Starting a New Team
by Pete Sprenkle
Author of A Softball Coaches Toolkit

Your daughter comes home from school and announces that she and some of her friends want to play softball. There is no organized softball program in your community. What do you do? Where do you start?

A good place is your community recreation department. If your community is large enough to have a girls softball program and doesn’t, you may want to start a program. In that case the recreation department can be a valuable ally in your efforts. Starting and running an entire league is beyond the scope of this article. However, if you can get several teams started, then a league and program of your own will not be far behind. If your community is not large enough to have its’ own softball program you will need to play outside the community. The recreation department should be able to give you information on what softball programs are in place in surrounding communities. If there are teams, or even better, leagues, in surrounding communities, then you can be assured that the team you will be starting will have other teams to play against.

Assuming that there is a community near yours with girls’ softball teams, and ideally a league, for your team to play you can take the next step. Get schedules for play, age rules, financial requirements, number of games in a season, and other administrative details involved with playing those teams. Talk to the league administrator to determine if your team will be allowed to play in that league. Some communities allow only teams from their community to play in their league. Others allow, and sometimes welcome, teams from surrounding communities. If you can play in a league, do so. One or two games per week, usually in the late afternoon or early evening will be good for your team.

Another good resource will be the administrators of girls’ softball programs in your state. There are a number of organizations that organize and administer softball throughout the country. Some of these are: Amateur Softball Association (ASA), American Fastpitch Association (AFA), United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), National Softball Association (NSA), Bobby Sox Softball, Little League Softball, and others. Through the phone book, Internet and other sources you can generally find one or more of these associations in your state. Contact them to gather additional information on schedules for play, age rules, financial requirements, number of games in a season, etc. If the organizations sanction tournaments in the state they will be able to give you a list of tournament directors whom you can contact to see if your team will be able to participate. If your team must travel to participate in a tournament (especially involving overnight stays) you will need that information to properly plan your finances

With this information in hand you can develop a preliminary plan for your team with schedules, number of games, financial requirements, etc. This will be necessary when you begin the process of recruiting players for your team.

The number one resource you need for a team is PLAYERS. No matter what other resources you have at your disposal you will not be able to do a thing unless you have players. To begin the process of selecting your team it is helpful to have a meeting of prospective players and their parents to explain what is involved in playing girls softball. You can usually get a meeting room at the local recreation center or a school. Publicize the meeting well, through the newspapers, schools and recreation centers. Don’t be discouraged if your first meeting is not well attended. It takes time, effort and lots of “stick to it ness” to start softball. Go over all the information you have, such as the season schedule, when and where you will practice and play, how many games the team will play, the financial commitment required to play, fund raising opportunities for the families, etc. Answering parents and girls questions can go a long way to getting people comfortable with you and your mission and help you get some enthusiasm going for girls’ softball. You may want to prepare a handout, with appropriate dates, locations and financial information, to give to potential players and their parents for their reference.

You will need to decide how many players you want on the team. In general, highly competitive teams, with skilled and committed players have smaller rosters - between 10-14 players. Recreational teams, with less commitment, have larger rosters - between 12-16. The tradeoffs are these. On teams with smaller rosters girls get to play more and playing time is a major component of player satisfaction. However, a small roster requires that all players be at all games so as to prevent a loss due to an insufficient number of players. With larger rosters there is more flexibility of moving players around and allowing girls to miss some games, but when all players are present each girl plays less. Another factor to consider is how much experience the players have in softball. Those with several years experience generally know what’s expected and are likely to stay committed during the season. Girls with little or no experience are more apt to become unhappy during the season and leave the team, thus a larger roster to start the season is necessary. A good compromise is to start with 13-15 girls.

If there are more girls who want to play than you can put on the team, one way to select the team is through tryouts. Schedule one or more, tryouts depending on how many potential players are available and how much experience the girls have in softball. At a tryout you observe girls fielding, throwing, hitting and running and use these observations to select the team. The benefits of a tryout for you, the coach, are that you should be able to pick the best players for your team and give the team the best chance for success. The drawbacks of a tryout are that some girls, sometimes those with the most potential, will not be chosen, will leave unhappy and perhaps drop out of sports. If you are trying to put together a competitive team, with winning as an objective, a tryout is useful. If you are more interested in simply getting a group of girls together to have a good time, and participation is an objective, a tryout is not only unnecessary, but may be counter productive.

A significant element of your season schedule is practice. Practice is absolutely necessary to teach and develop the skills necessary to play the game. However, it is important to plan the number of practices and length of practices appropriate for the age, experience and competitiveness of the team. A 10 & Under Recreation team practicing once a week for 1 ½ hours would be sufficient while an 18 & Under Class “A” competitive team might well practice twice a week for three hours. Practices should be well organized, challenging, focused and fun. Limit the length of your practices to the ability of the girls to absorb the material and stay interested and motivated. When girls get bored practice is not productive. Teach new things at the beginning of practice when the girls are fresh and receptive to learning. Repetition, or practicing the same things often, can be very beneficial, but again, if the girls get bored the time is less productive.

After the team is formed you will most likely need equipment and uniforms. The process of buying equipment and uniforms is no different than buying furniture for your home. You need a list of what you need to buy and alternatives on how and where to purchase it. In the area of equipment especially, there are many items you can buy which will help make your team better. Some of these items are not well known or in wide use, yet they help improve the quality of practice and/or the players’ skills. In addition, there are many books and videos on all aspects of softball to help you and your players learn more about softball.

You will need to develop a coaching philosophy and plans to facilitate your coaching. One of the most important factors in determining your success as a coach is your coaching philosophy. This is the sum of the fundamental beliefs or principles which you will use to decide what actions to take. It is the bedrock on which rests all your knowledge of the game of softball. How well you utilize this knowledge will be a function of your coaching philosophy

You will need to prepare a set of objectives, team rules and items of information to give your players and parents specific details about the upcoming season. Some of these items such as finances, team rules and chaperone duties (if your team is going to travel) should be explained in detail as to how those areas will be handled.

As you begin each season there is information you need from players and parents. In addition, it is always wise to insure there is a firm understanding between the coach and the players/parents of what is expected during the season. You should develop and utilize forms such as Coach/Player Commitments; Coach/Parent Commitments; Waiver; Medical Treatment Permit; Team Driver Information and Volunteers.

Starting a team is not an easy task, and requires a great deal of time and effort. But, if you are successful, you will be well rewarded as you see your players making new friends, learning new skills and enjoying their time on the team.

=========================

Like this article? Get more coaching tools and tips in A Softball Coaches Toolkit

Participate in the conversation by leaving your comment below.

View Original Post at softballperformance.com

• Filed Under:  
• Softball, Sports, SportsPLUS, Family/Parenting, Youth, Student-Athlete