I've been holding off on posting anything about this to give the people who run the Chicago Metro ASA the opportunity to do the right thing. But it looks like that is a gigantic waste of time — there is no honor in that organization. So I've decided to post it here, both as a warning to others and to hopefully enlist the softball community to pressure them to do what they should've done nearly a year ago. Here's my story, its' sad but true.
July 13-14, 2008, my team participated in the Chicago Metra ASA 16U "B" tournament, which was held in Vernon Hills, Illinois. It was a rainy weekend, which caused all kinds of havoc. I recall going to our first game Saturday and sitting around for about three hours while they struggled to get the fields ready.
Eventually the fields were ready, but like most tournaments where rain intervenes it wreaked havoc on the format. Ultimately it went from a true double elimination tournament to a single elimination tournament. We did pretty well, though, and made it to the semi-finals.
Normally with this tournament, the two losers of the semi play for third place. But the tournament director, Steve Verive, told us they had decided to cancel that game because they couldn't get another field ready — despite the fact two games were going on at the same time already. Instead, the two teams would be declared tied for third place, and each would receive a trophy.
Now, of course they only had one third place trophy at the field. When we finished our game, Verive gave our girls their individual trophies. He then told me he had given the trophy on-hand to the other semi-final loser, and that Chicago Metro ASA would ship ours to me. I figured that meant in a few weeks.
It is now July 3, 2009 and I am still waiting. I have contacted Verive, Chicago Metro Commissioner Tom O'Neill, and Chicago Metro Player Representative Joe Pavone numerous times by phone and email. The only one who has ever responded is Verive. The last time I heard from him was February 22, when he told me he had spoken to Pavone and the trophy had been ordered. I have contacted him several times since then, including twice in the last couple of weeks, and now even Verive doesn't respond.
To me, this is both shameful and disrespectful. If they had no intention of living up to their word they should've said something right away. I would think these men would at least have the courtesy to respond rather than just ignoring my messages to them. Most of all, though, it is obvious that they don't understand who is the buyer and who is the seller in this situation. There is no lack of organizations running tournaments in the Chicago area. Why in the world, at this point, would I ever play in another Chicago Metro ASA tournament when it is obvious they don't want my business? If you're smart, you'll avoid them too.
I would go over their heads to complain to the national office, but of course you can't find any contact information for anyone there. They tell you to contact your regional commissioner. By the way, this is typical of the service we have always gotten from the Chicago Metro ASA, and Tom O'Neill in particular. We're still waiting for our 2009 rulebooks.
Here's what you can do for me if you'd be so kind. Below is the contact information for all three officials of this organization. If each person who reads this blog will send an email or make a call, especially if you can do it every few days until I post that the trophy has been received, perhaps the groundswell of pressure will cause them to finally fulfill the obligation that was part of the CONTRACT we signed with them. If we can fill their voicemail and their email boxes with messages on a continuous basis, maybe they'll get the message that they can't treat the teams that play in their tournaments like dirt.
I would greatly appreciate your help. Please tell them something to the effect of "Give the Mundelein Thunder the trophy you owe them from the 2008 Chicago ASA Metro 16U B tournament." If you want to add "you lying bastards" that's up to you. Here's the contact information:
| Umpire-In-Chief (Fast-Pitch) |
Steven Verive
Phone: (630) 816-7927
Fax: (630) 701-2317
Email: Sua110@hotmail.com |
Thanks for your help. Lesson learned here: Never leave a tournament without a trophy in-hand.     |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Saw a great quote this morning from the Roman poet Ovid and felt inspired to share it. The quote read: "Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish."
I like that idea of having your hook in the water. All too often, in softball as well as in life, players and coaches want to row their boats out onto the lake, then wait for the fish to jump into the boat. I suppose it happens sometimes, but if that's what you're counting on to eat you're going to spend most of your life hungry and unsatisfied.
The first step in achieving your goals is to cast your hook into the water. That means being prepared when the fish come along. Obviously practice is a big part of it. The old adage "you play how you practice" really is true. If you go through the motions in practice to put in your time, you're approaching it the wrong way. Your hook is dangling over the water, not really in it. But it's more than practice.
It's being on a team where you can learn and improve your skills, not just win a bunch of trophies. It's being in a situation where you feel challenged on a regular basis. It's putting in the effort to learn the game — not just your little part of it but what everyone else is doing as well.
If you want to play softball in college, it''s going to the camps of colleges you think you might want to attend. It's making your skills video and contacting college coaches on a regular basis.
I have found over time that the universe rewards activity. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later. Whatever that big fish is to you, the only way you're going to catch it is by having your hook in the water. Make a point of dropping yours in today. |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Since we had the weekend off I had a chance to watch some games at a younger level — 12U specifically. After coaching high schoolers the last few years it was interesting to take a step back and see what was missing.
