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High School golf tryouts - is this expected?

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golfguy2021 said:
How do you decide who should make the team? Based on the lowest score, right? Otherwise, why even bother has the tryouts at all?
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Maybe in golf, but I have to say, in hockey, the BEST player isn't always the RIGHT player.
 
Putting my 2¢ in as a father, educator (non-coach), and athlete. If I were to coach, attitude carries more weight than talent. Yes, I would want to win just like every other coach. However, that group of teenage kids are representing the school and coach. I would have ZERO problems cutting the best player if they had a piss poor attitude.

I’m not saying this is the case here, and being upset is normal, but he needs to take this, learn from it. Either grow his game or walk away. Those are the only two choices here and they should be HIS decisions. Not his mothers, yours, or ours. If making the golf team is that important, he should schedule a meeting with the coach, tell the coach his goals, and ask for guidance.
 
Imagine if Tiger went to try out for his high school team and had a bad day and didn't get picked. Sorry Tiger, I know you were playing golf on TV when you were three, but these kids beat you today, so I need to roll with them for the whole season.
 
golfguy2021 said:
My nephew has just finished the golf tryouts for his high school team, and he didn't make the team. I would like to know how the golf coach evaluates who can be on the golf team. This is public school and the golf coach is also a teacher in social studies and history. There are 25 kids tryouts on the team and they take only 12.

My nephew scored 45 each day on a 9 holes course, and he has been playing golf since August 2020. He double bogey two holes, birdie a hole, and bogey the rest of the hole. His score is the 9th best on the team and yet they select three kids with worse score than my nephew to be on the team. The coach reason is that those three kids have been in more tournaments than my nephew and they just have three bad days during tryouts so they got selected over my nephew. My nephew has zero tournaments experience so he didn't get selected to be on the golf team.

Is that even possible? Can the coach do that? If that is true, what is the purpose of the tryouts when the coach has already decided the outcome even before tryouts ended. Is there an recourse for this?

His mother, my sister, is very upset at the moment.
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I discussed this with my instructor - he said, "I have a student who did not play on a team. He has talent. He plays tournaments. Unfortunately, a lot of college coaches focus on ballspeed and how high." So, I'd say play tournaments and get speed.
 
billyh said:
Putting my 2¢ in as a father, educator (non-coach), and athlete. If I were to coach, attitude carries more weight than talent. Yes, I would want to win just like every other coach. However, that group of teenage kids are representing the school and coach. I would have ZERO problems cutting the best player if they had a piss poor attitude.

I’m not saying this is the case here, and being upset is normal, but he needs to take this, learn from it. Either grow his game or walk away. Those are the only two choices here and they should be HIS decisions. Not his mothers, yours, or ours. If making the golf team is that important, he should schedule a meeting with the coach, tell the coach his goals, and ask for guidance.
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Michael Jordan was cut from his JV team.
 
billyh said:
Putting my 2¢ in as a father, educator (non-coach), and athlete. If I were to coach, attitude carries more weight than talent. Yes, I would want to win just like every other coach. However, that group of teenage kids are representing the school and coach. I would have ZERO problems cutting the best player if they had a piss poor attitude.

I’m not saying this is the case here, and being upset is normal, but he needs to take this, learn from it. Either grow his game or walk away. Those are the only two choices here and they should be HIS decisions. Not his mothers, yours, or ours. If making the golf team is that important, he should schedule a meeting with the coach, tell the coach his goals, and ask for guidance.
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So what kind of message are the golf coach is sending to the kids? That the tryouts is mainly a dog and pony show, and score is not important, and the outcome is already determined.

I don't know what kind of world you live in but the objective of golf is to get the ball into the hole with the least amount of stroke, no matter how ugly that stroke might be. It is a three days tryouts and not a single day tryouts. 12 people with the lowest score should make the team, no exception.

What the coach did is disgusting.
 
What year is your nephew?
 
golfguy2021 said:
So what kind of message are the golf coach is sending to the kids? That the tryouts is mainly a dog and pony show, and score is not important, and the outcome is already determined.

