The Big Guys of Little League : There’s More to This Coaching Than Filling Out a Lineup and Teaching the Fundamentals, but the Rewards Usually Outweigh the Frustrations

“When you are discussing a successful coach, you are not necessarily drawing the profile of an entirely healthy person.” --Bruce Oglivie,sports psychologist

After offering instruction on subtleties of the squeeze bunt, the coach of a West Hills youth baseball team ends practice by saying: “Does everybody have his glove? Some turkey left his glove the other day. And nobody get hurt before Saturday’s game. We only have nine guys.”

During practice, a portly 12-year-old player nonchalantly chases after a foul pop fly. His coach, who has been sitting in a shaded dugout while the team works out in the sun, hollers: “C’mon. I expect maximum effort out of you.” The player shrugs and replies: “Well, excuse me for missing the ball.”

Believing he has the undivided attention of a team of 12-year-olds, a coach instructs: “Hone your swing until it is smooth, sweet, in sync, balanced and a thing of beauty. Watch yourself swing in a mirror.”

Despite the coaches’ eloquence, the players appear distracted. The manager is the last to notice a group of young girls standing nearby. The five boldest boys stand and walk toward the girls. Six feet from them, the boys veer away and begin wrestling with one another.

Although youth baseball players wear professional-looking uniforms and adultlike expressions of seriousness on game day, they are children. Of that fact, their coaches are constantly reminded.

Coaching kids is more than making out a lineup and teaching baseball fundamentals. Shaping a positive experience for every youth is the real task. And considering that coaches are volunteers offering spare time after long work days, it is a formidable one.

But for most of the 350,000 youth coaches across the country who adjust their caps, stuff equipment into cars and head off to diamonds, the rewards outweigh the frustrations.

“Coaching has enriched me in two important ways,” said Chuck Treend of Woodland Hills, who has managed youth teams since 1970. “My sense of humor has sharpened and I’ve become absolutely sold on kids.”

Richard Newman, a former Simi Valley deputy police chief, has coached children aged 10 to 12 in Thousand Oaks for 11 years and is as enthusiastic as ever.

“What keeps me going is that every year I find a boy to root for,” Newman said. “Even in an affluent community, some kid doesn’t have much going for him. Watching his self-image grow makes coaching worthwhile. This is a dimension parents of other players don’t see. Many parents are only sensitive to the needs of their own children.”

Youth coaches are easy targets for cynics. Their shortcomings often are glaring. Their successes, the ones not measured in wins and losses, often go unnoticed.

Most enjoy youngsters, but few know how to keep a dozen or so occupied for hours at a time on a ball field. Most enjoy baseball, but few understand the game’s nuances.

And most aren’t sure quite what to expect when they agree to take a team. But when a season comes to a close, nearly all are able to look back on a worthwhile experience.

“There are three types of players. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happened.” --Tommy Lasorda

Successful coaching on the youth level is measured in small increments. A boy who can barely tie a shoe can’t be taught to lace into a fastball the first time he tries.

Newman recalled a 10-year-old couldn’t swing until he survived an at-bat.

“In anticipation of facing a top 12-year-old, all he could talk about was how fast the pitches were going to be,” Newman said. “So I wasn’t surprised that he looked at three strikes without swinging.

“But when he returned to the bench, the 10-year-old said put on a brave face and said, ‘That pitcher wasn’t so fast.’ The other kids fell off the bench laughing.”

The way players react to the smaller outcomes in a game usually determines how the team fares in the final outcome. A manager has to be like the guy on the Titanic who spent all his time telling the passengers what great swimmers they were.

“The hardest part of managing is keeping the players on an even keel,” Ritter said. “When we take a lead, the kids get really up. When we lose a lead, it’s the end of the world in their eyes.”

Jerry Lang, who coaches 13-15 year olds, keeps his team from riding an emotional roller coaster by chattering nonstop.

“I keep reminding them they’re good even when something goes wrong,” Lang said. “It helps them keep the little things in perspective.”

One coach compared the rough spots during a game to bumps in a road.

“It’s like driving a car,” he said. “Keep your eyes focused way down the road and you’ll steer right down the middle.”

It was a nice metaphor except that none of his 10-year-old players had acquired a drivers license.

“I’m not the manager because I’m always right, but I’m always right because I’m the manager.” --Gene Mauch

What does it take to manage a youth team? The inclination, mostly. Most leagues are hard up for qualified coaches.

But a spokesman at Little League Baseball headquarters in Williamsport, Pa., said certain qualities are preferred.

“Selection of managers is done at the local level, but criteria should be that a candidate is morally sound, has a general concern for kids and has a basic knowledge of baseball,” Little League Director Steve Keener said. “Teaching skills is important and a coach ought to be young at heart.”

To hear experienced managers tell it, they must be equal parts teacher, bus driver, army sergeant and shrink.

Treend, who in 1981 won the Mustang Division World Series with a team of 9- and 10-year-olds from West Hills, said a successful coach plans a practice the way a successful teacher plans a lesson.

“You have to organize and prepare,” he said. “Use drills that are fun for kids. Utilize small groups. Kids will eat you up if you’re not prepared.”

Newman, an outreach consultant for junior high school students in Thousand Oaks, is used to spending time with problem youngsters. He said the needs of boys playing baseball often are similar.

“A coach needs to be consistent and fair in his treatment of players,” said Newman, who coaches in the Conejo Valley Little League. “There is more to dealing with youngsters than teaching them to throw properly. These are the formative years.”

Earl Ritter, who manages a West Hills team of 11- and 12-year-olds, believes players won’t develop a strong self-image unless the coach projects one.

