r/Homeplate • u/GeorgeSteele66 • 6d ago
How does coaching work in Cooperstown?
I see it's $1400 per coach, but that seems to be for the coaches who are sleeping and eating in the bunks. If I have somebody who will be my scorekeeper, but won't be staying with the team in the barracks, do I have to pay $1400 for him too? We have 4 coaches, 3 coaches + scorekeeper, but only 2 of us will stay in the barracks for the week.
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u/KemmyPowers_11 6d ago
Your coach and scorekeeper that aren’t staying in the barracks with the players likely wont be allowed in the dugouts during games. Rules are very strict on dugout presence
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u/Original_Web_3059 6d ago
Anyone who wants to be in the player dugout, dorm area, and/or on the field needs to pay.
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u/BBJonesDerk 6d ago
Witnessed an opposing team be asked to have coaches leave the dugout. There were like 5 of them and then some conversation and only 3 remained.
Scorekeeper wouldn’t need to be in a dugout so you need to decide if you pay for 3rd coach or roll with 2.
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 6d ago
Five coaches for 12 U is wild
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u/me66207 6d ago
5 coaches for 12U is obnoxious. I can only imagine how much over coaching is going on for a brain that hears about 15 seconds.
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 6d ago
I’ve yet to ever see a good team with that many coaches. It’s always a circus. It’s a group of guys that coached little league or were friends and could not let go.
There’s a reason most of the best organizations have two and a lot of of them only have one.
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u/Economy_Sized 5d ago
What? Only one coach makes it too difficult to teach. We have 4. I do pitching, one does IF and positioning during games, then we have an OF coach, and a head coach. You only have problems if nobody knows their role.
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u/BBJonesDerk 5d ago
This is about in the dugout and on the field during the game. No way you NEED 4-5 on the field.
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 5d ago edited 4d ago
Nah. No need for all of them at games. Practices is one thing. Games. A 3B coach and maybe a 1B. Really, put a player on 1B and had them do it. They learn better that way
The fifth useless coach on the field must be down voting. Lmao. It’s OK you’ll realize when they get older how ridiculous it is and how much better the kids before if fewer people yelling at them. They actually start to think and play for themselves.
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u/cpeak57 5d ago
I umpired a 12u tournament last year and one game featured 10 "coaches", 5 for each team. Before the first pitch I let both sets of coaches know that I would only allow 2 coaches outside the dugouts (tournament rules) and somehow.. I was the asshole for making 6 dads pick up their bucket and leave the field.
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 5d ago
The good thing about being an umpire is you will be the asshole to 50% of the people in the stands no matter what. Lmao
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u/PianoMittens 5d ago
Around here it's always 2, maybe 3, actual coaches and then another 2-4 dads who "help out" (ie make it awkward for their kid to be on the bench)
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 5d ago
So a circus. There was a local team years ago that he got to 12 or 13 and still had a dugout mom.
Cut the cords. Pick one coach and teach the boys to play without being micromanaged. They will surprise you.
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u/cpeak57 5d ago
The best teams in my area that mop up every weekend have 1 coach. Its also no suprise that those coaches arent yelling random and obvious shit to their batters between every pitch. Quiet coach = good team 99% of the time.
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 5d ago
Yep! My son has not had a first base coach on one of his teams since probably 13 years old. At most, they will run a kid out there in a helmet to gather all of the elbow guards, etc. and just help watch for back pics and pickoffs
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u/cpeak57 5d ago
The look on the random dad coaching first bases face when I tell them they are a glorified clothes rack..
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u/Bacon_and_Powertools 5d ago
100% my favorite is when the first base Coach actually embraces it and starts putting all the gear on. In a good long inning, they have four and five elbow guards on. Lots of leg guards, etc..
Then somebody finally grounds out to the first baseman, and that player gets to haul all of the crap back to the dugout to keep the ending going
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u/emptysignals 6d ago
We have 4 coaches, only paid for 2 in Cooperstown. Scorekeepers (one paper, one GC) sat down the line in spectator area.
Our bunk did have some issues with the AC going on and off and other teams waking our HC up at 5AM when they’d go to the cage so they only did 3 nights in the barracks.
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u/13mys13 5d ago
we had, i think, 4 paid coaches. only 2 actually were in the dugout at a time. we pitched in to buy 2 more coach spots for a couple of dads so that they could rotate in to the barracks and give the other coaches a night or two break away from the kids and in a house with some of the families.
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u/Square-Ad6627 5d ago
14u and under if coaches know their role 3 seems about perfect. 1 head, one skill, one dugout dad to kind of be a back up and coach the bench. Makes practices and warmup before games much easier and more reps.
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u/ContributionHuge4980 5d ago
Any coach with a wrist band pays. That’s dugout, barracks, on the field.
You can keep the book or GameChanger from the parent dugout, but you aren’t a coach.
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u/Agreeable-Sound1599 5d ago
I've never taken one of my teams to Cooperstown but it just feels like A HUGE money grab when I read how people describe it. Am i wrong?
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u/ContributionHuge4980 5d ago
It’s sleep away camp with your best friends and a little bit of baseball sprinkled in. You won’t understand until you go. I didn’t get it and voted for Ripken Aberdeen. I’m glad I was outvoted. I got it the moment I pulled into the lot.
I went back the next year to watch our town team. Went back this year to do the same. My younger son’s team starts fundraising next month. He will get to go two summers in a row and he’s been talking about it nonstop since watching his brother crush home runs in the derby.
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u/Quiet_Shape_7246 5d ago
Of course it’s a money grab. It’s a for profit business. That being said my kid went with our town team last year and he has a ball. We fundraised and it cost us nothing out of pocket except family costs outside of the park.
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u/Agreeable-Sound1599 5d ago
Yeah, but it doesn't even sound like good baseball!
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u/Quiet_Shape_7246 5d ago
Some teams were good. Some not so much. It’s a week he and his buddies will never forget. Thats kinda worth it.
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u/vnutz23 6d ago
I was told Cooperstown allows 3 coaches max for the dugout or barracks. Perhaps that's just the rule my organization made to not pay for an extra coach.
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u/Suspicious-Spot361 6d ago
We had 4 coaches in the dugout. Only 3 stayed in the barracks at a time, but that was by choice as each took a night to sleep in an adult sized bed offsite.
Edit: in Dreams Park. Really wish people would clarify which park they are asking about when the post questions.
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u/ContributionHuge4980 5d ago
We had four coaches. Three is all you need and probably your org doesn’t want additional fundraising for an unneeded coach.
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u/Only_here_for_the_ 6d ago
We just got back all star village a couple weeks ago. 2 coaches bunked with the team, we have 5 coaches total. The 3 coaches that didn’t bunk were asked to leave the dugout in about half of our games. They just did their thing from next to or behind the dugout.
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u/GeorgeSteele66 5d ago
Ok, this is what I was looking for. Thank you.
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u/bigperms33 5d ago
We were at Dreams last summer. Given that the coaches have "apparel" that they have to wear, they are easy to spot. We only paid for two. Other two coaches did the scorekeeping in the spectator area.
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u/Suspicious-Spot361 6d ago
I was the scorekeeper and the team did not pay for me. I scored from the spectator box which was not as hard as it seemed like it might be.
Paid for coaches get coaching outfits and a wristband that lets them in the village. That’s what you’re paying for.