I don't know what kind of world you live in but the objective of golf is to get the ball into the hole with the least amount of stroke, no matter how ugly that stroke might be. It is a three days tryouts and not a single day tryouts. 12 people with the lowest score should make the team, no exception.

What the coach did is disgusting.
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I can’t speak for the coach, as it isn’t me. The coach is setting up HIS team the way HE wants to. Like others have said, he may be looking for something different. And like I said, if I were the coach and saw stuff I didn’t like, I don’t give a flying **** how good the kid was, they’re not making the team.

Re-read my second paragraph, but this time take the emotions and put them aside. That’s my advice. If it’s that important to him, he will heed the coaches advice. Plus that coach will have more respect for him.
 
smgoldstein said:
Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity in his sophomore year in high school.

My two cents as being a former coach as well as a parent of kids who played high school sports-both stars and bench warmers. I don't have an issue with what the coach did, it is his prerogative to form his team and he is more informed about the players and program than any of us. The problem I have is: 1. Does the school not have a JV team where the kid can get some tournament experience in and 2. If no JV team then have the kid on the varsity, practice with the other kids and then perhaps he can get a shot if one of the starters can't make a match or his play falls off.
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This is where I have an issue with this. The golf coach does not know anything about my nephew until this past Monday because he is a new student at this high school. The purpose of the tryouts is to find the best 12 players in three days instead of last year or next year.
 
Molten said:
Ok, good data point. And the three behind him, younger or older? On the team last year?
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all three selected for are seniors and they were on the team last year. My nephew beat them fair and square, by at least five strokes.
 
I’ll throw my two cents in even though you may not want to hear it - I’ve been your nephew and I’ve been the coach. It hurts in both instances to deal with these situations and I was devastated when I was the player trying out that got cut when I should have make it by the numbers.

There are a lot of factors at work from the coaching side but the ugly truth is that there is a lot of narrowing and blending of skills at the end of the list. The top 3 players never had a thing to worry about. The middle ones have something that stands out. The ones at the end, well, it’s a mixed bag and you have to pick and go with your gut. Sometimes that is who was on the team before. Sometimes that’s a guy that could be real good in a year but needs tournaments. Sometimes is Jimmy’s son and we let Jimmy’s son in because he is a booster. It’s a crap shoot at the end and it sucks. Again, I’ve been that kid in a sport I loved but I didn’t shine in. I practiced all year the next year to make the team and I did, but guess what… I was still at the end. I finally found something different that I stood out in - I have no doubt that your nephew will either overcome this or will pivot to something better but this will either be super motivating or a good life lesson.

Either way, I dig you are pissed for him - use it to push him!
 
billyh said:
I can’t speak for the coach, as it isn’t me. The coach is setting up HIS team the way HE wants to. Like others have said, he may be looking for something different. And like I said, if I were the coach and saw stuff I didn’t like, I don’t give a flying **** how good the kid was, they’re not making the team.

Re-read my second paragraph, but this time take the emotions and put them aside. That’s my advice. If it’s that important to him, he will heed the coaches advice. Plus that coach will have more respect for him.
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I get your points about characters and behaviors. If those are not issues, what "stuff" are you referring to? Examples?
 
golfguy2021 said:
all three selected for are seniors and they were on the team last year. My nephew beat them fair and square, by at least five strokes.
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What if these three kids were in the low 40’s much of last year or this year? As you’ve said, the coach is aware of their body of work, but not your nephew’s. This thread is a perfect reminder of my least favorite part of coaching high school other than dealing with injuries.
 
golfguy2021 said:
I thought tryouts are more like US Olympic trials. You can be the current track 200M world champion but if you fail to make the top 3 in the US Olympic trial, you will NOT be going to the Olympic. Public High School golf tryouts should be like that without favortism or nepotism, IMHO.

