[fintstone]

I always coached to win...and the kids had fun...because we did win...almost every game. I think it taught good life lessons. Work hard, play hard equals success. Unfortunately, the kids I coached were 10-12...so I don't have experience with coaching kids so young.

When I was a kid, I played on a team with a lot of talent....but we did not win much. The coach owned a small grocery store with prices that were a bit higher than competitors. The most playing time and best positions went to kids that had parents who shopped at his store. Some of the more athletic kids were not from families that were very well off financially and got little playing time. The dynamics made it a really strange situation. You would be playing sandlot ball outside of, or before practice...and the best players were always chosen first and were the pitcher, shortstop, first baseman, etc...and made the great catches and hit the home runs. Then the coach showed up and started the formal practice...and those guys were on the bench. Whenever we would have a practice game where the starters played the scrubs...the scrubs always ran roughshod over the starters and won by a great margin; but no one ever questioned the coach's judgement.