This grabbed my attention in another thread and I was just wondering how teams determine how a letter is earned? My DD plays this sport so I thought I would bring it up here. A hundred years or so when I played football, "I think leather helmets were just going out of vogue," you had to play in X amount of quarters to earn a letter. Thank goodness I was a long snapper and we kicked a lot of extra points.

 

My questions are, how does your team make that determination?

 

And, does the "letter" carry the sense of accomplishment it used to?

We just restructured how we count this at our school. Each sport (and it's gender counterpart) met and decided how to count it. For softball and baseball, kids had to play 2/3 of all innings.

We just restructured how we count this at our school. Each sport (and it's gender counterpart) met and decided how to count it. For softball and baseball, kids had to play 2/3 of all innings.

 

Seems like a lot of playing time. What if a boy only pitched and went one of every 3 or 4 games?

I never played baseball or softball - just wrestling.

 

Had to wrestle in a certain number of varsity meets and/or participate in the county post-season tournament (several schools in the county) to earn a letter.

We just restructured how we count this at our school. Each sport (and it's gender counterpart) met and decided how to count it. For softball and baseball, kids had to play 2/3 of all innings.

 

2/3 of all innings does seem pretty high. Few years back when I coached at North Hopkins ours was make an apperance in around half the games. It was changed to less than that couple of years ago.

Seems like a lot of playing time. What if a boy only pitched and went one of every 3 or 4 games?

 

I agree here... That does seem like a lot. I would say at least in baseball or softball that maybe an apearence in 2/3rds of the games might be about right.. You may have a specialist... Say a young great base runner that may only be used to run bases but is in a lot of games. She would not get the innings but was an important part of the varsity roster and contributor. While her batting or fielding skills might not have matured yet she still could earn a letter. On the other hand, if you have a younger player that gets in do to a couple blowouts, I would think she might have a little more earning to do... Tough call for the coach if there are not guidelines. My thoughts are that it is a nice carrot to dangle to drive and push the players to want to get better and earn some pt. I have no answer on what would be the right amount or how to count it. I was just curious what's out there...

We just restructured how we count this at our school. Each sport (and it's gender counterpart) met and decided how to count it. For softball and baseball, kids had to play 2/3 of all innings.

 

Doing the math on that it makes no sense. Pitcher A gets 10 starts during a baseball season and for the sake of fun pitches 7 innings every game and goes 10-0. And lets say he is mainly a pitcher only and gets a few innings here and there in his non pitching days. That is 70 innings plus lets say maybe another 30 innings overall. Lets say you play thirty games and that means 210 innings but lets drop that to 200 for run rules, etc. He could be all state but not earn a varsity letter??? C'mon.

I really don't think there is going to ever be any situation that satisfies all of the what ifs... I think it's always going to be subjective, and that's how it's always been at places I've been... If the coach thinks they earned the letter, they earned it... Gotta trust your coaches to make the right call.

I really don't think there is going to ever be any situation that satisfies all of the what ifs... I think it's always going to be subjective, and that's how it's always been at places I've been... If the coach thinks they earned the letter, they earned it... Gotta trust your coaches to make the right call.

 

Exactly..................

Much easier to earn a letter now than it was back in my day. JMO

Much easier to earn a letter now than it was back in my day. JMO

 

Got to make sure little Suzy and little Johnny don't have bad self-esteem…trophies for everyone !