Over the weekend we were traveling. While we were away, the guys at Farragut Baseball, Inc. were having their player tryouts for the Spring 2012 season.
What an exciting time for players, coaches and league officials! I know that FB, Inc. President Jason Phillips and his team of parent volunteers and coaches had a busy weekend but I also know they did well.
I am envious. I miss a lot about my coaching days and draft day (draft weekend) was always a highlight. True it was a lot of work, but you had a really good feeling when it was done.
Later, when we became the Choppers, my teams were not as involved with draft day but earlier, when we were the Braves (wearing MLB replica jerseys and all), it was a key moment each February. And when I was a league commissioner for specific age groups (and later the league president with responsibilities for all leagues), I was very much involved in the planning and execution of a successful tryout and draft.
It starts weeks earlier (sometimes months earlier) when you’d select a spot for evaluations (usually a school gym). Once you had a gym reserved, you begin promoting the date and time for evaluations and begin registration. When registration closes, it’s time for tryouts.
The next step for the commish is organizing the day itself.
Typically, FB, Inc. has done tryouts for 7 and 8 year olds in a school gym on Saturday. Meanwhile, over at the fields at the ballpark, they’re having evaluations for the 14U league (on Field 6) and 12U league (on Field 4).
The outdoor tryouts - weather permitting - are interesting because a number of parents and peers are always gathered around the fence watching the action and cheering on the participants as they throw, hit, run and slide.
Meanwhile back at the school, the league does evaluations for 9s and 10s on Sunday.
For the Saturday indoor evaluations, the league has a session for one league in the morning and the other league in the afternoon. The coaches for one league run the tryouts for the other league and then they switch roles later. At the end of the day, the coaches pick their teams. On Sundays, you need enough assistant coaches to help run the stations.
As the Commish, your biggest job is to make sure you have plenty of volunteers. Players begin showing up early, so you need to have a place for them to wait and volunteers to greet them and communicate what will be taking place. Families sign in and the coaches take them back for their big moment in the order in which they have arrived.
Once the players begin filing in, a coach greets them and that person always had an important job to explain what was going to be happening (and to calm any frayed nerves). Then, the ‘fun’ starts.
A player would run a distance and a coach with a stopwatch would call out that time. Then, the player would go to stations for fielding, throwing and hitting. Volunteers would staff each of those stations.
Meanwhile, the coaches for that particular league would be seated at a long table writing down their observations. In some cases, some of the ‘high tech’ coaches would bring laptops and they’d punch numbers into a spreadsheet.
Usually, there’d be three hours set aside for player evaluations. At the end of that period, the coaches would break and then get ready for the afternoon session.
Over at the fields, things would move in a similar fashion (weather permitting). Generally, those tryouts wouldn’t last as long and the coaches would pick their players right after the tryouts were done.
On Sunday, the indoor tryouts were similar to what took place on Saturday (except, of course, they started later – after church). Those evaluations, too, lasted about three hours.
And when all player evaluations were over, the coaches would begin making their picks.
Coaches would draw a number (say there were 10 coaches…each guy would select a number from 1-10. That’s where he’d pick). The draft was set up as a serpentine style so the first round would go from team 1 to 10 and then, for the second round, it would flip (10-1). It would continue that way throughout.
Different guys had different ways of rating players and teams would be looking for different types of things. You might need a catcher or a pitcher, so those skills would be emphasized. Of course, at the end of the day, talent ruled. There’d be some kid who’d come in and wow everyone with tape measure hits and a gun for an arm.
You’d hear a lot of ‘Ooohs’ and ‘Ahhhs’ from the cadre of coaches. That particular player was destined to be a top pick!
Finally, the last picks were made. Everyone celebrated their draft. Everyone was a winner. Soon practices began and it wouldn’t be long at all until Opening Day!
JG
(Source: farragutbaseballinc.com)
Originally posted 2/12/2012
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