“The most important quality a coach can possess is to have a positive attitude about himself,” Ritter said. “A kid who sees a coach with a negative attitude develops a negative attitude. You can’t lie to boys.”

“The worst thing about managing is the day you realize you want to win more than the players do.” --Gene Mauch

A recurring scene at season-ending parties of youth teams that have blown a championship is coaches and parents brooding over the loss on the patio while the kids are having the time of their lives in the swimming pool.

“The kids forget the outcome long before you do,” Newman said. “They may overreact for the first 15 minutes and it’s the manager’s responsibility to guide them through that. A manager has to keep in mind that the kid is no longer a baseball player, he is a child.”

Managers who take losses too seriously exist in most youth leagues. They don’t last long at West Hills, however.

“Guys with gigantic egos or really short tempers are weeded out,” Treend said. “I can honestly say that everything you saw in the ‘Bad News Bears’ has happened on our fields. A kid drinking beer in the dugout. A coach smacking a player. I’ve seen it all. But I’ve never seen those things more than once.”

Tommy Lasorda, after Jerry Reuss pitched a no-hitter: “It couldn’t have happened to a greater guy. Well, yes it could. It could have happened to me.”

Perhaps the most common complaint in youth baseball is of a coach favoring his son. Often a father who wants his son in the biggest pond is blind to the fact that the boy is a mere polliwog of a player.

It’s an easy trap for a father--even for one who swore he wouldn’t live out his athletic fantasies through his children.

One coach recalled an instance when a father pitched his 10-year-old son in a crucial game against mostly 12-year-olds. The experience was harmful not only to the team but to the pitcher as well.

“The boy got knocked around and the rest of the team got on him,” the coach said. “He never really recovered. He turned into a pretty good player, but refused to pitch ever again.”

Parental pressure usually diminishes as a boy gets older, according to Wayne Smith, who has managed youths aged 13 through 15 for seven years.

“I’ve been told to stay away from certain kids in the draft because their parents have been trouble,” Smith said. “But by the time a boy is 13 or 14, the parents rarely interfere.”

Distractions other than overeager parents emerge as youngsters grow older. Vic Cisco, who coaches 15- and 16-year-olds in the West Hills Colt Division, says players are the victims of the three I’s.

“Injury, indifference and infatuation are the biggest enemies of coaches,” Cisco said. “Infatuation claims the most victims. The guys have a tough time deciding between the game and the girls.”

Billy Martin, on when a manager should start looking for another job: “When you arrive at the ballpark and find your name has been scratched from the parking list.”

Youth coaches don’t have to worry about being fired, but they arrive early anyway to make sure they get a practice field. Many coaches claim that the paucity of practice facilities is a major hurdle.

“We’ve climbed every fence in the West Valley,” Treend said.

Most leagues have well-manicured game fields, but only one team per evening is able to use it for practice. The others become vagabonds, seeking the corner of a park or a grammar school softball diamond.

“It’s frustrating because you aren’t able to accomplish the things you can do on a regular field,” said Lance O’Fallon, who manages boys aged 13 through 15. “On the other hand, there are fundamentals you can practice anywhere there is grass. You learn to develop some pretty creative drills.”

Mitch Fair, former baseball coach at Crespi High, coached three Campbell Little League teams that made it to the Little League World Series in the 1970s. He said the lack of practice time is a major difference between youth and high school baseball.

“Often in youth ball, there is no time to work on anything but the basics,” Fair said. “Sure it has to do with field availability. But major leaguers have said that their biggest gripe with youth baseball is that there are too many games and not enough practices.”

O’Fallon said his league is an exception: “We select teams in February and don’t begin games until May because we have to wait until the high school season is finished. We have far more practices than games.”

“I’ve found that it’s not good to talk about my troubles. 80% of the people who hear them don’t care and the other 20% are glad I’m having trouble.” --Tommy Lasorda

Many high school coaches claim they have to undo damage wrought by youth coaches.

“Telling a pitcher to ‘just throw strikes,’ is a Little League axiom,” Fair said. “But in high school, where everyone in a lineup can hit, a pitcher gets pounded just throwing the ball over the plate. Also, batters in youth leagues are often taught to wait for walks.”

Smith, however, believes that just as youth ball isn’t taught in high school, high school ball shouldn’t be taught in youth leagues. Because only a small percentage of youth players ever play high school baseball, youth leagues should not be tailored to the needs of high school coaches.

“Kids are flexible enough to adjust when they get to high school,” Smith said. “You teach the things that make players successful at a certain level.”

Chatsworth High Coach Bob Lofrano, whose teams have won six straight West Valley League titles, said youth leagues prepare his high school players well.

“Chatsworth Junior Baseball and Northridge Little League have some outstanding coaches,” Lofrano said. “They do a good job of teaching fundamentals and work well with the fragile psyche of youngsters.”

Lofrano, like many high school coaches, does not scout youth games for talent.

“I’ve never made myself visible at youth games,” he said. “In some ways it’s a drawback but I don’t want to get preconceived ideas about kids. The growth between junior high and high school can be tremendous. I wait until boys are in high school before I evaluate their talent.”

“Managing is like holding a dove in your hand. Squeeze too hard and you kill it; not hard enough and it flies away.”--Tom Lasorda

Smith and O’Fallon don’t have sons playing youth baseball. Yet they coach year after year.

“The 13- through 15-year-olds we coach are playing on a regulation field for the first time,” O’Fallon said. “We’re teaching good athletes baseball basics.”

Added Smith: “You get a boy when he’s 13, fresh and eager. A few years later maybe he’s playing on a high school team or you see him around town working at his first job.

“They’re on their way to becoming successful people and, through coaching, I’ve been privileged to know them.”