After Action Report: 10U Rec League/ 5 run limit
Our coaches are really a female Sr in HS and a recent HS graduate. The Sr's dad is helping and being an old friend of mine brought me out of retirement to assist. I coached my daughter's teams in basketball and softball from age 5 to 18... and loved every minute of it. She is 24 now and graduated from college going for her graduate degree. After all that basketball and softball play... she took up tennis in 9th grade and ended up getting a tennis scholarship. Crazy.
Last nights game the dad couldn't be there and the lady coaches were going to be late arriving. I was there a little early so no problem. After getting all the equipment out and to the dugout, then get the girls started warming up it was about 45 min to game time at 6:30pm. The other team had 8 or 9 also warming up on that field. The other team's coach comes up to me and tells me that the game is REALLY on a field about 300 yds away from the one we are on. Why was he warming up on this field??? Well, the big 'move' starts up and everything and everybody goes to the other field.
We get to the other field and the groundskeeper informs me that our assistant coach (dad) is supposed to bring a pitching rubber. What??? dgfred asked. So no pitching rubber. About now... everything is still going pretty smooth- the lady coaches show up. They both seem to have problems with batting orders and position placement. It is very helter skelter but I let them struggle to learn it. I just keep score at games and focus on helping the girls at practice mostly. They end up giving the other team's coach (also new) the wrong line-up card... causing havoc once the game did start up. Oh well.
Umpires still haven't shown at game time. Word gets out that they have gone to wrong field and will be there/here in 20 minutes. 40 minutes later they show... it is starting to get dark and alot colder.
Game starts, we score 5. Alot of walks and taking bases on wp/pb. Other team scores 5... much of the same with and error or two mixed in. Our players like to chase girls with the ball instead of throwing ahead of them.
Next inning we only get 3 with several girls getting out out home trying to score on pb... but stopping before reaching the plate. Other team only gets 1 with the lower part of the order swinging at everything.
Inning 3 we somehow get an actual hit with the bases loaded... add an error on the throw and we ended up getting 5 more runs (score 13-6 now). Our 1B coach was jumping up and down she was so happy. I couldn't help but smile.
I have to tell our coaches that no matter what... we will win because with the 5 run limit the most the other team could get would be 11. They were both shocked (don't know why) and very happy. I got them to put girls in different positions and try a new pitcher.
Guess what the final was
... 13-11.
So I left my house for the game at 5pm... game at 6:30pm. Game starts about 7:30pm and goes until past 8:45pm. The temp had fallen from about 65 degrees to almost 45 degrees. We had girls shivering and others wrapped up in blankets in the dugout. I leave field about 9:15 after talking with team and parents about schedule. I get home about 15 minutes to 10pm. Wife gives me funny look.
So almost 4 hours of 10U rec ball volunteering... am I insane??? The girls are actually getting better... of course there was only one way to go---- UP. Current record 2-2.
Our coaches are really a female Sr in HS and a recent HS graduate. The Sr's dad is helping and being an old friend of mine brought me out of retirement to assist. I coached my daughter's teams in basketball and softball from age 5 to 18... and loved every minute of it. She is 24 now and graduated from college going for her graduate degree. After all that basketball and softball play... she took up tennis in 9th grade and ended up getting a tennis scholarship. Crazy.
Last nights game the dad couldn't be there and the lady coaches were going to be late arriving. I was there a little early so no problem. After getting all the equipment out and to the dugout, then get the girls started warming up it was about 45 min to game time at 6:30pm. The other team had 8 or 9 also warming up on that field. The other team's coach comes up to me and tells me that the game is REALLY on a field about 300 yds away from the one we are on. Why was he warming up on this field??? Well, the big 'move' starts up and everything and everybody goes to the other field.
We get to the other field and the groundskeeper informs me that our assistant coach (dad) is supposed to bring a pitching rubber. What??? dgfred asked. So no pitching rubber. About now... everything is still going pretty smooth- the lady coaches show up. They both seem to have problems with batting orders and position placement. It is very helter skelter but I let them struggle to learn it. I just keep score at games and focus on helping the girls at practice mostly. They end up giving the other team's coach (also new) the wrong line-up card... causing havoc once the game did start up. Oh well.
Umpires still haven't shown at game time. Word gets out that they have gone to wrong field and will be there/here in 20 minutes. 40 minutes later they show... it is starting to get dark and alot colder.
Game starts, we score 5. Alot of walks and taking bases on wp/pb. Other team scores 5... much of the same with and error or two mixed in. Our players like to chase girls with the ball instead of throwing ahead of them.
Next inning we only get 3 with several girls getting out out home trying to score on pb... but stopping before reaching the plate. Other team only gets 1 with the lower part of the order swinging at everything.
Inning 3 we somehow get an actual hit with the bases loaded... add an error on the throw and we ended up getting 5 more runs (score 13-6 now). Our 1B coach was jumping up and down she was so happy. I couldn't help but smile.
I have to tell our coaches that no matter what... we will win because with the 5 run limit the most the other team could get would be 11. They were both shocked (don't know why) and very happy. I got them to put girls in different positions and try a new pitcher.
Guess what the final was
... 13-11.So I left my house for the game at 5pm... game at 6:30pm. Game starts about 7:30pm and goes until past 8:45pm. The temp had fallen from about 65 degrees to almost 45 degrees. We had girls shivering and others wrapped up in blankets in the dugout. I leave field about 9:15 after talking with team and parents about schedule. I get home about 15 minutes to 10pm. Wife gives me funny look.
So almost 4 hours of 10U rec ball volunteering... am I insane??? The girls are actually getting better... of course there was only one way to go---- UP. Current record 2-2.
