My
life as a softball coach started several years ago, when I was still in my
twenties. The Don Victoria Softball
League was an amateur league for boys and girls up to the age of 17. The league was looking for adults who like
teaching or coaching kids. I was one of
those people. I happened to like sports
of all kinds, including softball, and I especially loved teaching kids. So, I thought that coaching was a good way to
have the best of both worlds.
At
first, I was expecting to coach a girls’ team, since I was a young woman (named
Susan) and it just made more sense to me.
I had had previous experience coaching at a girls’ gymnastics club
(recreational gym) and a girls’ hockey team at my home school where I taught
Math, but no softball coaching experience whatsoever.
When
I arrived at the coaches’ meeting just prior to the start of the season, there
were many more men than women there. My
natural assumption was that there weren’t as many women who had the time to
spend coaching. That was true,
but it was also true that people widely subscribed to a myth – that men made
better coaches than women. This had to
be a myth, as far as I was concerned. I
had coached already in my life and had done a decent job of it. No man was going to “show me up” in the
coaching realm, just because of a difference in gender. So, I signed up that night to coach a boys’
team. After all, I reasoned, I had a
point to prove - that women are just as capable as men at coaching, whether
it’s a boys’ or girls’ team. I did have
some challenges ahead of me, but I was prepared for whatever came along. My own athletic ability was excellent – I’d
always been involved in athletics in one way or another. I had been a team member on 3 different
sports teams in high school and university at different times. Also, I had won a much-coveted award one year
– Athlete of the Year – when I was just 16 years old! Who said I couldn’t coach softball? I’d played softball a lot as a young kid, as
well, so I wasn’t exactly a stranger to the sport. I was as prepared as I could be to coach a
boys' softball team!
The
first practice that I called for my boys’ team happened at nearby Brookbanks
Park. These boys, who were, on the
average, 10 to 11 years old, looked me over with a lot of scepticism, and so
did their fathers. I could see that I had
a real mountain to climb if I wanted them all to accept me as the head coach of
this team. So, I made a proposal to the
boys.
I
told the boys (there were 20 of them) that I wanted someone to volunteer to
throw a ball at me while I stood at the batter’s plate with the bat. If I hit the ball, they were to tag me to put
me “out”. If they tagged me before I got
around to all the bases and back to home plate (a home run), they might have
some input as to how this team should be run.
But, if I got to home plate without being tagged, they would have
to listen to me all season. It was an
offer they simply couldn’t refuse and they accepted eagerly, no doubt thinking
that I would never make it to home plate, untagged, with 20 of them running
after me. Now, I had their full
attention. They were going to do whatever
was needed to put me “out”!
When
I hit that ball, it was a good pitch (fortunately for me) and I hit the biggest
“home run hit” of my life! Then, I took
off running for first base with all 20 guys after me. But, they couldn’t catch me so easily! Other than a close call between second and
third base, I made it back to home plate, untagged. It was a home run and there was no doubt
about it!
So
now, the 20 guys and their fathers all had new respect for me. And the team members were willing to listen
to my coaching instructions. Even the
fathers paid closer attention to what I was saying to the team. I’m sure that they had all thought I would
fail.
It
turned out to be a terrific season for us!
Not only did we play well and won most of our games (except for 2), my
boys’ parents (mothers and fathers) also wanted to get involved in
helping me. The fathers were willing to
help out by being assistant base coaches and / or pitching coaches. The mothers came out for the practices and
most of the games whenever they could, providing cheerful moral support and
refreshments on occasion.
We
had 15 games to play in total, about 2 per week on average. If we won at least 8 games, we were assured
of a place in the playoffs. We had to
win the quarter finals (naturally) to get to the semi-finals and the semis to
get to the finals. It was a miracle, in
a sense, that we ever made it to the finals really, as, we had always been
considered the underdogs of the league.
Amazingly, we won the league semi-finals (the eastern conference finals)
and made it to the league finals!
