Do losing coaches of struggling programs ever get fired?

[Brownlax]

Well obviously SDSU. While at the Game at Snapdragon we got quite an earful listening to a few of the families we sat behind. We learned a lot being a fly on the wall. They were grumbling because the coaches don’t allow more than half the team to participate in anything more than just drills in practice, and only allow the 11-12 starters play the most of practice in a scrimmage while the rest of the team sits and watches, they also said she will play girls because they are graduate students and seniors over more deserving players (take that with a grain of salt, I am sure) she does this all season long they were saying. Is that how all Div 1 programs run?

I can speak as the parent of 20 and 23.

At both programs (one Big 10, one Patriot League), everyone participated in skill work (though starters got more reps).

In 7v7 play, which is a majority of practice as the season went on, there were generally 2 fields going one offense/one defense. Usually 9/10 girls getting reps on both sides of the ball and the rest watching/ playing scout team. (Some 2-way player would switch and get reps on both ends). One coach made sure everyone on the team was engaged and prepared during film sessions, the other not so much.

At the Patriot school, sometimes you would only run one field since numbers were lower and a few injuries could impact practice. This is why most coaches know they need at least 40 on a roster.

I'm not disagreeing with you. But perception and reality are not usually the same when it comes to parents......

Speaking specifically to the big 10 example. On my daughter's team, post-fall ball, generally 18 or 19 field players got first team reps on a team of 36-40 field players. And generally, 14 field players were in the rotation and 1 or 2 would play only on man-up/man-down.

So that leaves 25 kids likely potentially unhappy and feeling like they don't get a fair shake.

I had one of my former players on a very good D1 team who was a starter, tell me that the team was basically broken up into two groups. Starters would be on one end of the field and non-starters were on the other end and the head coach would never interact with the non-starters during practices.

[watcherinthewoods]

Well obviously SDSU. While at the Game at Snapdragon we got quite an earful listening to a few of the families we sat behind. We learned a lot being a fly on the wall. They were grumbling because the coaches don’t allow more than half the team to participate in anything more than just drills in practice, and only allow the 11-12 starters play the most of practice in a scrimmage while the rest of the team sits and watches, they also said she will play girls because they are graduate students and seniors over more deserving players (take that with a grain of salt, I am sure) she does this all season long they were saying. Is that how all Div 1 programs run?

I can speak as the parent of 20 and 23.

At both programs (one Big 10, one Patriot League), everyone participated in skill work (though starters got more reps).

In 7v7 play, which is a majority of practice as the season went on, there were generally 2 fields going one offense/one defense. Usually 9/10 girls getting reps on both sides of the ball and the rest watching/ playing scout team. (Some 2-way player would switch and get reps on both ends). One coach made sure everyone on the team was engaged and prepared during film sessions, the other not so much.

At the Patriot school, sometimes you would only run one field since numbers were lower and a few injuries could impact practice. This is why most coaches know they need at least 40 on a roster.

I'm not disagreeing with you. But perception and reality are not usually the same when it comes to parents......

Speaking specifically to the big 10 example. On my daughter's team, post-fall ball, generally 18 or 19 field players got first team reps on a team of 36-40 field players. And generally, 14 field players were in the rotation and 1 or 2 would play only on man-up/man-down.

So that leaves 25 kids likely potentially unhappy and feeling like they don't get a fair shake.

I had one of my former players on a very good D1 team who as a starter tell me that the team was basically broken up into two groups. Starters would be on one end of the field and non-starters were on the other end and the head coach oud never interact with the non-starters during practices.

This is a real thing ... but I am not sure it engenders good team morale. Nor does it develop players to their full potential.

[MolonLaxe]

Well obviously SDSU. While at the Game at Snapdragon we got quite an earful listening to a few of the families we sat behind. We learned a lot being a fly on the wall. They were grumbling because the coaches don’t allow more than half the team to participate in anything more than just drills in practice, and only allow the 11-12 starters play the most of practice in a scrimmage while the rest of the team sits and watches, they also said she will play girls because they are graduate students and seniors over more deserving players (take that with a grain of salt, I am sure) she does this all season long they were saying. Is that how all Div 1 programs run?