Probably one of the most glaring things was how the young kids run the bases. For many, running the bases meant getting to the next base, i.e. if the runner was on first her whole focus was on getting to second. The problem with that was once she got there, her mission was accomplished. Never mind that the ball was being thrown elsewhere, and there was an opportunity to get to third. She'd done her job.
Now, this wasn't universal. There were definitely some teams that ran the bases better. But for the most part it was a skill or knowledge level that wasn't there.
What I see in all this is an opportunity. When you're coaching a younger team it's often difficult to decide what to teach first. There's so much to know you can't possibly cover it all, even in one year — especially when you have to go back and repeat things to make sure they sink in. But if you want to do something that can have a quick payoff, work on baserunning.
Make sure your young players understand that the objective is to make it all the way home. The faster they can do that the more you will score. (Remember that they may not understand the big picture of scoring as many runs as you can. It seems simple but it may not be to a youngster just learning the game.)
Make sure they understand that they should never settle for one base if they can get two, or settle for two bases when they can get three. Make sure they realize things can be happening all over the field, and thus they need to pay attention to what's going on around them. The more you can get them thinking aggressively, the less work you'll have to do to score each run. And the more you'll be able to take advantage of your opponents' mistakes.
By the way, your team might not be that good at it right now, but they will learn it. Mine didn't know it either once upon a time. But they did learn it — and in a tight game the team that can run smart gives itself a much better chance of winning. You can take that to the bank! |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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I was just on the Web site of one of our local fastpitch organizations (not the one I belong to) and saw that they have announced tryout dates for 2010. Any guesses as to when tryouts are? August 8th, which is the week after ASA Nationals are finished.
To me, that just insane. Every sports psychologist, physical training expert and even high-level coaches will tell you it's critical for players to shut down for a while, take a break from the sport, overcome those little nagging injuries that occur over the sesaon and just generally recharge the ol' batteries. In our area, where many of the high schools start in mid-August, that time after nationals is likely the only opportunity families have to go on vacation together.
So why are they doing it? It's the competition for players. If everyone else has tryouts at the beginning of August and you don't, you might miss out on your shot at some good players. Not the best, necessarily, because I'd bet any program that has a shot at a top-level player isn't going to stick to their guns on the whole "you have three days to commit or you're out." Nor do those players have to worry about finding a place to play. But for everyone else, especially at the younger ages where kids are less known, there's a fear that the kids won't be able to find a team so they go along with it.
People, it's time to stop the insanity. I know our legislators have a lot on their minds right now what with the economy and bailouts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all. But I sure wouldn't mind seeing one of them pass a law requiring teams to wait three weeks after the official end of the season before they can hold tryouts. I don't think three weeks is asking a lot. But it sure could help out some kids and families. It might also help stop some of the softball burnout players are getting that is causing them to quit playing by the time they're 15 or 16 or so.
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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The fact that the changeup is a good pitch is nothing new. Still, everyone gets so impressed with the movement pitches (especially the riseball fans) that we can forget just how effective a good changeup can be. This past weekend I was reminded of it.
We were playing in a tournament with some very good teams. Since I coach an 18U team, we saw some kids who are either college softball players or college softball-bound.
There were some darned fine hitters in this tournament, and they were doing their thing. Fortunately, my daughter Kimmie's changeup was working well this weekend. She is far from overpowering, but has good movement on the ball and a well-disguised change. She threw that change early and often, and it did its job, keeping hitters off-balance. While they were putting the bat on some of them, they usually resulted in popups or weak fly balls. There were also a number of freezes and swing-throughs.
The previous weekend, by the way, the change wasn't working nearly as well and she got rocked a couple of times. But with the changeup in hand she was able to do better against better hitters.
If you haven't worked the change in a while it's time to revisit it. The changeup is your friend! |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Heard about this one a few weeks ago. It's something that happened at a tournament, but it's the kind of thing that drives me nuts — mostly because it's the kind of thing that drives parents, coaches and players out of the game.
During the tournament, a 10U team with a first-year coach was playing one of their pool games. This team was part of the host program, so various people were going around checking progress and making sure everything was going ok overall.
One Board member, however — a guy who is a well-known blowhard and not particularly well-liked within his organization — showed up at the 10U game in his little golf cart. He looked into his program's dugout and didn't like what he saw. There was a bag of catcher's gear that — gasp! — was the wrong color. The catcher has her own gear and keeps it in her own bag. But no matter — in the middle of the game he starts screaming at the poor coach that they need to get that bag out of there, it's the wrong color, and of course "we have standards."
