You’ve just completed a grueling 20-25 game schedule complete with a few rainy make-up games at inopportune times. The season had it all, including controversies between other teams, your own parents, league board members, and other headaches. His reward for coping with all of this and leading his team to the league championship is coaching the 11-12 year old All Star team. Do you think your phone is rated a lot during the season? You haven’t seen or heard anything yet. Your first duty as a coach is to inform your spouse that you will have to postpone your long-awaited vacation because your league needs you. He also talks about putting off repairing his washing machine because, with All Stars, the laundry room is now available 24 hours a day.

Picking your league All Star team can be an incredibly emotional moment that can result in hurt feelings that extend beyond the season and sometimes for years. Some leagues have incorporated players voting for the All Star team. Many leagues have the coaches decide in a meeting led by the league commissioner (or player agent). The first priority is to decide the number of players to recruit in the team. If your league bylaws define this number, then this is what you should follow. If not, this decision should be made at this meeting. Issues such as: do the league bylaws require everyone to play? And how much is required to play? This issue can become a headache, since the substitution of players will sometimes be a distraction for the coach in charge during the match. Usually, prior to this meeting, the head coach has his assistant coaches assigned by the league. This can be a problem because sometimes coaches would rather bring their regular season assistants than two other assigned head coaches they have never worked with before. I’d prefer the latter even though I’m discussing strategy with two other people I might have learned to hate during the season. During All Stars, the coaches on the bench who were adversaries throughout the year always seem to get along as long as the team is still playing.

Once the coaches and team are formed, it is imperative that the head coach (or manager) hold a parent meeting. This meeting is even more important than the regular season team parent meeting. The meeting must be a requirement and last no more than 10-15 minutes. The key points that the coach should emphasize to parents are that because your son is an All Star, he is expected to play any position on the field (except maybe pitcher and catcher). The point of this is that many of the players were shortstops for their team during the season and are required to play the outfield. You need to assure parents (and even players) that it is imperative that all nine positions are equally important. Other points that need to be discussed should be about playing time. I’ve always told parents that I won’t be popular as a coach at the end of All Stars for all families, but I’ve been tasked by the league to use my judgment whether they think it’s right or wrong. I always stress that I can only guarantee the minimum required playing time and that you should consider this if you are going to cancel vacation plans for these All Star games.

Practices need to be executed in a couple of ways. You probably have batting order and fielding positions in mind. I urge all coaches to mix things up in practices and try players at different positions. There will be some unexpected minor absences and you must be prepared for this as a coach.

All Star games themselves can be one of the highest tensions in youth sports. The neighboring leagues will be present and the players will have the expected nervousness. You can cut out your regular warm-up shorts and take the team out on the field and play any kind of silly game you can think of. I have always used a game where I split the team down the middle, and with a hard ball for each team, the teammates must pass the ball to each other using only their necks. This nonsensical-sounding game helps relax players, and for 11- and 12-year-olds, this might be the best warmup for them.

All Stars are the highlights for some players and leagues. Aside from all the potential problems and arguments, if your All Star team ends up going on a good winning streak, there’s nothing like it. Going far in any tournament will require some luck. If your team gets knocked out, this is where, as a coach, you need to give them the “ultimate” pep talk. Now some teams continue to play in other local tournaments, which is a great way to end the season.