Is it Acceptable for Coaches to Throw Away Games in Softball?
During the summer months, travel ball and club ball teams come together and compete in tournaments all across the country. The sport of softball is booming and there are many more teams emerging and establishing themselves every year. Because of the boom, tournaments have been forced to break up bracket play into tiers or divisions. Teams are seeded into pool play games based on their regular season wins and or how they placed in the previous tournament. For example, a state qualifier leading up to a state tournament.
Once the teams finish their two or three pool play games, they are then placed into divisions. Divisions vary based on the number of teams in the tournament. Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze or A,B,C,D or 1,2,3,4 are common tiers or divisions used to break up the teams. It is common for lower level teams to be seeded into the higher divisions if they win pool play games. It is also common coaches to throw games away in order to be seeded into a lower tier. This second scenario doesn’t sit right with me for several reasons.
“To be the best, you have to beat the best.” This was the quote that was instilled in me at a young playing age and one I carried with me throughout my softball career. To learn coaches have control over the bracket play seeding at tournaments troubles me. Coaches who are trying to lose will likely throw a pitcher who doesn’t normally pitch in tournaments. They could also move people around in the field, not bat the best nine, and hold runners up from scoring. Is giving coaches this power doing anything besides hurting our sport? What are we teaching the players who are on these teams?
Even if a team’s strategy to make a lower tier works out, it can be hard to flip the switch and win the first bracket game. The same thing can be said about playing to the level of your competition. Often times when an A team takes on a B team, the B team will win or make it a close game because the A team didn’t play to their own level. I am a firm believer that softball players will always improve if they are playing with and against the best competition. Is an A team getting any better by playing against B teams when they could have been in the higher tier playing against A teams?
If a team wins the lowest tier are they really considered champions? These are questions that coaches should be asking themselves before throwing away games to play an easier tournament schedule. Is winning a medal more important than finishing in the top 10 of the highest tier? Coaches should always want what’s best for their players. Players learn from and are led by their coaches and every decision a coach makes will impact the players. What are you teaching your players by throwing away games to try to beat weaker teams? This approach may work on the softball field at the younger levels, but that’s not how it goes as players get older, and it is definitely not how the real world works outside of the softball field.
So to answer the article title question, “Is it Acceptable for Coaches to Throw Away Games in Softball?” My answer will always be no. To be the best, you have to beat the best.
