We're 8-2

So I'm terrible at blogging in case you haven't noticed. I hope I can make up the rest of these blogs by the end of the semester! EEK! Today's game was a lot of fun. We played Dobson High School and won with a score of 8-2. I just realized that the score was 8-2 and our record is now 8-2, weird! Anyways...today's game was a lot of fun because the girls who don't get a lot of playing time got to play all 7 innings. The girl who pitched had her first complete game today and she also had an in the park home run! The other girls who don't get to play a lot also did really well! I feel so fortunate to coach the team that I have. All of the girls get along great and we act like a team. The varsity team today played at the same location as we did and they didn't do as well. They have a lot of talent on the varsity team but for some reason they're struggling to pull together as a team.

Team chemistry is so important when trying to build a winning program. You could have a team full of all-stars and if the chemistry isn't there then it's not going to bring a championship. As a coach I still find it hard to understand where the chemistry comes from. I wish I could figure it out because I'm not always going to have teams that have chemistry. What do you do then? Like I already said, I feel fortunate to coach the group of girls I have this year. I've had so much fun with them and the other coach I work with.

We've now played 10 games this season and we have 8 more to go. I started this season thinking this team had the right stuff to go undefeated. However, as you can see, we've lost two games. Neither of which we should've lost. Our first loss came from Red Mountain with a final score of 1-3. Our second loss came from Gilbert with a score of 12-4. The Red Mountain game was tough because the pitcher we faced had a great rise ball. I tried my best to work with the kids during the game to make the necessary adjustments in order to hit the rise ball. Unfortunately the kids weren't able to make the adjustments and we lost. It was hard for the girls to take their first loss and I had to figure out as a coach how to deal with their psyche. They bounced back from the loss and won a couple more before we took our second loss to Gilbert. That game was way worse than the one against Red Mountain. The girls were bickering with each other and we didn't function as a team that day. After the game was over we huddled up as a team and I wanted to get feedback from the girls as to how they thought they did. It was really great to get some of the responses I got from them. They were all very candid because I made sure to let them know this is a safe time for you all to say what is on your mind. I think it really helped and the team has been a lot stronger ever since. Hopefully the rest of the season will go well so that we can finish strong. I guess that's all for now.