A Proud Day in the Coach’s Life
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Today our Junior Softball All-Star team played a fun pick-up game against our Major’s softball team. It was a blast as all the girls from both of the teams are good friends, the score, irrelevant really, was 2-0 and not because of pitching, but because of fantastic defense played by both teams!
As I stood in the coach’s box at third base, suddenly it hit me. With the exception of one girl, I had coached every one of these players, most for multiple seasons. This was the fruits of my, and many others labors, coming to fruition. The smiles on every one of their faces made this a very proud moment for this humble coach.
To understand you have to know a little history. About 5 years ago I moved here to this small town. The place was recovering from being hit by 3 three massive hurricanes in a row, over 40 inches of rain in less than a month left hundreds of houses flooded. There were messes to clean up everywhere with trees down and parks destroyed.
The season, though it started late, still went on though. Volunteers pitched in and cleared trees, mended fences, and got the sites playable again. Though challenged, peopled pulled together as they often do in times of crisis, and worked to get things back to normal.
It was that fall I had my first experience with softball in DeBary. Our team? 0-16. Did it matter? Not one bit. I could see the raw talent that existed, and I knew that there had to be a ton of other players out there that would love to participate if given the opportunity.
Tonight, there were 19 girls on the field, 18 of them I had coached before. Most for many years, all for many seasons. It was a proud moment. Four years ago we had one minor softball team, one major softball team, and one senior softball team. That was it. This year, we had four minor softball teams, two major softball teams, and a very large senior softball team. Our league grew from 275 players to 333.
Standing there it suddenly hit me how far we had come. There was only 1 error in the game, every player made the correct play at the correct time, and both teams hit the ball hard. I want to take a second to thank every coach who helped, every parent that tolerated our long practices, and every player for believing in each other and in our philosophies.
It was very obvious, the hard work and dedication of so many was paying dividends ten-fold. Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of this fantastic transition and it will be interesting to see how far we can go.
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Im a new coach for a competitive ny travel team for the 9 yr olds. my question is can I take my number 4 hitter who started the game out who is a catcher and put my sub catcher in the 2nd part of the game 456 innings. then re enter my original starter who was a number 4 batter and the best hitter to sub for my 3rd baseman and number 9 hitter. is that allowed im not to sure. could someone clarify this for me. thank you.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for commenting. Unfortunately, you do not say which governing body is overseeing your games or providing the rules. Therefore, it is difficult for anyone to answer this question. As far as Little League goes, you can do this during the regular season, but not during tournaments.
The regular season substitution rule for Little League allows a starter to reenter the game ANYWHERE in the lineup once a sub has met their minimum play requirements of 6 consecutive defensive outs and 1 at bat. In this case, assuming the sub you put in for your #4 batter met their minimum requirements, the starter could enter in the #9 spot in the line up. Once the sub for the #9 slot has met their minimum requirements, the #9 hitter can now return anywhere in the line up.
During tournaments a starter must reenter in their original slot, but, once any player in any position in the batting order meets their minimum requirements, which are now reduced to 3 defensive outs and 1 at bat, they can enter and leave the game “at will”.
I love to employ these rules and I am a scorekeeper’s nightmare!
Coach-
Is there any webcam or televised coverage of the 2009 LL Big League Regional play in Ft Lauderdale?
My nephew is pitching for South Carolina….
They are being broadcast on the Youth Sports Live Network found here: http://www.youthsportslive.com/SummerTournament09/LittleLeague-Tournaments.aspx
Hi , I tried life coaching about six months ago and within 2 months I had a job.Life coaching doesnt guarantee youll get a job but it will definitely put you in a position where you are much more likely to get employed.Thank you