How did your DD(or you) get involved in Softball?

[FPMark]

I come from a baseball family. My father played baseball, I played baseball (only son), and my sisters are all huge baseball fans. I used to take my DD to my nephews BB games when she was a baby. She learned the game at an early age. She would sit on my lap and watch Braves games with me and ask questions at 2 yrs old. I remember taking her to a Braves game when she was 3, and people around us would laugh when she would yell "foul ball" or "fair ball", "safe" and "out", and was usually right.

When she turned 4, we signed her up for t-ball. The coaches at that level were not very good teachers, and defense was "everybody go get the ball" type, and she was not happy. She almost didn't sign up at 5YO, but changed her mind and gave it one more try. That year her coach asked me to help coach. I did not think I could teach girls how to play at that age, but I volunteered to help. He started out from the beginning putting the girls in positions, hitting them ground balls, teaching them to throw to 1st, and how to really play the game. Ten years later, and she has never once mentioned not wanting to play. In fact her TB team went to ASA nationals last summer, she made the HS varsity SB team as a freshman, and finished in the final four at the HS state championship. All she wants for Christmas is a Letter Jacket. Good times and memories for all of us.

 

[marriard]

My DD started because her younger brother got a baseball glove (the reasons why he got a glove considering he was 3 and that he has never played the game even today are now lost in history)

Not wanting to be left out she wanted one as well. We told her, if you get a glove you have to play. She got her glove, we signed her up for the local rec league and off she went.

Fast forward a few years. I am VP of the local rec league, coach her travel ball team and seem to spend 5 out of 7 evenings down at the fields. She plays rec and travel and does something softball related pretty much everyday. One of the walls in her room is covered in softball posters, a signed Cat Osterman game jersey and various other softball related items she has managed to get her hands on the past few years. Even 1/2 of her school projects she tries to make softball related if they leave her a choice.

 

[PEPPERS]

In the early 60s we all played baseball in a neighborhood yard. We would be Mickey Mantel, Roger Maris, etc. Funny, that we were all girls. Then, a family friend started a team and a friend that was 2 years older than me, joined. When I was 10, (1964) I joined, too. We played all over Central IL. and every town had a team.

That is almost identical to how I grew up watching Mantel and Maris, after little league we had no other organized baseball in our area. We were playing at an old field age 13 and a guy who was a bootlegger came by and saw us. He organized us gave us uniforms, signed us up for a league in Chattanooga, TN and made sure we got to games. We went undefeated and came in second in the world lost to a California team in Houston Texas. He got put in jail that winter and that was the end of our team.

When my daughter was little I came in from the hayfield she was a about 2 or 3, and my wife said watch this she hit a rubber ball off a cone and really smacked it for her age. I started working with her and she signed up for coach pitch at five and has played ever since.

I had pictured her as being a cheerleader never thought much about her playing softball. The HS I attended only had basketball, half court rules, and cheerleading for girls.

 

[howellhandmade]

Her idea. My wife and I have always encouraged our kids to play sports. We're not ball players ourselves -- she was a synchronized swimmer in college and I raced bikes -- but we sign the kids up for everything just so they can try it. Oldest dd never wanted to do anything other than a little tae kwon do, youngest is kind of the same way, middle dd wants to do everything. She played two years of rec ball (along with soccer and basketball), then last April she decided she wanted to pitch. My wife said she was taking dd to a pitching instructor. A what? Didn't know there was such a thing. Spent the summer sitting on a bucket, then TB tryouts. Now we've got something softball-related pretty much every day. Quite a learning curve, but once you're into travel ball you're into it. There's no halfway.

 

[Goobie]

My DD is the oldest of my three kids and the only girl. Once the two boys came, they would monopolize most of my time and DD started getting less and less of it. I looked around for something we could do together and found a good softball program and signed her up for 8U in-house. Nine years later and I wouldn't give up one moment of it. The wins and losses come and go, but the time we spend just talking in between games or on the long drives is priceless.

 

[02Crush]

Our first born was jokingly called "Grace" b/c she would run with wild abandon and usually end up with many bruises on her legs from falling and hitting furniture and clumsiness. I grew up playing team sports and felt it a part of life and a part of learning to work together in a team unit. Not to mention the exercise and opportunity to be outside. My wife and I discussed the things "we" thought she would enjoy based on how we knew her. But we were wrong. She played Soccer and hated it. She tried Cheerleading and did not like it. Dance...fun but not her thing. So one day when she came home and asked about softball at age 5 we thought...no! She was a social butterfly and we worried she would be so busy looking around that she get hit in the head with a batted ball...Boy were we wrong. She was not the best player but over time has caught up. We watched for one year and after seeing coaches who could have cared less about the players I decided to get involved and coach. After all, How hard could it be to teach?
Boy have I learned a lot. 5 years later we have moved into Travel Ball now and she loves it more than ever. She loves the competition despite the score. I love the days of her defeat and the moments afterwards when she rises up to the challenge. She loves the life long friendships she has made. I do to. She loves the sport b/c there is always something new to learn. I do as well b/c it keeps us on our toes. I could go on and on but the bottom line is she is developing into a solid person and player. I also know the moments she enjoys now will carry with her for the rest of her life thanks to so many cool people in the softball world. To Date her favorite thing is still base running and she is still on of the fasted on the team. Funny how my "Grace" proved us wrong.

 

[Cannonball]

I was a long time baseball coach. So it was a foregone conclusion. She was dropped off of her school bus at the high school and so, she was at all of my practices. Naturally, she had a glove and bat. The boys would throw to her and play catch with her. She attended my camps at a very early age and could keep up with the boys older than herself. When she was 8 she started playing. When she was 9, the local rec league refused to let her windup to pitch and then they made other rules for her. So, her coach took our league team and started playing travel ball. Unbelievable what they accomplished for a team randomly picked in a rec league draft. I coached her as an assistant coach until she was 16. At 16, my wife and I decided that it might be a good idea for her to play for other coaches before she entered college. Ironically, I was the head coach of her high school softball team her senior year.