Coaching two different teams with intermixed players?
As a parent what are your thoughts on your kids coach, coaching two teams but not inviting your child to the second team?
A little background; I'm a headcoach for a 9U select team that is between the AA and AAA level. We have a significant range in skill/interest level on the team; 1/3 would be considered "advanced" and has high ball IQ and LOVE baseball. 1/3 would be kids that have great potential and are eager to develop and also LOVE baseball. The last 1/3 struggle to keep up, show little intrest in developing, and baseball is not their #1 sport. I believe it is my job as the HC to develop all of my players, but at the same time it is very difficult to develop players that show little interest in developing. While my son would love to start traveling for tournaments, our teams makeup just isn't right for any travel or high level competition.
My son is among the boys that would be considered advanced. He lives and breathes baseball and is self motivated to get better. We have great parity in the local leagues we play in with around 12 teams being in a similar skill range makeup on their teams. I have a good relationship with 3 other coachs. And we all enjoy the competition we have locally, with no single team dominating and any team being capable of winning any game. But we also agree it would be both fun and developmentaly beneficial for our boys who are "advanced" and eager to learn to play together. We've discussed a scenario where we join together to play travel tournaments with 3-4 boys from each team. To be clear, we have no intention to join together permanetly, only for 1 or 2 out of town tournaments. I am also aware of the temptation that comes with forming a travel team.
So my questions are:
As a parent, how would you feel if you found out your kids head coach took 3 boys from the team to play in a travel tournament with a different team (but not yours)?
Would you want to hear it from the coach or through the grapevine?
As a coach, would you feel obligated to be transparent? Or to keep quiet knowing your true intention is to continue coaching the regular team?