- May 20, 2015
- 1,127
- 113
first year 14u
our team was solid.....as good as anyone in our state....first tourney of the year, out of state......we played a team that was arguably one of the two best in NE
we are a small time travel outfit......based out of our rec league, fees were about 350 a girl, bought their own unis......two teams were in this tournament who's orgs sent a ton of girls D1....we got one on Sunday, 2nd round.....they started their #3, won toss, took visitors (which i liked to do a lot lol)
they scored 3 in the top of the first......we came up in the bottom if the 1st.....i likened my girls to bar fighters; we weren't fancy, we didn't practice year round, we had no indoor facility, lots of 3 sport athletes....but they fought for each other, and weren't afraid to break a bottle and stand back to back when they needed to.....we tied it at 3, had bases loaded with no one out.....their coach was pissed, brought in his #1......INF ump laughed to me, and said "i don't think they planned on needing her for this one"....she was legit, big girl, threw in old air jordan high tops.....nasty screw, great velocity.......she got them out of the inning at 3-3........it got worse from there, any pitch we left at all over the plate they started to turn on (and my #1 was solid).....we made plays, we got hits, they ended up beating us 16-3.....they never subbed, never let up, took out my daughter at 2b breaking up a DP when they were up big, slid really late, went at her ankles.....we talked after that next time she needed to make that throw regardless, force the slide (she also learned how to receive the throw and get out of there, but that's not part of this story)....that was their MO all tourney up until then, left girls on the bench, never subbed, pounded everyone
we found out that they were about a $10k a year outfit, plus paying for hitting coach, position coach, travel, etc.....they ended up with the other top team in the finals, lost 14-3 - that other team had been winning fairly close games all weekend, using all of their players, working on development of their whole roster, etc.....they were a progam that imho really did it right, and their record of producing players showed it
was the only time i really went into a game thinking we couldn't win, and was by far our worst loss in our 7 year run.....but it taught my girls a valuable lesson.....we had always preached fighting for each other, that we would never be one of those 'fancy' programs with all the bells and whistles, we played hard and played for each other, picked each other up...we were bar fighters
we ended that season with a 2nd year 14u team that we had lost to 10-3 on saturday of that first tournament (we had 3 girls on our roster that year that were new to us, had never played out of state, etc).....we finished our last tournament of the year with that same 10-3 team, winning a game in the semis with a walkoff in the 7th.....and then beat that same 10-3 team in the finals 4-3 in 8.......that 16-3 loss was really a watershed moment for us; after the 16-3 loss we talked about what we had talked about pregame....that we needed to go out and fight for each other and not quit, regardless of the score, and our girls had done that; they took their punches, tasted a little blood, and kept fighting
our team broke up after our first 16u year; we ended a run of 6 straight state titles at 4 different age groups....our girls all went to bigger programs, that have year round practice, indoor facilities, and they are all taking those lessons with them, and i expect to see their success continue......so that was a good experience for us long haul, but damn did it suck at the time.......
our team was solid.....as good as anyone in our state....first tourney of the year, out of state......we played a team that was arguably one of the two best in NE
we are a small time travel outfit......based out of our rec league, fees were about 350 a girl, bought their own unis......two teams were in this tournament who's orgs sent a ton of girls D1....we got one on Sunday, 2nd round.....they started their #3, won toss, took visitors (which i liked to do a lot lol)
they scored 3 in the top of the first......we came up in the bottom if the 1st.....i likened my girls to bar fighters; we weren't fancy, we didn't practice year round, we had no indoor facility, lots of 3 sport athletes....but they fought for each other, and weren't afraid to break a bottle and stand back to back when they needed to.....we tied it at 3, had bases loaded with no one out.....their coach was pissed, brought in his #1......INF ump laughed to me, and said "i don't think they planned on needing her for this one"....she was legit, big girl, threw in old air jordan high tops.....nasty screw, great velocity.......she got them out of the inning at 3-3........it got worse from there, any pitch we left at all over the plate they started to turn on (and my #1 was solid).....we made plays, we got hits, they ended up beating us 16-3.....they never subbed, never let up, took out my daughter at 2b breaking up a DP when they were up big, slid really late, went at her ankles.....we talked after that next time she needed to make that throw regardless, force the slide (she also learned how to receive the throw and get out of there, but that's not part of this story)....that was their MO all tourney up until then, left girls on the bench, never subbed, pounded everyone
we found out that they were about a $10k a year outfit, plus paying for hitting coach, position coach, travel, etc.....they ended up with the other top team in the finals, lost 14-3 - that other team had been winning fairly close games all weekend, using all of their players, working on development of their whole roster, etc.....they were a progam that imho really did it right, and their record of producing players showed it
was the only time i really went into a game thinking we couldn't win, and was by far our worst loss in our 7 year run.....but it taught my girls a valuable lesson.....we had always preached fighting for each other, that we would never be one of those 'fancy' programs with all the bells and whistles, we played hard and played for each other, picked each other up...we were bar fighters
we ended that season with a 2nd year 14u team that we had lost to 10-3 on saturday of that first tournament (we had 3 girls on our roster that year that were new to us, had never played out of state, etc).....we finished our last tournament of the year with that same 10-3 team, winning a game in the semis with a walkoff in the 7th.....and then beat that same 10-3 team in the finals 4-3 in 8.......that 16-3 loss was really a watershed moment for us; after the 16-3 loss we talked about what we had talked about pregame....that we needed to go out and fight for each other and not quit, regardless of the score, and our girls had done that; they took their punches, tasted a little blood, and kept fighting
our team broke up after our first 16u year; we ended a run of 6 straight state titles at 4 different age groups....our girls all went to bigger programs, that have year round practice, indoor facilities, and they are all taking those lessons with them, and i expect to see their success continue......so that was a good experience for us long haul, but damn did it suck at the time.......