School ball(When and How is it going for everyone?)

[CoachJD]

We had tryouts on Monday and Tuesday. 26 girls showed up, and we didn't cut anybody. We have 13 on Varsity and 13 on JV. I intend to take a couple JV girls to all Varsity road games (everybody goes to the Varsity home games unless JV also has a road game that day).

No big surprises at tryouts. All of last year's returning Varsity players made it again. One Freshman made Varsity, but she unfortunately broke her finger at the end of the first day. The good news is she should be back by the beginning of April. Our JV team lacks experience, but there are a few real strong prospects there. It will probably take them a year to really be where I want them to be, so I'm glad we have this JV team to develop them.

Only one of the new girls scares me. She's put herself in a couple dangerous spots trying to catch the ball, and she gets easily frustrated and gives up on herself. She'll be a project, but my DW/hitting coach says she has some potential there, so that's good.

The most interesting thing is that our Varsity team has a lot of bigger girls/not much team speed, but the JV team has a bunch of smaller, fast girls. I see a lot of pinch running in our future.

 

[quincy]

Pinch running is a great way to get players into the game.

 

[Pop time 44]

Sounds like you are on the right path. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING has been more valuable for my daughter over the years than somebody doubting her. It's a huge PITA to get through but turning that rejection and/or failure into motivation to "show them" has been key for us. When I say motivation it means that she works harder and practices more while setting goals to be able to "show them". You wouldn't say that my daughter is physically gifted but you would say she out hustles and works almost any other kid. We preach that, effort and attitude is what you control... effort and attitude.
We also talk about it and she has hurt feelings from those doubters and would love to tell them off... we tell her instead she should be thanking them. Again, there are people out there that would tell you that my daughter has no business making Varsity let alone starting on Varsity based on her years ago... she's quiet and humble and never would be outwardly disrespectful to any of them but she does have a little bit of fire in her belly when she see them now.

She sounds just like my D. Same exact story. Our high school tryouts are this coming week.


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[Crystal Brown]

D got to pitch 3 innings today. She had 5 ks and fielded 2 bunts for outs. D also got to slap.


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[Coach Foster]

We had our first day of tryouts yesterday, and it went very well! After being initially scared we may not have enough to field both V/JV, we had 23 show up. We'll have 3 days of tryouts, individual meetings on Thursday, then Friday (no school) is our culture/team/mental toughness development day. This will be the first time we've done a culture development day, and I am pumped about it!

 

[CoachJD]

We had our first day of tryouts yesterday, and it went very well! After being initially scared we may not have enough to field both V/JV, we had 23 show up. We'll have 3 days of tryouts, individual meetings on Thursday, then Friday (no school) is our culture/team/mental toughness development day. This will be the first time we've done a culture development day, and I am pumped about it!

What do you have planned for the culture development day?

 

[Crystal Brown]

When D was pitching last night, parents and grand parents of the other girls told me, "she is really good." They seemed surprised, considering how well D pitched,since she is dismissed by the varsity coach.

 

[Coach Foster]

What do you have planned for the culture development day?

Like I mentioned, this is the first time for it. One of the reasons being, we have quite a few incoming freshman, most who have a chance to be pretty good. We thought this would be a great way to bring everyone together, after tryouts, and start the year off in a new way. I'm a big culture/leadership guy...I love the stuff, so I'm talking about it almost daily. Last winter, we went to a clinic and a company called Stonewall Solutions were presenters. They align with our vision of culture, so we decided to bring them in to do what they do. Sometimes it just means more hearing it from someone different.

They are former Division I baseball players, who are also SEALS. They'll come in, do a half-day classroom session (which we are including our JH program) presenting their Fundamentals of Winning curriculum, we'll eat lunch, then head outside for the "application phase" of the day. Long story short - them putting us in situations where we have to demonstrate what we just learned. It's not SEAL training of course, but it's not exactly fun either. Especially considering we're supposed to get a little snow tomorrow and the temp for Friday is going to struggle to reach 40. Junior High will not do the application stuff. They work with HS/college/pro teams all over the country. They seem like great guys, I'm excited to have them work with our girls.

Go to https://www.stonewall-solutions.com/ if you would like to check them out.

 

[ez_softball]

How's everyone else doing now that the season has been going awhile?

My daughter continues to start and has played every inning for her Varsity team over the first 15 games. She has not moved from 2nd base and according to the teams "official" book is fielding 1000 with over 40 chances (BTW my book has her at 975). She is top 3 in almost every offensive category including tied for the lead w/ 3 dingers. Most importantly my daughter has really enjoyed playing HS ball. It helps that this team is stacked with players who are humble even though they are very good and are gearing up for another run at state. BTW my daughter has not missed being in the circle at all and understands her role on this team.

 

[quincy]

DD hates 2nd, she plays 2nd.

She asked coach to put her in Rf, nope 2nd. You are going to play it if you like it or not.

Like coaches.