It's been awhile...but we're 4-0!!

So I've neglected my blogging duties here for awhile. I get so busy with my other classes and coaching that I keep forgetting to put some posts up! Hopefully I'll get another up here this week.

So the team I coach is now 4-0!! YAY! Three of our games were won due to a run rule or mercy rule. For those of you who are not familiar with softball, in high school after 5 innings of play if one team is ahead by at least 10 runs or more then the game is over. Normally softball games at all levels are played in 7 innings. We have a really solid team this year. I think I've said before that I feel comfortable starting any one of the 18-19 players that we have. Everyone can hit and play defense. Three of our girls have a 1.000 batting average on the season with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 at bats. The only team that gave us any potential threat was a school from out in Gilbert. Through the 5th inning our team was down 4-0. The team was patient, persistent and kept their spirits high and we were able to come back and win 9-5 in the last 2 innings. It was by far the most fun game I've coached in a long time. Normally when a team gets down by 4 runs in a game it's difficult to keep a strong morale. However, this group of girls astonished me when they kept cheering for their team with smiles on their faces. They didn't let themselves get down and that game showed their true character. When facing adversity, you can either let it beat you or you can rise above and show how strong you are as an individual and as a team. The one thing I'm afraid of happening now that our team has shown what we're capable of is that they will let their egos get the best of them. I've started to see some laziness from some of our better players on team. We're lacking some discipline and we need to be more conditioned. This is an area I've struggled with the other coach for every year I've worked with him. Since I'm in school right now, my class schedule doesn't allow me to get to practice at the start on Tuesdays and Thursdays. How the girls start practice sets the tone for the rest of the time they are on the field. The way I see it, we're good, but we're not that good! We could be so much better than we are right now if I could get the team to be more disciplined. I'm trying to figure out now how I can accomplish this with the other coach. Our personalities are so incredibly different, he admits that he is more removed from the game than I am. As a coach I bring the intensity to the field and he's the happy-go-lucky fun coach. I guess it's kind of like a good cop/bad cop situation. It's not something I'm fond of being as a coach but I'm not there to make friends. I'm there to help the team achieve goals and that can only come from hard work. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I have a feeling the results of this predicament will be the same as it has been in previous years. It's quite frustrating and I would love to find a way to convince our other JV coach that our team needs to be more disciplined. Our job as coaches on the JV team is to get the kids ready to play for the Varsity team. As of now we are not accomplishing that goal if we stay on the same path. Since I'm not the head coach of this team it's difficult to put my ideas into action when the head coach doesn't see eye-to-eye with me on these issues. More on this later...for now, I need to get to practice!

Week 1 of Practice is Complete

The first week of practice for the JV team is now over. This past week I was able to evaluate the talent we'll have for the season. We have only two players that have returned from last years JV team. The rest were on the Freshman team last year and we also have a couple of current freshman playing for us. Our first game is coming up on Wednesday the 24th against Dobson High School at home. With our first game coming up so quickly, we have had a lot of information to cover over this past week. The other JV coach and I decided to stick to the basics for now. We worked on hitting pretty intensely while covering basic situations on defense like the double play and who will take the cut-off throw from our outfielders. For the most part, every one of our players looked really good this week in practice. We have 16 girls on our team which means that not everyone is going to get to play. The other coach and I have made it very clear to the girls that they need to come to practice everyday with a positive attitude and the will to work hard giving the team 110%. Any day that a player slacks off in practice is the day someone else will work harder than them and earn a starting position for games. While evalutating our talent on the team I've been running scenarios in my head of who might start because they have great defensive skills or because they have a strong bat. Just about everyone on our team can hit. I feel pretty confident that I can put together a starting line up with all 9 players averaging over .300 throughout the season. Last Thursday, I wrote out on a piece of paper the who I believe are our top 9 players. Coincidentally so did the other coach and we had the exact same starting 9 players with a couple of girls hitting in a different order. It was nice to know that the other coach and I are on the same page with who we want to play. It will be interesting to see how our first game plays out. I hope that our starting nine can produce results like we expect them too. If they don't, then one of the other 7 girls on the bench will be given the opportunity to step up and get the job done. I'll let you all know how our first game goes by the end of next week! Have a great week everyone! Thanks!

First Post, New Season!

Since this is my first post for this blog, I suppose I should tell a little about myself to let you know who I am. My name is Jenna Kush, I am 25 years old and I'm in my last semester for my undergraduate degree in general studies with a certificate in leadership and ethics at Arizona State University. I am a native to Tempe, Arizona and I absolutely love living here in the Valley of the Sun. While growing up here, I have constantly been surrounded by sports. My absolute favorite is softball/baseball because I've been playing for about 15 years now. Although I love softball, football is another favorite of mine and you will always find me at the Sun Devil football games in the fall. GO DEVILS! It may appear that I am a total sports junkie but that is not necessarily the case. I enjoy all kinds of music, art and movies, I love going to movies! I'll leave it at that for now and there will be more about me later.

Those of you that are reading this probably already know that this blog is being kept for the purposes of documenting my experiences in my internship, but I just in case someone reads this and isn't a part of this internship class, that is why I'm keeping this blog. For my internship I am working as an Assistant Softball Coach for the JV team at Corona del Sol High School. This entire past week was try-outs for the girls. It's always interesting during try-out week to see the new freshman faces coming into our program and to see who has improved since last year. I have to say that I am impressed with the amount of talent our program will have on all levels. Our Freshman team will be stacked as well as our JV team. The Varsity team on the other hand is in a precarious situation. A lot of the leaders and pitchers from last year's team have graduated which means that some of the younger girls are going to have to step up their game. Our oldest pitchers in our program are only sophomores. I've been following our Head Varsity Coach all week long to see how she is dealing with the situation on hand. She's an amazing coach and there is a lot I can learn from her. Unfortunately during the week of try-outs we as coaches are not allowed to "coach" or "instruct" and of the girls. Therefore, I don't have much else to report on this weeks events other than I'm excited for the upcoming season.

One last bit of information before I finish my first post. I consider myself to be a very open and down to earth person. I welcome any comments, questions, advice or even constructive criticism. I know that for the requirements of this class we are supposed to comment on each others blogs, but I just want it to be known that if you have anything to say please feel free to let me know what is on your mind. Your feedback will hopefully allow me to gain a better understanding of my experiences. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading about what I'm doing over the next couple of months!