It's Tough When a Kid's Hopes and Dreams are at Stake

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.

STAR in the Employment Interview

I went to a career workshop today that was about what to expect on interviews. The lady who ran the workshop gave a lot of very important information that everyone should know when going to an interview. One of the biggest things that I learned from the workshop was how important it is to prepare before you go. She stressed that it is important to research information about the company because you might be asked questions to see what you know about what the company does and maybe if they have a mission statement. It is also important to be prepared to answer behavioral questions that are sometimes open-ended questions. She suggested using the STAR method in answering the questions. S - Situation T - Task A - Action R - Result....When asked a question like what would you do if you were in this situation or tell us about a time that you had to.....(fill in blank) and you should explain what the situation was, what the specific task was, what you did to accomplish the task and what the results of the actions were.

Another topic that was covered in the workshop was appropriate attire when attending an interview. The lady running the workshop suggested that men wear a business suit and tie and that women wear a skirted suit. Normally I would agree that wearing a suit is the appropriate attire for an interview. However, I strongly believe that it depends on the company and the job you are interviewing for. Several of the other students that attended the workshop were graphic design students. My sister is a graphic design student and the industry is very different than your typical business. One of the design students spoke up and tried to say that a skirted suit would be seen as too stuffy or uptight. One of the points brought up before this was how it is important to "fit" with the company. Wearing a skirted suit to many design firms would give the wrong first impression to a potential employer. Long story short, I was really frustrated with the lady who ran the workshop thinking that a skirted suit is the only outfit ever appropriate for any interview. I agree that you need to look very professional, clean cut and presentable when attending an interview because you only get one chance to make a first impression. I think it just depends on the company and the position you are interviewing for.

Overall the workshop was very informative and I was able to take away some new information that I never thought about. A good interview should be a conversation. Employers are not only looking for someone who meets the qualifications but someone who has a personality that fits with the company.

Comparing the Varsity team to the JV team

Our JV team practiced with the Varsity team this week. Even though it was a combined 32 girls on the field, that practice was much more efficient than any of the practices with just the JV team. I've heard comments from other girls that have been on JV in years past and from those that are on the team this year that even they thought the practice with Varsity was much better than any of the practices we have by ourselves. Although it was efficient, it was not as much fun for the girls. I was really confused when they told me that. Even though the kids were constantly doing something the drills were not particularly hard to do. So I tried to figure out what it was that made practice not fun. Eventually I started to realize that there is a different attitude on the Varsity team. A lot of the girls felt very uncomfortable because of the pressure they feel to be perfect. There's some kids on Varsity who are not the nicest teammates you could ask for and if you make a mistake they will take that and turn it on you making you feel you don't belong there. It makes me sad that this mentality exists on Varsity. It seems to be very exclusive on that team instead of inclusive. There is zero sense of unity and no one backs each other up. It seemed as if it was every athlete for themselves out there, which in my opinion is not a team. In a lot of my leadership classes I have been taking I have read about how exclusivity can break a team apart. It is extremely important to communicate and be willing to work with others on a team. We have told the girls this year several times that you don't have to like your teammates but you do have to respect them. On the JV team we haven't had much trouble with that at all. On the Varsity team it is a completely different story. Many of the kids who have to work their way up in the program never feel like they have a place on the Varsity team and because of that I have seen kids quit their junior or senior year because it just isn't fun anymore. Those kids that make the Varsity team as freshman are the ones who create this attitude of, "the rest of you aren't good enough to play with us." I wish I knew how to eliminate that as a coach. Granted I don't work with the Varsity team and I have no control over what happens on that team. However, one day I hope to become a head Varsity coach at some program and I'm sure I might run into this problem. I think that one way to fix the problem would be to work on team building outside of the softball field. Make the kids get to know each other on a more personal level. I'm not one hundred percent sure that would work but I think it might be a step in the right direction. For now, I'm just happy to have a great group of kids on the JV level.

How do you manage a team with 18 kids?

