I can't imaging cutting any athletic player in MS.......I know many programs are lucky and have too many good players but I agree so much with this post.
I hope the work pays off for you! This is how you build a great small town program!Pitching was a huge factor for us last year. Our little league was only three years old because it had dried up several years before that. We're a tiny, economically depressed town, so we only had one kid with travel experience and she had played one game of MS ball in 2018 as a 5th grader.
Our middle school program had a gap year in 2019 for lack of a coach. In 2020 we had 20 girls show up. Ten had 1-2 years of experience in our infant LL, which had two teams comprised of girls from 7-13. One 8th grader (my older one) who had two years experience. The one travel kid, and the remaining 8 were wearing a glove for the first time. The season was canceled due to covid a few days before our first game, which was the best thing that could have happened.
Last year, we had one girl with pitching experience. Threw in the low 40's but was wild most of the time and her point of no return was after two walks. A couple other girls knew the motion and threw a strike maybe 1 in 10. Keep in mind, few people around here can get their kids due to money, time, etc. The nearest lessons are 45 minutes away.
As I stated before, it was brutal. We couldn't hit, constant walks, very weak at catcher. Our infield was reasonably competent, but had very little opportunities to field a ball. Our outfield was a complete liability.
Our HS team had a similar experience.
Just before the 2021 MS season started, my younger daughter, who was 7th grade with one year of experience) decided she wanted to pitch. She took lessons throughout the season but I never put her in. She would have done just as poorly as our "relievers," and I decided the experience had a good chance of killing her desire to continue pitching.
After another slaughter in the EOY tournament she swore she wouldn't let 2022 season be like that. She's put in a ton of work. We held open sessions on the field all summer, and some of our girls played LL fall ball in another town. Every damned summer weekday evening I was out there working with 7 or 8 MS and HS kids. We held open hitting and pitching workouts once a week each from fall until three weeks ago. We have 4 girls now who can throw better than any of last year's relievers.
My daughter is a lot better pitcher now, and I'm optimistic about her success as #2 option. The starter from last season has improved as well and we're cautiously optimistic there. Our motto for this year has been "over the plate, down the middle, and let the defense do their job."
We had a couple coaching changes (tons of experience and success in baseball and softball), got our numbers down because the 21 we had were impossible to keep up with, got rid of a few kids who were only interested in goofing off and bringing the others to their level, and had a few come up with actual experience. The attitudes and willingness to work have been amazing.
Our goal is to go .500 and I think we have a good shot at it. It has been a TON of work bringing softball back to life in this town. I've said so many times..."there are athletes out there. We just have to find them before soccer does."
Soccer sucks.
Only one other kid played TB on DD's MS team last year and she was a 6th grader (pitcher) who had
Supposedly she might transfer to a different MS next year because her Mom thinks she is Monica Abbott (she's not) and doesn't want to slum it with that MS anymore..Only one other kid played TB on DD's MS team last year and she was a 6th grader (pitcher) who had
just finished her last year of 10U (she is a 2010)..
Exactly - my daughter came up playing town travel (8u and 10u) with all of the girls on the Middle School team, but as they got older they seperated by age and girls went to different club teams. We still go watch her friends teams play during the season when we have time and my wife loses her mind, "Now you're going to a game that our daughter isn't even playing in?!" Hahaha. But it's still great to support girls that you grew up with, that's what sports should be all about. We also get to see some girls that we play against with our club team, softball is a very small world, you always see the same people over and over throughout the years.
There are better MS programs in Norman, but in general the school (MS and HS) softball in this town isn't very good. There are not a lot of kids in Norman who play TB, or if they do it is pretty low level. Most of the other surrounding towns have much better programs. DD is no superstar, but in all honesty she could have contributed to the HS varsity team last year.
