it's our last water polo season (probably) and gearing up for summer tournaments there is drama as there usually is. Since there aren't enough girls at any one club, clubs will join forces to create more competitive teams. Anyway my daughter's club and another club were merging and planned to have an A team and a B team. At least that's what one of the coaches thought. There were 3 or 4 combined tournaments with one team and eventually the other coach (who was going to lead the A team in summer tourneys) thought it was going to be one big team with a huge bench while my daughter's coach thought there would be an A and a B team (so weaker players from both clubs could play a lot at an appropriate level).
The two team would have worked brilliantly EXCEPT the A team coach and/or his weaker players decided that his weaker players would not play on the B team, despite the fact that they clearly should based on ability. Which led to my daughter's coach pressuring my daughter (who was clearly an A-teamer) into playing with the B team to guarantee the weaker players of his club would have an opportunity to play on a more competitive team. Like, he tried to tell her she were depriving the weaker players of a chance to play at all and that the A-team coach didn't want her or have space for her when the A coach flat out told her he wanted her on the team and told them that they were depriving the weaker players of a chance to play. Really not cool.
anyway she is playing with the a-team in a couple of weeks and she will have a lot of fun (hopefully)
FOLLOW UP
after convincing my daughter to play with the a-team in a tournament that basically locks her to the team for the summer, A-team coach texted my daughter and two other girls (who happen to be the only seniors not committed to play varsity in college) in a group called "vibe squad" and said that they probably wouldn't play in future tournaments unless they were blowouts but he really liked the "vibes" they brought to the team and wanted them to keep playing. it's pretty wild because this coach has never had a full team practice (because it's a bit of a "super team") but is basically benching these girls in favor of equivalent players who happen to have signed D1 and/or girls that have never played with the team but have a pedigree or something. (note my daughter could have played D1, just didn't like the D1 options available)
I have never complained to a coach about playing time at all, but my daughter had played and started on teams with about half of the girls on the team and started on a team that had more national success than all but two of the girls who were on her team last year. (teams change every year because of 2-year age groups). She also played in a couple tournaments with most of this team and played a reasonable amount and played just as well as any other girls (other than 3 or 4 who are truly clearly better). A-team coach is an ex college coach and I think he thinks that by showcasing a team of committed players he can show coach college again? no idea but it was really shitty for a while - she seems to have accepted it and I think he will end up playing her a reasonable amount but sheesh what a tough way to go out.
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Work people that set up meetings for simple questions. I feel like zoom has conditioned people to think a full meeting with 8 people is necessary for every conversation. I go to meetings all the time that could have been done over a teams message or a quick call. I had a guy call me this morning 20 minutes before a meeting and he tried to tell me that they needed to move the meeting because so and so couldn't make it. I said, "what did you need"? He just paused and there was awkward silence. I then said, "like, we are talking right now and i'm happy to just answer any questions you have, or we could just wait until another day when more people are around". More awkward silence and he finally goes, yeah, we can just do it now.......Took like 3 minutes. 
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