Who will be my kid’s Coach? And why are signups for a Spring Sport so early?

First question: We may or may not know who’s going to be coaching your child's team at this time. What we do know are some of the challenges that face that person, whoever they may be.

• They may be spending the first quarter of the year working extra hours, stacking their business travel, sitting in League Meetings after 7:00 PM, and booking extra jobs now and preparing for losing 4 hours of Spring daylight to work, when the season starts.
• They may already be coaching a Winter Sport while Planning for a Spring.
• They commute to work in New Jersey, Philly and KofP too.
• They may be a small business owner or an independent contractor who makes their own schedule but their work depends on good weather, and optimal outdoor conditions-so does Baseball.
• They very likely let some stuff at their house go until “after the season” because they need to make sure the fields are ready in April.
• They spend more time raking, dragging and liming fields than they do on their lawn.
• They have co-workers who wonder why they get special privileges to leave early, but who don’t realize that the "Coach in the Office" gets to work early, hosts evening conference calls and sends work email after 9:00 PM when everyone has left the field.
• They very likely have a spouse who is tired of hearing them talk about Baseball/Softball or Tee-Ball and the plan to perfect the 4-3 Putout and the 6-4-3 Double Play for the kids on their team.
• They know all the kids’ names in their child’s grade, who their kid hangs out with, who their kid doesn’t and they hope all of them come out for Spring Sports no matter what their situation is.
• They very likely have second and third kids who have activities of their own that happen away from the ballfield
• They do their best. And they can always use help.
• They’re volunteers and they are among the highest quality people you will meet and know in your life. But they're not perfect.

Second question: This has more to do with the weather, scheduling and the business side of youth sports.

• The leagues we participate in always need to know how many teams they can count on us for-because they have a schedule to make, and resources to secure too.
• Ever see dry ground in Southeastern PA before Tax Day-April 15th? Sometimes it works that way, most years it doesn’t.
• The facilities and the leagues have both spectator and player insurance that needs to be secured, renewed and calculated based upon the projected # of kids and therefor families who are participating.
• Uniforms are sometimes drawn from inventory and in other cases need to be ordered, paid for, printed and distributed.
• Indoor Practice Space is secured in January so that the kids can get some practice after Valentine’s Day and before April 15th.
• Some kids leave Basketballl or Wrestling and head to Baseball ready to hit homeruns and dazzle you on the mound. Most don’t. They need to practice.
• Some kids above 7th Grade play for Middle School or High School teams and that participation limits their eligibility to pitch for a Rec League. Pitching takes time to develop, especially if you're drafted into service so your team can play.
• Leagues work very hard to establish game schedules and facilities work even harder to accommodate those schedules once they are completed. And they’re usually late, because it too is a big job done by volunteers.
• The optimal size for a Baseball team for everyone to get playing time and to develop is 12-14 dedicated players who come to every practice or game.
• Some teams have 16 kids on them, because there’s little chance of getting 8 more kids to make two 12 person teams in Suburban Sprawl afflicted by declining school-age enrollment. Some kids sign up, and you see them only some of the time. Some teams will only have 10, and those kids show up every day and you dread it when someone gets the stomach bug and you have to forfeit.
• Sometimes it rains and the best laid plans are thrown into disarray and the fear is that the season will extend beyond the school year and the kids will leave on vacations their parents planned and then the team won’t be playing anyway because there are not enough kids.
• We open the window for registering very early, and close it very late because we're trying to form age- and skill-appropriate teams. It also helps us to determine how many Coaches, Assistants and Field Resources that we'll need. SCAA and our leagues always appreciate early bird registrations.

Finally, you will likely notice that the same families who coach Spring are there in the Fall, Winter and Summer-Soccer, Field Hockey, Football, Basketball, Wrestling, Tennis, Fire Co., EMS, The Band, Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, 4-H, School Board, Classroom Parent, municipal responsibilities etc. They’re volunteers. They’re not paid and they’ll very likely be there next season too. And we appreciate everything they do for their kid and for all the kids.

An SCAA Community Member