Minimum Play Players, Favoritism, & Parents
I planned to write about defense today, but I received an email last night which begs me to address minimum play players, favoritism and parents in today’s blog post. My coaches and I rank our players each week and use these rankings to determine who will start and what positions they will play. I develop a depth chart each week from these rankings. I do not believe in favoritism. Our players win a starting position based on intelligence, physical abilities, football skill and football knowledge. Just because a player is a top starting player and plays a majority of downs, does not equate to favoritism, it equates to smart coaching. Coaches should field their best talent.
In today’s youth sports, many coaches must weigh fielding the best talent and playing the minimum play players. How do you weigh the needs of the team above the needs of one to three minimum play players (MPP) and their vocal parents? This question frustrates me each week. I want all my players playing every play of the game. I want all players getting a good rest on the sidelines. I want everyone to score a touch down. But the reality is, this is not Drake and Josh afternoon TV. Some players are not ready to play more than the mandatory minimum plays. I want to win American Idol but I can’t hold a note. Should the network force American Idol to allow me to sing at least once in front of National TV audience? I doubt it.
But many MPP parent’s feel the coaches are playing favorites by not playing thier children more. I am sure there maybe a minority of coaches playing favorites, but if your child can contribute to the team then your child will play more. I’ll guarantee it.
One last point that I find surprising. Why doesn’t anyone talk about the starter who must sit out while someone takes his place? How do they feel? Are they upset that we substituted a player in the game that does not do the work required to play the position? Who is speaking up for the starting player and their feelings?
If I had one wish as a coach, I would wish that all the players on my team were starters. Now that would solve my problem. Although, I have 24 players on my team. Hmmm, I needed to be more specific. It’s always something!
We as a family are band new to football, never played, know nothing about the game. Tonight I think my son was un-officially dubbed an “MP”…so I guess I’m an “MPP”. Today they played a little scrimmage and my son stood to the side for most of the time. Going into this I was told this was an “instructional league” and ability didn’t matter. If I had known going into this that we would uproot our lives, rush from work to attend four practices per week in the boiling sun only to have him stand on the side for the entire time, I may have reconsidered. We wanted to sign him up for something he could PARTICIPATE in, learn a sport and feel like part of a team. He doesn’t feel like part of the team. We could have paid nothing and had him stand in the yard. I understand what you all are saying he has to earn it, but how is that possible if he’s not even given the chance to make the mistakes to learn from? This is very disheartening and frustrating.
My son has played select sports since he was 9. Why is it that there are some players the coaches favor because of daddy’s last name? Every team we have participated in seems to have the same recurring theme, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Bottom line, what I have learned, as a parent, is that your son may be the most talented, the fastest and earned his position, only to have a coach crush his efforts by giving, and I mean giving, the starting position/playing time to a less deserving player simply because of who the parents are.
Kids get to an age when they begin to question and understand the “adult political game”. I’m not going to lie to my son when he asks “Why is … starting in my position when I’ve completed more passes, carried more yards and run faster?” Now at 13, he understands right from wrong and hard work makes a person better. We are trying to teach him that he must earn respect and reward, that it is not something that is just given away, although these coaches keep proving us wrong.
I really don’t want to sound bitter, because I love watching my son play but every single coach has lied to us or went back on their word only to self-satisfy relationships with those who may benefit his agenda. It’s really sad and has only taught my son to cautiously trust his coaches.
Unfortunately, I am in total agreement with you. My son is experiencing the same favoritism. What I can’t understand is how are the other players going to get any better with never having the opportunity to try the different positions? My son never misses a practice puts in 100% effort, but the HC son doesn’t want to be there, complains doesn’t put the effort in and he is still the star QB or RB. I know and understand it’s a team sport, but at what point do the other players get the slightest chance to break through. Maybe if they were given a chance, the coaches might actually see they have some other talent other than their sons.
So glad you bring this up… here’s my problem (and it’s a little different than yours so please indulge me for a moment).
How do you handle situations when your child has talents at one position but isn’t even given the opportunity to try that position because the coaches child already occupies that position? I’d like to at least see my daugher (we’re talking about softball here) be given the opportunity to show the coach what she’s capable of in a particular position but so far she’s just not been given the opportunity.
My son played his first year of football this past fall, 2nd grade tackle. I swear the parents are worse than the kids. We had kids who would miss 2 of the 3 practices consistantly but their parents constantly complained because they didn’t get much playing time. This would resault in one of the children that came to practice consistantly having to sit out so that the ones who never showed up to practice could play. My son missed 3 practices all season one was the coaches fault, one he was sick right before the playoffs and one he was in the hospital, and I called to let the coach know. Except the one that was the coaches fault. We had 22 kids on the team, we averaged 12-14 at practice each night. We had a core of about 10 that were there almost every practice, most got a lot of time in the games, my son would sometimes be in every snap on both sides of the ball. He was usualy in for all offence and atleast half on deffence. But we only had 4 strippers on the team, of which my son was the largest by 20Lbs. He was the best blocker on the team and possibly the best DL in the league (28 sacks as Nose Guard in a non blitzing 5-3) No one complained about his playing time because they all wanted him to block for their child who never came to practice, so my son, who does not care for OL has to play the entire game at ol to block for kids who dont come to practice and sit out the second half as dl (which he loved, complained when we tried to move him from NT to DE) so some kid who don’t come to practice can get some playing time. How is that fair. You want to talk about developing players? That happens at PRACTICE not in the game. If you want your kid to get better, bring him to practice. If you want practice to run better, help. I don’t know if you ever tried to keep a bunch of 8 year olds in full gear in a line while someone was hitting, but you almost need 2 people per child. Make games at home where they can use what they learn in practice to develope. Stay at the practice and watch so you will know what is being taught to help them develope at home, don’t just drop them off for a few hours of peace. We had one of the smallest kids move into the starting line up by the end of the year through hard work, hard hitting and consistant practices. Talk to the coaches, ask what you can do to help, ask what you need to work on with your child. I asked the coach why my son was being taken off dl in the second half, if he was doing something wrong, no it was a playing time issue. I did not like it but there it was. I know they could not take him off the O-line as his back up would be sometimes 40 lbs lighter than him. So as a parent I sucked it up and let the coach do what was best for the team. That’s kind of what being a team player is.
