I had a conversation recently with one of the pitchers on our JV team and her parents. This kid is extremely talented and has a lot of potential for growth in her softball skills. Her favorite position is pitching with shortstop and center field being her second and third choices. At the start of the season we gave this pitcher a lot of starts but unfortunately she could never finish a game in the beginning and we would have to bring in a different pitcher to finish the game. She has a lot of velocity on her pitches but she is lacking a lot of control. When watching her stand on the mound right before she lets a pitch go, it seems that she is lacking confidence. One thing you have to have in order to be a successful pitcher is confidence. Even though she has struggled throughout the majority of this season I continued to have faith that one day she would just find "it". I knew that there would be one day during a game that she would finally feel relaxed and feel confident while pitching. We gave her a start against our last match up with Dobson High School. She had a what I thought was a personal best game that day striking out 8 hitters and allowing only 2 runs scored. That was her first full game she has pitched in three years. The only other opportunity we have given her to pitch was against Mountain Pointe and because we have so many players she only got to pitch for 3 innings but I could tell that again she was feeling more confident than at the start of the season.
With that being said, when I spoke with this girl's parents they informed me that she wants to continue to pitch and that her ideal dream is to pitch for her favorite University. The particular University she wants to go to is a big contender in the NCAA for softball. Her parents then asked me what I think she needs to work on to get to the Varsity level in high school and then on to college ball. It took me a moment or two to collect my thoughts because I did not want to crush the dreams of this girl but at the same time I wanted to be as realistic as possible. I first said that she needs to work on hitting a lot more because if any player has a really strong bat most coaches will find a place for you in the line up. I also suggested that she continue to see her pitching coach on a weekly basis. The next step for her to take towards her dreams would be to find a club team to pitch for. The only way she is going to continue to grow as a pitcher is to get as many innings pitched as possible over the next year. The more games she plays in the more confident she will become. That's of course if she can find her control and develop her various pitches. As of right now she can throw a fastball and a change up. If she wants to take her game to the next level she needs to develop more pitches like a rise ball, drop ball, screw and curve. The other problem she is facing is that she is one of five sophomore pitchers in the program. There are also two freshman in the program this year, one was on JV and the other on Varsity. In addition to competing for playing time against 6 other pitchers this year, next year the program is anticipating two more freshman coming to the program that are likely to pitch on the JV and maybe even Varsity levels. All of which I tried to explain to the hopeful pitcher and that if she wants to continue to pursue pitching she has her work cut out for her. I tried to also reinforce the fact that I think she would make a stellar center fielder. She tracks the ball very well and she is by far the fastest girl on the JV squad and maybe in the top three in the entire program if not the absolute fastest. A great center fielder needs to have speed because they have a lot of ground to cover.
Situations like this are tough when dealing with the kids you are trying to caoch and their parents who are invested in their kid's future. I tried to be as blunt as I could about the situation without being completely discouraging. I wanted to make sure that she understood what she is up against before choosing to continue her dream. I want to support her as much as possible with out then becoming unrealistic. I want this kid to be successful in this sport and I'm not necessarily sure pitching will be her forte. But how else can you explain that to a kid who dreams of pitching for her favorite University? It's not easy...I wish her the best of luck and I hope that I can help her achieve her dream in one way or another.
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I think your comments to the parents and choice of words were the best possible. As a coach you only want to see your players succeed but you have to honest in understanding their drawbacks and point them out so that they may learn and improve on them. Its delicate sometimes because you're right, you don't want to discourage them.
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