This season the JV team I coach has 18 players on our roster. It has been an extremely difficult task managing the team and making sure that everyone gets enough playing time. There are a few girls on the team that are exceptionally good at both defense and offense and they have received the most playing time this season. The majority of the team has split time pretty evenly and there are a few more that have played the least. Since the season is coming closer to an end we tried to get everyone into today's game. One player in particular has had a lot of playing time this season at third base. However, third base is not her preferred position. In the off-season on her club team she is primarily a catcher. On the JV team this year we have three catchers. The reason the girl I'm speaking of has played third base most of the year is because she is by far our best third baseman. Today was only the third game she has caught all season long. Her first game she did pretty well and then her second game for some odd reason she did not play to the best of her ability. When I watched this kid play today as a catcher, I was amazed and disappointed all at the same time. I was amazed at how fundamentally sound her catching skills are. The other two catchers that have played the most over the season really struggle with framing the ball and throwing the ball down to first, second or third. The girl who got to catch today does a phenomenal job at framing and throwing. There were multiple pitches thrown today that were not strikes but because of this girls ability to frame and sell a pitch to the umpire it really helped keep the pitch count down for our pitchers. She also threw three girls out today trying to steal second base. The reason I'm disappointed is because I did not give her a chance more often at catching. I felt absolutely terrible that she did not get more opportunities. Something else I noticed as she was playing in the game today was that she was making better contact with the ball when hitting and it gave her a lot more pop to her hits. In the beginning of the season she was hitting really well but as the season continued and she didn't hit as well as we thought she would I couldn't figure out why. I think now it is because she is more confident in her game while she is catching. Something I have experienced lately with my slow-pitch teams is that when I play in the outfield on my woman's team I hit around .750 and on my co-ed team I play a different position every inning and my average is .250. Thinking about this made me feel even worse about the situation because had she been playing at catcher all season long she would have been more successful with her hitting this season. I feel that as a coach I made a poor decision having her play third base more than catcher. After the game today I pulled her aside and spoke with her parents letting them know how much I believe in their daughter as a catcher, that she is by far the best catcher we have on the team and that I hope she doesn't give up on it. I also apologized to the kid for not giving her more chances to catch this season. Fortunately she is only a freshman this year and has three more years ahead of her in this program. If I'm lucky enough to work with the program next year and if I'm lucky enough to have her on JV I want to give her the time she deserves in games as a catcher. This is one of the many problems of having 18 kids on a roster! I wish I had more control over the team. I would have made sure we only had 14 kids max. If I had fewer kids on the team it would make it a lot easier to make sure everyone gets more playing time.

Team average is .457!

The team now is 12-2 and it looks as if we'll finish the season strong over the next few weeks. I have been on edge lately when I'm at practices and games. Something I have tried my best to do this season is to not let the little things get to me so easily and just relax. The girls that have played under me before have even noticed and commented on my overall attitude on a daily basis with the team. They say I'm a lot more laid back this season and that it has been a lot more fun overall. Well, all of that started to slip this week. I have found that I'm on edge and my temper has been very short with them. In two of our games this week even though we run ruled both teams we were not as focused as I would have liked for us to be. Last night I thought a lot about how I can fix the situation and just enjoy the rest of the season. I need to keep in mind that this is only a JV softball team and the fact that we're 12-2 is amazing!! To top it off our team batting average is .457 and one of our players has 35 hits for 50 plate appearances which works out to be a batting average of .700!!! The rest of the girls range from .290 to .667! I really feel that I don't have anything to be upset about. I suppose my problem is that I expect the best, maybe even perfection because I feel the girls are capable of more than what they are doing which doesn't make sense because they're already AWESOME! I hope that I can continue the rest of the season with a positive attitude only. The girls really have worked hard and deserve to have fun, me being grumpy is not going to help them accomplish that. The question I now have for myself is where do we go from here? Part of me wants to scrimmage our varsity team. The varsity team is not doing well at all and I seriously think we could compete with them. Maybe we'll get lucky and the head varsity coach will agree to a scrimmage. I'll of course let you all know what happens if we get the opportunity. That's all for now!

Practicing with the JV Team

Today's practice with the JV team was a bit tough for me. It was probably the hottest it has been all season long which didn't really help the situation. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I coach at the high school I used to go to. Ever since I was a freshman at that high school (10 years ago) the JV team always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to practices. There are only two fields the softball program have to use. Varsity obviously gets their own practice field and then the JV and Freshman teams have to share a field. For some reason, the Freshman always get the playing field first and the JV team has to use whatever excess field space there is left over outside of the fences. Now that the season is half way over some of the things we do in practice are getting repetitive due to lack of resources. There are several equipment items that the JV and Freshman teams both need but we don't have. The unfortunate thing about it is we do a lot of fund raising and I can't figure out why we're lacking equipment when we have the money to buy it. It's really frustrating for me as a coach because the girls aren't getting the full benefit of practicing. It's also frustrating for me as an assistant coach because I feel that I have no say in what happens on or off the field with the team. I don't get to plan practices anymore, I don't get to say who I want on my team at the beginning of the season...I could sit here for awhile and list out several things to complain about the program. Now I know in my last post I said how fortunate I am as a coach to have the group of girls I'm working with and that still stands. But there are some other let's say "administrative" things that are completely out of my control and it drives me nuts! Point of the matter is I'm tired of being an assistant coach and I really want to find a program that will take me as a head coach. I feel that I have a lot to offer as a coach and that in the position I'm in now I'm unable to exercise any of my ideas, wants or needs as a coach. I know what I'm doing right now is whining but this is my fourth season with the program as a volunteer and I'm feeling that I need to move on to something else after this season is over. Those of you that are reading...Have you ever experienced a situation where there are things out of your control that you would do differently if you had say so? What did you do in those situations? I've tried my best this season to not let it get to me and today it all got to me. The girls were feeding off of my energy or lack there of and it wasn't good. I think the program needs change, it's been so stagnant ever since I was going to school there. I guess my other question to those of you reading...why do people fear change? That's all for now I guess. I would appreciate any advice or comments that you all may have. Thanks!

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.