"All stars" and only half of them care...
I'm currently coaching a 12u all star team that my son is on. We have 11 on a good day, have to borrow players from neighboring leagues to be able to scrimmage and play in tournaments. Seems like maybe 5 of them show up ready to work and compete and retain the coaching they get. The rest are either randomly there and when they are they seem stuck in rec mode. No focus, lack of energy, laying down in the field during pitching changes, etc. To the point where my parents who are watching their grandson yelled "get up" (I talked to them and told them to relax and enjoy watching their grandson, let me do the coaching). My son gets very frustrated with his teammates and our backup catcher who had multiple pass balls, lacks a sense of urgency behind the plate. Not sure what to do, we have 2 tournaments left and I don't want to just give up and say screw it, I have 15 years of high school coaching experience and want them to realize they are 2 years away from high school ball and be as prepared as possible. My son and a few other kids would benefit greatly from playing with a team filled with kids who want to work and focus on getting better, push each other for playing time, etc. I guess I'm asking for advice on how to manage my expectations, frustrations and next couple weeks so that the kids have fun, learn baseball and are competitive. We played 2 and 2/3 innings of good baseball last night, were down by 3 and 1 error and 1 passed ball turned into a disastrous inning, silent in the field, wheels completely fell off. Help my mental health for the next 2 weeks please. 🙏