Legion scheduling is confusing as usual

[Dawgpoundit]

So,........after a FULL week of rain outs, followed by what I was told was a week where no games were scheduled due to Senior week, ........ Gaffney has requested to reschedule Monday night's game with Inman due to their kids having Senior week?!?!?!? This week. Really?
Inman's coach should have said no. Forfeit for Gaffney. Over the next three weeks there are 14-15 games that need to be played. You don't want to play, fine, don't play. Take the losses. The schedule was made a MONTH ago. And this information is just released tonight?!? By the time they reschedule the 3-4 games that were washed out a couple of weeks ago, on top of the dozen or so that are already scheduled over the next 3 weeks, where, exactly, are they going to cram games in for a team that has decided to inconvenience everyone else in the league? Not trying to be an ass here but this just doesn't make sense to me. Did they not have any input into the schedule? Can someone please explain this? They have playoffs scheduled the 1st week in July. Are they going to just cancel the rain outs from 2 weeks ago. No. They will, as they always do, make these kids play 6 days a week to cram 6 weeks worth of games into three weeks. Thank God for the change to 7 inn games and definitely for the pitch count limits/mandatory rest days because coaches would be destroying arms up and down all these rosters. Can't wait to see the games played by the end of each week and what is presenting itself on the mound with the schedule that is sure to come.

 

[Skools]

Union did the same thing to Fort Mill. Schedule was out for a full month and then said they won't have enough for their 3 game set because of beach week. They didn't play the week before because that's when they said they needed their beach week but didn't plan correctly. Then the following week they are off of games. They did scrounge to get enough players to play fort mill before their kids went away that Monday for a DH but Fort Mill had to reschedule another game for them! Union played 2 games in 3 weeks.

Coaches are being to nice! Need to go by the rule book and make it a forfeit! Nobody wants to be the bad guy anymore!

 

[COHAZE]

Still remember my son's first Legion tryout for Spartanburg. Head coach at that time was Tim Wallace (SMC). Day 1 Wallace told them "We're out here to try to win a state title. If you're planning to go on vacation, a cruise, etc, you don't need to come back tomorrow." Several didn't. But, the ones that came back were in it for the duration." The next head coach tried the same thing, but it didn't work out quite as well. He ended up with only 18 kids trying out. I remember one kid who missed a week because his grandfather "died", again. Since then, things have gone even more downhill. Coaches these days have little choice but to accept the fact that dang near every kid on the team will miss time at some point during the season.

A lot of players simply do not take Legion seriously. For many, it's just a way to spend a relaxing summer and get in a few games. This is especially true of kids who just graduated. I blame a lot of it on the parents. When my son played we would never have considered taking a vacation until AFTER the season was over. Didn't matter whether it was Legion, or summer swim team. But, parents these days have different expectations. And can't understand why little Johnnie sucks.

I'm inclined to agree with Skools and Dawgpoundit. Make em forfeit. But, most coaches aren't gonna do that because they could be in the same boat next week.

 

[Skools]

Cohaze all depends on the program as well. Some legion teams charge to play some don't. So if you don't pay to play then the parents/players don't really care and may quit!

The other issue with vacations during the summer is they have to be planned months in advance. I have kid's that booked cruises in December not even thinking about legion in the summer! It is to a point now where almost 75% of all kids will miss at least one week!

Cohaze it is not like it used to be. It's the "Me" generation now. We are going to book our vacation when I want to and not worry about everyone else!

 

[Skools]

Kid's already get one week off for beach week! Now that is not even enough!

 

[ALBPost20]

I disagree with you Skool on the play to pay opinion. Greenwood does not charge our players at all. We ask some of our players to come back for our league games during beach week, which we only had one. We had about 13 players that game. It depends on the area, and how well you build up your program to make the players care. I also know that Chapin Newberry also allows and ask some of their players to come back during their beach week, which they had enough to play us too. So don't say free programs make parents and players not care, when we've had no problem with having enough players at our games. We also have a rather large fan base compared to most of the other teams I've seen play over the last few years too. That makes kids want to play too, as they are playing in front of more than just parents. No offense to the other legion programs, but marketing is a big thing. I've been to stadiums this season that there were less than 50 people in attendance, it's hard to be motivated to play in front of that. We've average about 120 to 150 on most nights, and have topped out at 280 for one night. Kids want to play in front of crowds, and parents want their kids to be seen. That's what it comes down to from what I've seen, along with coaches motivating their players to want to play. Due to weather we played 6 games before June 8th, the rest of the season we will have played 15 games.

 

[Skools]

ALBPost20 We have been to your place 3 times for playoffs and you guys do a tremendous job marketing your program and keeping up your tradition! You also have a huge crowd!

This is based on experience with my own team. We used to be a free program and now charge kids to play. In the past we would have kids more likely to quit because they didn't pay a dime to play and it was no loss to them as they can just go pay to join a travel team. Again this is just based off experience off my team.

Kids now for us have multiple week vacations to the beach. Now it depends on the kid. If he is going to college to play or coming back to play his senior year in high school they are more committed. The high school senior that just graduated and is not going to play in college... for us is more likely to miss more time.

Not like when I was young. Where if you committed to a team you stuck with it.

Again this is our program where kids/parents have tons of money!