Hello. I had the idea while back to read the chronicles of different school (and travel) programs the members of this site have participated in. I think there could be a real interest around here in seeing how these things go for different programs in various areas of the US, so I thought I would get the ball rolling by talking about our journey. The past few years of planning and work have been to take a nearly extinct, very small-town program from perennial doormat to what will hopefully (and IMO, realistically) be a program that can keep itself above .500 for at least the next few years. The efforts of our small group of dedicated LL, MS, and HS parents and coaches have and will continue to work hard to build a solid program and help our kids have fun and learn how to work to achieve their goals in softball and life.
I'll be covering all three levels of the school program, as I and most of my co-conspirators have been, or continue to be directly involved in each level of play.
I intend to dedicate the first several posts to our history before continuing on with the daily events and preparation leading into the 2023 season.
I hope you enjoy our past and present struggles and successes, and will be inspired to journal about your own. I would love to read about each one!
Small town in the southeast. Not much of a pool to pull athletes from.
HS - 450 students, 6 sports for girls
MS - 400 students, 6 sports for girls (some are just together with the HS)
Three elementary schools totaling 900 students. Zero sports.
2018 - My older daughter takes up softball as a 6th grader, having joined the MS team. I have to teach her to throw, catch, and understand the game in like two weeks. That went better than expected, really. I'm sure the neighbors feared for the safety of their automobiles, but all in all, she was on part with most of the other 6th graders. Our LL softball had died off and had only just restarted that year, so her team basically had no 6th graders with experience, and only a couple 7th graders who had played. I believe three girls were playing LL baseball at some point before that since baseball was still around. The MS coach was in his first (and only) season, having taken up the job as a reluctant parent. Oddly enough, that's how I ended up doing it as well!
The 2018 middle school team lost every game by run-rule, aside from "winning" one JV game.
I'm not sure how the HS team did. I believe they were well under .500 in 2018. The HS team had achieved some success from maybe 2005 to 2012 or so. After that it was pretty much all sub .500, usually ending up 1, 2, or 3 up from the bottom in the district.
2019 - No coach. No MS team. LL was in its second season but only had two teams, with players ranging from 7 to 13 years old. One girl could pitch, so she was placed on the weaker team--presumably in order to help develop the stronger (using the term loosely) players so they could have some sort of all-star team. That went about like you're expecting. I had no intention of coaching the MS team in 2019. Having just been a baseball player until I was 15, I didn't feel confident that I knew enough to get the job done, and in hindsight it was probably the better decision. My then 7th grader was offered a JV spot on the high school team, so we rolled with that. The HS team won about a third of their games that year. 2019's gap year for MS and the lack of a strong LL would prove to be quite a challenge for 2020 and 2021.
Coming tomorrow....2020.
Thanks for (hopefully) reading!
I'll be covering all three levels of the school program, as I and most of my co-conspirators have been, or continue to be directly involved in each level of play.
I intend to dedicate the first several posts to our history before continuing on with the daily events and preparation leading into the 2023 season.
I hope you enjoy our past and present struggles and successes, and will be inspired to journal about your own. I would love to read about each one!
Small town in the southeast. Not much of a pool to pull athletes from.
HS - 450 students, 6 sports for girls
MS - 400 students, 6 sports for girls (some are just together with the HS)
Three elementary schools totaling 900 students. Zero sports.
2018 - My older daughter takes up softball as a 6th grader, having joined the MS team. I have to teach her to throw, catch, and understand the game in like two weeks. That went better than expected, really. I'm sure the neighbors feared for the safety of their automobiles, but all in all, she was on part with most of the other 6th graders. Our LL softball had died off and had only just restarted that year, so her team basically had no 6th graders with experience, and only a couple 7th graders who had played. I believe three girls were playing LL baseball at some point before that since baseball was still around. The MS coach was in his first (and only) season, having taken up the job as a reluctant parent. Oddly enough, that's how I ended up doing it as well!
The 2018 middle school team lost every game by run-rule, aside from "winning" one JV game.
I'm not sure how the HS team did. I believe they were well under .500 in 2018. The HS team had achieved some success from maybe 2005 to 2012 or so. After that it was pretty much all sub .500, usually ending up 1, 2, or 3 up from the bottom in the district.
2019 - No coach. No MS team. LL was in its second season but only had two teams, with players ranging from 7 to 13 years old. One girl could pitch, so she was placed on the weaker team--presumably in order to help develop the stronger (using the term loosely) players so they could have some sort of all-star team. That went about like you're expecting. I had no intention of coaching the MS team in 2019. Having just been a baseball player until I was 15, I didn't feel confident that I knew enough to get the job done, and in hindsight it was probably the better decision. My then 7th grader was offered a JV spot on the high school team, so we rolled with that. The HS team won about a third of their games that year. 2019's gap year for MS and the lack of a strong LL would prove to be quite a challenge for 2020 and 2021.
Coming tomorrow....2020.
Thanks for (hopefully) reading!