I can speak as the parent of 20 and 23.

At both programs (one Big 10, one Patriot League), everyone participated in skill work (though starters got more reps).

In 7v7 play, which is a majority of practice as the season went on, there were generally 2 fields going one offense/one defense. Usually 9/10 girls getting reps on both sides of the ball and the rest watching/ playing scout team. (Some 2-way player would switch and get reps on both ends). One coach made sure everyone on the team was engaged and prepared during film sessions, the other not so much.

At the Patriot school, sometimes you would only run one field since numbers were lower and a few injuries could impact practice. This is why most coaches know they need at least 40 on a roster.

I'm not disagreeing with you. But perception and reality are not usually the same when it comes to parents......

Speaking specifically to the big 10 example. On my daughter's team, post-fall ball, generally 18 or 19 field players got first team reps on a team of 36-40 field players. And generally, 14 field players were in the rotation and 1 or 2 would play only on man-up/man-down.

So that leaves 25 kids likely potentially unhappy and feeling like they don't get a fair shake.

I had one of my former players on a very good D1 team who as a starter tell me that the team was basically broken up into two groups. Starters would be on one end of the field and non-starters were on the other end and the head coach oud never interact with the non-starters during practices.

This is a real thing ... but I am not sure it engenders good team morale. Nor does it develop players to their full potential.

This may be one of the worst strategies and decision making processes I’ve ever heard. That maybe works for high school ball, splitting into JV and varsity but what a disaster.

[LaxThoughts]

Well obviously SDSU. While at the Game at Snapdragon we got quite an earful listening to a few of the families we sat behind. We learned a lot being a fly on the wall. They were grumbling because the coaches don’t allow more than half the team to participate in anything more than just drills in practice, and only allow the 11-12 starters play the most of practice in a scrimmage while the rest of the team sits and watches, they also said she will play girls because they are graduate students and seniors over more deserving players (take that with a grain of salt, I am sure) she does this all season long they were saying. Is that how all Div 1 programs run?

I can speak as the parent of 20 and 23.

At both programs (one Big 10, one Patriot League), everyone participated in skill work (though starters got more reps).

In 7v7 play, which is a majority of practice as the season went on, there were generally 2 fields going one offense/one defense. Usually 9/10 girls getting reps on both sides of the ball and the rest watching/ playing scout team. (Some 2-way player would switch and get reps on both ends). One coach made sure everyone on the team was engaged and prepared during film sessions, the other not so much.

At the Patriot school, sometimes you would only run one field since numbers were lower and a few injuries could impact practice. This is why most coaches know they need at least 40 on a roster.

I'm not disagreeing with you. But perception and reality are not usually the same when it comes to parents......

Speaking specifically to the big 10 example. On my daughter's team, post-fall ball, generally 18 or 19 field players got first team reps on a team of 36-40 field players. And generally, 14 field players were in the rotation and 1 or 2 would play only on man-up/man-down.

So that leaves 25 kids likely potentially unhappy and feeling like they don't get a fair shake.

I had one of my former players on a very good D1 team who as a starter tell me that the team was basically broken up into two groups. Starters would be on one end of the field and non-starters were on the other end and the head coach oud never interact with the non-starters during practices.

This is a real thing ... but I am not sure it engenders good team morale. Nor does it develop players to their full potential.

This may be one of the worst strategies and decision making processes I’ve ever heard. That maybe works for high school ball, splitting into JV and varsity but what a disaster.

Exactly. Saw it for four years. Robs the players on the "JV" side of any optimism that they could move to the Varsity side because the head coach never sees their improvements and successes in action during those split sessions. In addition, it relegates the "JV" players who theoretically may be close to moving up to practicing with the lower skilled players and/or those who do not know the plays and the systems as well, making it even harder for them to show their potential if allowed to play with the top players. Becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.