As
it happened, the final game was scheduled on one of the hottest days of the
year – 35 degrees C – but, we were as ready as we could be for our
opponents. Our team was called “Penhale
Travel” (after our sponsor, a travel agency by the same name) and our opponents
were called “Sam’s Radio and TV” (after their sponsor who was a radio and TV
dealer). Fortunately, one of my boys’
mothers brought a large cooler to the game filled with ice and cold pop and
juice for all of us. We never would have
made it through that game otherwise – it was so hot and sunny, with very little
shade available.
The
first inning was uneventful – neither team scored. In the second inning though, we scored 2 base
hits and a home run! That put us 3
points ahead of our opponents. The third
inning was even scoring – both teams scored only once. Now, it was 4-1 for us. The boys were getting really excited that we
were winning, but I warned them not to let their guard down, as, the opposing
team would take advantage of it if they could.
If they got the chance to score big, they would do it. We could not afford to take anything for
granted at this point. This team was one
of the best in the league (if not the best), better than us really. They, alone, had the capability to beat
us. But, we could also beat them. All we had to do was to keep the right mental
attitude, the one that we’d had all season, and we could outsmart them at their
own game and win everything!
Basically,
I had analyzed our respective strengths and we were almost equal in the
essential areas. We were maybe a little
weak on second base, but in all of the other positions, we were excellent. We needed to cover that vulnerable short stop
position very well between second and third base. I knew we could beat them if we did
that. We were sure that the other team
didn’t know about that one little vulnerability of ours. But, both coaches knew how important that
short stop position is, especially in a critical game like this. That is, a good short stop can make the
difference to the outcome of a game where the teams are very closely matched,
such as in this game.
The
fourth and fifth innings were a lot like the third – we both scored only
once. Then, in the sixth inning, we made
a big mistake. One of my smallest boys
had his turn up to bat. It is a cardinal
rule that, once the game has begun, the batting order cannot be changed. So, at a critical time in a critical game, we
had Perry up to bat. On the first pitch,
a very fast but legal pitch, he swung at it and missed. On the second pitch, the ball wasn’t quite as
fast but too low, but the umpire called it a strike too. Now, on the third pitch, Perry and the rest
of us knew that he needed to get onto first base. So, when the ball came in, again not quite so
fast and too low, he bunted it. It was a
ground ball that rolled between the pitcher’s mound and home plate. The opposing pitcher then ran quickly
forward, picked up the ball and threw it to first base. Perry barely made it to first base
safely. I thought that we would be
alright from then on, as, we had some stronger batters coming up now.
The
next player, Owen, came up to bat. It
was his job to either get Perry to third base and himself to second, or, to get
Perry to second base and himself to first.
Owen managed to hit the ball just hard enough to get Perry to second
base and himself to first without being put “out”. So, when Lenny, our third batter, came up for
his turn at bat, his hit was hard enough to get everyone home if they could all
run fast enough. But, Perry almost got
caught between second and third base and didn’t know whether to advance to
third or retreat to second base. He needed
to advance though, since Owen was right behind him and Lenny was right behind
Owen. But, Perry was instead tagged
“out” at second and that meant Owen was also “out”. Lenny couldn’t make it past first base safely
either.
Meanwhile,
we were all yelling at poor Perry, telling him what to do. No wonder he was so confused and did the
wrong thing (going back to second base).
We never did recover from that mistake.
In the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, the opposing team made up for
the first few low-scoring innings and brought in 4 more runs. That finished us up for good and we lost the
game.
On
reflection, later on, I decided that it wasn’t really Perry’s fault that we
lost. We had never practiced a scenario
like that, and we had never had a batter in a position like that before in any
game. Without prior experience, it
would’ve been a difficult choice for a small 10 year old boy to make while
under a great deal of pressure. So,
while everyone on our team blamed him, I took the blame onto myself for the
game’s outcome. I should have known,
from my own prior experience at gymnastics competitions, that sometimes, as a
competitor, you can get so nervous that you can’t help but do the wrong
thing. So, as a coach, I resolved never
to put any of my players in such a stressful position again without being
properly prepared.
To
this day, I still love to teach high school and coach softball and hockey. To teach or coach is a very special calling
in which those who put their hearts into it get the best performance out of
their athletes (if you’re a coach) or students (if you’re a teacher). That’s what I always strive to accomplish and
that’s what gives me a good feeling about it.
But, to win or not to win? - that
is the question.
published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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