Undefeated Season

The end has come to our softball season. We finished this past weekend with a tournament. Back to March when we started practicing, I would have told you we wouldn't win a single game. I was so scared with the team I had. The first few practices we had to start with the very basics.... I'm talking the things that you think everyone knows about softball. When I asked the girls to run after they hit the ball, they asked where to run to. When they fielded a ball and I said to go two... the left fielder left the ball rolling and started running to the infield. I had to remind myself that even though these are middle schoolers, some of them had never touched a ball before.

As the season went on, I saw more and more progress out of the girls. They were getting so much better! They could throw, they could catch, they were running aggressively. We were winning one game after another. Up until this past weekend, we were undefeated. We wanted to finish off the season that way! I made sure the girls were focused and ready for their last two games of the season.

Here's how focused we were...
Can you find me? I got piled on!

 Then it was pay backs!

The first game we pulled off with an 8 point advantage. The second game.... well, it wasn't much of a challenge. We ended up winning 16-1. It could have been much worse, but I forced my girls to stay at third base instead of stealing home. They are hard to hold back because they've been taught to be aggressive, but enough is enough. I had to remind them about sportsmanship. That's a difficult concept at that age. They just want to play their game and win, they don't care much about the score.

It turned out to be a great season. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to coach these girls. They are such a joy to me. This is my third year of coaching several of these girls. A few of the parents are begging me to move up to coach the next age group next year so their daughters can stay with me. We'll see what next spring brings.