Monday, March 18, 2013

First Win

Hello All,

This past week has been a busy week for us Fighting Squirrels! We have played in some cold weather and this past Sunday we played in the rain. Where is the 65 degree weather that you think of when you play softball? So far this year, it has been far from softball weather.
We made a couple of road trips to colleges during the week and then Sunday we were home. That brings me to the highlight of the week. We WON!!!! We won our first conference game this year and as a coach I can't tell you how proud I am of these young ladies. We have all talked until we are tired of talking. Finally we put it all together, focused for one whole game, fought back with the intensity that is in each of us, showed the passion for the game, made plays when we needed to, made pitches when we needed to. All of us did our job to get this win! And what an absolute wonderful feeling it is! Stop and think about what it feels like to win! I hope now that they take this win and understand it is possible for us to win. I want us to continue on this journey we have started. We are starting to see lights as we come through this tunnel of darkness that has shadowed us for so many years. I can't begin to tell you how I feel but it's not about me. It's about these young ladies, past and present, that have helped our softball program get to this point. I said from the beginning that this team was special and I didn't know why. I am starting to see why I felt that way.
As we continue climbing, one thing is for sure. These young ladies keep getting better each and every day and they continue to care about each other each and every day. They have taught me to have fun with them. Isn't that what sports is all about-having fun? Well we are and we will continue to see where this season takes us.
Until next time. . . . . . . GO SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two weeks in

Hello All,

Our softball team has been pretty busy with the first 2 weeks of our season. We have played in different weather but the majority seems to be cold and windy.  Around March 6, we got hit with 17-20 inches of snow. It was pretty coming down but it wasn't pretty for our field, much less for practices, etc. We survived and made do with what we had available.
The weekend of March 9-10, we headed to Greensboro, NC and although we lost our games, we played in better weather than we had recently. It was really a gorgeous weekend, weather wise. We have been struggling as of late but I sometimes call them growing pains. Sometimes as coaches you just wonder what your players are thinking at certain times of the game. And you wonder if they even are thinking, about the game.
I have seen us make some terrific plays and then I have seen us miss a fly ball and as coaches we just cringe thinking "what in the world just happened there?" That has happened to us quite a bit lately and maybe these are our growing pains. As a coach though, you know we are much better than we have played. You sit and wait for the game to come that we play up to our potential.
Softball is a game of failure from the beginning. If you bat 3 out of 10, that's a pretty good average. However, you failed 7 times to put the bat on the ball. I believe as a coach we just have to accept that this is part of the game and not use it as punishment but more of acceptance. We have to believe and think about the positives more than the negatives.
I don't know right now where we are headed this season. It is a journey and one that has been full of many different feelings already. But one thing I do know for sure, we have great leadership, we have a team full of softball players that are passionate and love the game, we have played at times excellent and we have played at times horrible. I am having fun coaching this bunch of young ladies and look forward to watching us grow.

Until next time. . . . . . GO SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!!!!!