Later, this same guy saw that the first base coach wasn't wearing the right coach's shirt. The first base coach was wearing the shirt of a different program, because he is head coach of his older daughter's team in that program. But he was trying to help out the first year coach by doing what he could. Since both teams were in this tournament, and the tournament ran across a couple of different complexes, he was running back and forth, doing his best to help out. Again, the blowhard starts yelling about standards in front of everyone. I'm not sure if he was yelling at the head coach or the first base coach, but he made it known that he wasn't happy about the lack of conformity to the "standards."
Seems to me if you have standards, the first standard is you don't go yelling at your volunteer coaches in front of the parents, players, umpires and opponents, especially about something so trivial. By doing that, you're hurting their credibility, and their desire. In addition, it makes them spend their time worrying about stupid, meaningless crap instead of focusing on the game and the players.
I understand the principle of if you look good you play good. I preach it myself. But if there's a problem, you wait until after the game, you take the coach aside and you explain what you want quietly and rationally. You don't stand there during the game and berate him. That's just someone with his ego out of control, thinking he's the Big Man. Here's the thing. The teams can play without a particular Board member. But they can't play without players and coaches. If you make life miserable for volunteers, especially first-year coaches doing the best they can, you're just going to drive them away. Then who will you show how important you are?
I know if I was that first base coach, helping out for the sake of the team, I'd probably say it's not worth it. No, check that. Knowing me, and knowing a confrontation would result, I'd probably wear the "wrong" shirt again on purpose. When the blowhard came by and yelled again, I'd taken him out of earshot of everyone else and quietly tell him if he EVER speaks to me like that, especially in front of the team, he will spend the rest of the tournament trying to pick my New Balance shoe out of his John Brown hindparts because that's how far up it's going to go.
Again, if you have standards, fine. You enforce them quietly and invisibly. If you really feel you have to let everyone know you're in charge, you're not in charge of anything. You're just a blowhard and a jerk. |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Ok, back to business on fastpitch softball.
I've been holding on to this one a little while, but can't wait on it anymore. Stupid is a high school coach scheduling her team into a four-team tournament on the same day as prom. Petty is then benching a senior during the one game she is going to attend because she took the lead on behalf of all the others and asked if they could leave early to get ready for the prom.
The reality is prom is a big deal to most high school girls these days, whether they are athletes or not. They spend days or even weeks picking out just the right dress, deciding on how they'll do their hair and nails, and generally getting prepared. The day of prom most will take several hours getting ready. It's a very special day, especially for seniors who are at the end of their time in high school. Scheduling a completely meaningless tournament on the day of prom is just asking for discord and disappointment. It's also asking for three extra losses on your record, because you're fighting the tide. They're going to go to prom, whether you like it or not.
Worse, though, is taking those kids who are willing to cut things a little closer by attending at all and punishing them for wanting to be high school girls. Why penalize your players because you were too short-sighted to realize what you were doing, and what you were asking of them? Why not give them that weekend off, so they can take advantage of another activity the school has to offer? And one that's sure to be a lot more special and memorable than some pointless softball tournament?
Marc Dagenais talks about the year-round specialization of softball players (rather than being well-round athletes playing multiple sports) as one of the leading factors in the increase in softball injuries. That same single-mindedness applies to other activities as well.
It's time to remember that youth sports participants are youths first. You're only young once. There's plenty of time to be responsible adults later. When you're making out your schedule, be smart. Don't put your players in a position of making that decision and you'll all be a lot happier. |
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Hi all,
Sorry to depart from our usual softball discussions, but I know some of you are aware that for the last year my son Adam has been serving with the Illinois National Guard in an infantry unit in Afghanistan. I wanted to let you know that we found out yesterday he has now arrived safely at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin, and we will be picking him up Monday afternoon in Effingham, IL which is his home post (due to the fact he signed up while a student at Eastern Illinois University).
Obviously, we are very excited by this. It's been a long and anxious year. He was a front-line soldier who saw his fair share of battle action, and from what we're told helped disrupt Taliban operations in the southern part of the country.
Thanks to those of you who kept Adam in your thoughts and prayers; it meant a lot. And remember that there are still many soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Coast Guard members who are paying for our ability to argue whether the rise ball actually rises and the "right" way to hit a softball by giving up their comfy homes here and putting their lives on the line.
We are looking forward to yelling at him to clean his room, do something with his life, and stop spending his money like he's been out of the country for a year.  In other words, normal stuff.
Ken
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| Posted by Ken Krause at | | | |
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Have you ever sat in the dugout watching a team loaded with kids with world class speed and wished your team could run that fast? You think boy, if we could run like that we'd be stealing bases all the time. 
