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[quote=Anonymous]I see players being benched both on our team and on other teams. In many cases I feel sorry for the benched players, but especially for their parents, who would travel to tournaments to see their kids riding the bench.

But - if you think about it - is it really the players' fault that they end up being benched? It is easy to think that they don't have the same skill level as other players on the same team, so they should play less or just ride the bench. Maybe they don't work so hard, so they are left behind. In some cases (see Metro or Paramount), they know what they are getting into. They know who the other players on the team are and are probably aware that they would play only in case one of the starters gets injured. But things are different on most other teams. Players accept an offer without really knowing who else made the team. They don't know that better players were also offered spots on the roster for the same position. They end up on a team where they have no chance of playing by no fault of their own.

I would argue that the coach who selects their team during tryouts has some responsibility in offering viable spots to all players. It is easy for coaches to say that the court time is earned and avoid responsibility for poor decisions during tryouts. If a player is not good enough for the team they are offered a position on, this is a poor club / coach decision. If the bench is too deep for players to play in tournaments, that's another poor club / coach decision. We cannot only blame the benched players for the situation they are in. Coaches and clubs need to take some responsibility for their tryout decisions as well. Families pour a lot of money into club volleyball and it is not fair to travel to tournaments and see your kids benched.

To avoid any "appeal to motive" questioning, I will say that my DD was relatively lucky so far with her court time. She was never a star player on any of her teams, but she got decent play time anyway (her position was never crowded). But I've seen players on the team who were clearly out of their league and - of course - they were benched most of the time. You could say that they were fairly benched because they were not playing at the same level as the other players on the team. But again: they had no idea who else was going to be on the team when they accepted the offer. Their parents were upset that they pay so much money to see their players sitting on the bench in a club that is clearly more developmental than competitive. They won't return to this club for the next season and they are warning others about their experience. The club ends up with poor retention and poor reputation. [/quote]

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