My bet is it is in all sports at all levels.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
I’ve heard similar things about HS coaches regarding specifics. I bet stat keeping is pretty critical to deal with that stuff, too. If you can point to an OBP of .143 when responding to a parent who is mad that his kid isn’t leading off, you don’t have to say much more I’d assume.

Lol re: your FIL’s take.
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I know we are getting wildly theoretical here, and it is probably too far down the rabbit hole to go, but man, what is the answer at this point? I think you are on to something that we keep really good stats now, but gosh, as a kid who wasn't much of a hitter, I'd kinda NOT want my obp as a middle schooler to be a thing.

I guess it can come down to the age bracket. I know you have a HUGE heart and we share being dads, so I am not trying to cheap shot you in any way. I liked and agreed with your post originally, but as I think about it, it really seems to suck to throw a kid into a situation to fail in order to keep parents in their place. I know you were just referencing stats, I am responding to the overall concept that has been discussed about putting kids into a game to make a point.

Maybe I am thinking too much about parents and sports tonight, and what I will do in the near future. I don't have a solution to the "bad actor" issue in sport parents.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
Yeah, IDK what that's about. I was also responding to you regarding SOME sports parents in general. I'd say ALL want to see their kids play, but SOME can express that desire in not-so-great ways.

I'm not sure about FB, but I think it's more prevalent in baseball. An acquaintance of mine who coaches prep and club baseball at a high level says he and the rest of the staff get "my kid should be pitching" or "my kid should bat leadoff" texts/emails from SOME parents regularly. I'm no coach, but I would be tempted to just put the kid on the mound in an exhibition or other meaningless game. If he gets shelled, they'll hopefully shut up. If he kills it, they might have a point.
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The older I get, the more grateful I am that my parents basically told me that the coaches decisions are the coaches decisions, and if I don’t like it, I need to do better to prove him wrong. They 100% weren’t going to get involved. “That’s life kid, it isn’t always fair, and he probably knows more than you anyways.” Definitely made me a better person today than I would have been.
 
PTGrizzly said:
The older I get, the more grateful I am that my parents basically told me that the coaches decisions are the coaches decisions, and if I don’t like it, I need to do better to prove him wrong. They 100% weren’t going to get involved. “That’s life kid, it isn’t always fair, and he probably knows more than you anyways.” Definitely made me a better person today than I would have been.
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Good post. Good advice by your parents. I don’t recall ever questioning what a coach decided regarding playing time or the game with respect to me. Maybe just faded memory. I didn’t agree with some off-field or off-court decisions.
 
When I was a young coach I agreed to coach a sophomore basketball team at a large high school. I knew little or nothing about the players trying out fit the team and had two weeks to cut from 24 players down to 12. I selected my team and was immediately told I gutted the team as I cut four starters from a freshman team that had won 1 more game than they lost and had received the majority of the playing time. Our team went 19-1 that year (loss was poor coaching use of timeouts which I learned from). Two years later that group was two time state champions and a critic parent told me standing my ground was correct for program. Coaches/supervisors have to make decisions based on observations and gut feelings right or wrong. I did not ignore outside opinions in 45 years of coaching (both basketball and football (fbs)) but found my coaching staffs input more valuable 90 percent of time.

Granted I did not have the influence of social media postings
 
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ElrodGrizzly said:
I know we are getting wildly theoretical here, and it is probably too far down the rabbit hole to go, but man, what is the answer at this point? I think you are on to something that we keep really good stats now, but gosh, as a kid who wasn't much of a hitter, I'd kinda NOT want my obp as a middle schooler to be a thing.

I guess it can come down to the age bracket. I know you have a HUGE heart and we share being dads, so I am not trying to cheap shot you in any way. I liked and agreed with your post originally, but as I think about it, it really seems to suck to throw a kid into a situation to fail in order to keep parents in their place. I know you were just referencing stats, I am responding to the overall concept that has been discussed about putting kids into a game to make a point.

Maybe I am thinking too much about parents and sports tonight, and what I will do in the near future. I don't have a solution to the "bad actor" issue in sport parents.
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Regarding the first paragraph, that makes sense if the sample size is 12 little league games, or whatever. When it’s 75 games, patterns begin to emerge.

Regarding the second paragraph, I should’ve made it more clear that the athletes I was referencing are varsity athletes and/or high level club players in the game of baseball who each individually have likely played in close to 500+ games since they were 6. In other words, they know it’s a game of failure, and the coaches know what they can do. Also, it’s not always just the parent wanting the guy to pitch/lead off. The athlete can also be the squeaky wheel.

When it comes to 8U or 10U, however, I think coaches can be more likely to “try pitchers out” to see what players have, and keeping the stats over the course of 8+ months can be helpful for parents to accept their kids’ roles on the team.
 
PTGrizzly said:
The older I get, the more grateful I am that my parents basically told me that the coaches decisions are the coaches decisions, and if I don’t like it, I need to do better to prove him wrong. They 100% weren’t going to get involved. “That’s life kid, it isn’t always fair, and he probably knows more than you anyways.” Definitely made me a better person today than I would have been.
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Mine had 7 kids so they didn't have much free time to micromanage my athletic pursuits. Was a full time job keeping groceries in the cupboard.
 
It's fairly common for junior college transfers to come in light. Jucos are hard places to maintain weight, let alone gain weight. There's no pass to the food zoo at a Juco. It's tough sledding. Not sure what kind of weight gain was expected of Prince Ford, when he landed at Illinois, but adding 20 pounds could have been difficult, particularly if he arrived mid year and was in season for most of his time there, which it looks like he was.
He probably lacks the the average eGriz fan's knack for putting on weight.
 
griz4life said:
It's fairly common for junior college transfers to come in light. Jucos are hard places to maintain weight, let alone gain weight. There's no pass to the food zoo at a Juco. It's tough sledding. Not sure what kind of weight gain was expected of Prince Ford, when he landed at Illinois, but adding 20 pounds could have been difficult, particularly if he arrived mid year and was in season for most of his time there, which it looks like he was.
He probably lacks the the average eGriz fan's knack for putting on weight.
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I feel like that was a direct dig at me.

I feel it.
 
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