I am a coach with a child on my team. i have a problem with children that come out and cry because the child never wanted to play the game but the parents make them. the important thing that parents have got to understand is that if your child does not want to play they could hurt themselves and other kids if they dont do what they are suppose to.
We had this last year, one that did not want to play ended the season with a fracture of his left ulna and radius before the first game. One of the hardest things to teach kids and their parents, is that if your going half speed because your scared, against someone who’s not scared, and is going full speed, the half speed kid gets hurt. Some were willing to play, but did not want to run the ball, our coach would not make them no matter how much their parents complained. We had one that would play for a few minutes in a game then go sit down, the coach did not make him play even though his mom and dad complained. I don’t get that though, how do you yell at the coach because your kid sat down?
Interesting blog. In Northern Virgina we have the Fairfax County Youth Football League. Guess how the smart people who set up this rec league set up the minimums: No team can have more than 22 players. Every player must be given a starting position. Every player must then play EVERY down at that position. Yes, that means some kids only play offense or only play defense. However, that means that they play approximately half the game. So, the league is very competitive because the rules level the field and at the same time every kid must be coached and gets ample opportunity to contribute. And guess what also happens? The less skilled kids get better and COME BACK the next year, instead of dropping out.
What if someone gets hurt? Do then they allow subs? it would be interesting to see if that league has the same drop out rates as other leagues. I’m not sure you can assume this is a better league without the empirical data to back up the assumption. Most youth player play sports because of friends and if they are having fun not so much as it is based on play time.
I think we continue dumbing down our schools and sports and eventually we will be worse off then when we started. I can’t sing and I was not allowed to join Choir except as the MC to announce the songs, and I cannot play an instrument so I was not asked to join band. There is nothing wrong with this. I would love to sing and play electric guitar but I did not advance in these areas. I was given the opportunity and I did not have the skill set to pursue those interests as I did football, golf, racquetball, math, accounting etc.
What is wrong if some youth players are not starters on the football team? Why is this such a huge issue? I find this very interesting. The problem is in “real life” not everyone is a starter. Some of us sit on the sidelines. I am not CEO of a F1000 company, but I want to be. Should I have my mother call GE and ask them if I can be CEO?
Sorry if I took this to the extreme, but just because everyone starts on the football teams does not make it right. In my humble opinion.
Thanks
Coach Parker
Most children do not know how to play an instrument before they join band. They are taught.
We teach everyone the game and how to play during practice. Do not understand your point about the band. Not everyone makes the marching band or symphonic or orchestra. They also have chairs in band for starters etc.
So what you are saying is that the children are never given a chance to learn anything but their one position? What if a kid who was a starting as OG wants to run the ball when he gets into JHS? That’s where our weight limits come off. But even though he has played for 6 years, he has never gotten to run the ball? What if they want to move him to tight end, as he did not grow as much as the others, but he don’t know how to run a pattern because all he did was block, block, block for 6 years? What if he wants to play defense as almost all kids do? Who would want to be stuck blocking all the time and not get a chance to tackle someone? Do the coaches teach them all positions in practice or are they stuck in that one position? What if a kids brain just clicks and he suddenly “gets it”? Now he would be the best QB, but someone else is assigned there? Is there room to switch the roster? What if you get a team with 3 large kids, and the rest are all small? Who will play lineman? Just wondering how these things will work out for the players, since nobody is concerned about the team, just the individual players.
I am an assistant coach on my son’s team this year, the way we are working the depth chart, is not who comes to practice so much as how you perform when you are there. (It’s not the child’s fault if mom or dad will not bring them to practice.) If you practice hard and learn when you are there you will play a lot. If you goof off, talk when the coaches are, or just not try, then you will not be playing much. If your kid does not get to play much, ask us why, we will tell you. If your kid does not want to play, take him home before he gets hurt.
Giving kids a chance to play youth sports in a fair manner? What a crazy idea! It sounds like they probably have fun. What are these people thinking? This can’t possibly be true, as it makes too much good sense. “Coach” Steve must be correct, no kids would want to return to something that might actually be enjoyable, and our children would certainly be dumber for having done so and destined to be losers in the game of life!
Who said I did not give kids a chance to play? Players have every opportunity in practice to play and learn the game. Some players do not make a good transition to the games. Practice time is the time we develop players and learn the game. Every player on our team gets a ton of development time in practice.
Thanks for your comments. I am sure your child would love playing for me like most of my players. I am sorry you are in a bad situation.