I told my sister if she feels so strongly about it, she should file her complaint with the school principal. This kind of BS should not be allowed in public schools with tax payers money.
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More likely need to complain to the Athletic Director... my son lucked out and made JV his freshman year only because they needed bodies. He couldn't break 50 then but got some experience, some tournaments at the home course when the visiting team had a JV squad. His soph. year more kids tried out and his tryout wasn't great but he made JV again based on having a year's experience. There were a couple of kids that were allowed to practice but really weren't "on the team". Junior year he had some clubs that fit him and had practiced a bit over the summer. Beat out an handful of kids to make varsity but didn't always travel to away events. Was a good teammate and improved some, settled into the #6 spot by the end of the year. A bunch of kids graduated off the team so his Senior year things were wide open. Had a bunch of tryouts again. Some new kids reported some low scores first day but didn't know how to count penalties and such. Next day my son got paired with them and he shot like a 40. He "helped" some of the newbies with their scoring and they didn't come back for the next day. He ended up 3/4 man on the varsity team which went on to win their conference. He made Honorable Mention All Conf. as well...
Point is he stuck with it and improved every year but also benefitted from some circumstances...
 
golfguy2021 said:
I get your points about characters and behaviors. If those are not issues, what "stuff" are you referring to? Examples?
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I played baseball at a very high level as a teen. I was invited to practice with the Braves and played in front of almost every D1 college scout in tournaments all across the south. I carried a .600+ batting average, as a catcher my throw to second was impressive, and Johny Bench tough. However, I was 5’8” and 145lbs soaking wet. I had zero power hitting and I wasn’t a particularly fast runner. I sat behind a sophomore my senior year because he was bigger and faster. It sucked and there was nothing I could do about it until he failed two classes and got booted off the team due to grades. It sucked and I was pissed. But I got over it.

Like I said, I can’t speak for the coach, because I’m not him. Only he can, and it’s your nephew’s job to find out why. What I can speak for is if I were in the coaches shoes and had a mother complain all the way up and down about it without the kid coming in and talking to me about it would guarantee he didn’t make the team the next year.

With what I’ve read so far, he’s new to the school, and lost out to three seniors. I can see that, and as a parent, I could understand the decision. I may not agree with it, but that’s part of adulting.
 
Old Tom Morris was never picked for any school team - so you just never know.
 
RealPretendPsychic said:
What if these three kids were in the low 40’s much of last year or this year? As you’ve said, the coach is aware of their body of work, but not your nephew’s. This thread is a perfect reminder of my least favorite part of coaching high school other than dealing with injuries.
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This is where I have issues with your premise. Last year was done and over with. Everyone has to prove him/herself over again every year.

Where I work, my compensation is based on this year performance. It has NOTHING to do with last year performance. If I do not perform well this year, I will be fired regardless of how well I performed last year.

Have you ever heard of the phrase "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."?
 
History plays a big part too. When I was in school and running, tryouts were to look for unfamiliar talent. I could have walked and was still going to make the team.
 
golfguy2021 said:
This is where I have issues with your premise. Last year was done and over with. Everyone has to prove him/herself over again every year.

Where I work, my compensation is based on this year performance. It has NOTHING to do with last year performance. If I do not perform well this year, I will be fired regardless of how well I performed last year.

Have you ever heard of the phrase "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."?
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How about last month or last week then? I shot a 76 and a 101 on the same course two months apart. It happens. I think I’ve made my point. Your nephew can use this as motivation or he can be bitter about it, the choice is his.
 
Greg Kulbick said:
History plays a big part too. When I was in school and running, tryouts were to look for unfamiliar talent. I could have walked and was still going to make the team.
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Absolutely it does. If a coach has known solid ‘go-to’ players, he’s not going to drop them over some flash in the pan with no known history.

Nick Foles, as a backup QB filling in for the injured Carson Wentz, won a Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles. When the following season started, Wentz was the starter (for better or worse!) and Foles was back on the bench. Why? The coach thought Wentz was a better QB overall.
 
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RealPretendPsychic said:
How about last month or last week then? I shot a 76 and a 101 on the same course two months apart. It happens. I think I’ve made my point. Your nephew can use this as motivation or he can be bitter about it, the choice is his.
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Yup, I’m out.
 
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