high school baseball and politics

Question
My son is a junior on his hs varsity team. He has lost alot of playing time to a sophomore who is well known to be not as good but  whose dad is a college coach.  Everyone knows my son got a raw deal because of politics.  At the end of the last championship game, the AD of the school (who is also one of the varsity coaches) told my son that if it had been his decision, my son would have started all year.  My question is this: Is there any way a parent can somehow address this touchyissue with the head coach without insulting him and causing a worse problem next year.  Or would you advise us as parents to keep quiet and "grin and bear it".  We feel this injustice will affect our son's college baseball exposure/choices.

Answer
Lisa,
This is a tough situation and unfortunately not an uncommon one.  At the lower levels of athletics where coaches aren't paid much, if at all, roles of responsibility are sometimes given to the wrong people for the wrong reasons.  Coaches are usually teachers or parents, not highly skilled managers.  As a parent, I would advise you to refrain from intervening on behalf of your son unless you think his health is at risk.  This will only alienate him further from the coach and if it gets out to the team that his mom is lobbying for her son's playing time, he could face more embarrassment.

The answer, believe it or not, is to tell him to work harder.  Make it so evident that he is better than the other kid that it becomes impossible to keep him out of the line-up.  I'm not saying that he's not working hard now, but this is the type of challenge he will be faced with throughout his life.  If he really wants something, he's going to have to fight through all obstacles (fair or unjust) to attain his goal.  I don't know your exact experiences, but I'm sure you've had to deal with a fellow employee, classmate, teammate, etc. that may have gotten more credit than they were due.  It happens all the time and that's what he needs to overcome.  If he wants to do something about it, he's going to have to remove his focus from the coach and the kid playing in front of him, and re-focus it on developing his skills and playing the game.  The bottomline is if he's good enough, the college coaches and scouts will find him.  Is he playing summer ball?  He should be.  Is he showing up early and staying late at practice.  Is he doing everything within his power and working as hard as he can?  If he is, then he's got nothing to worry about.  Success will take care of itself.

Hope this helps, Lisa.  If I didn't answer your question or if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask.

Donovan