I thought this is worth sharing

[YOCOACH]

This is currently making the rounds on Facebook. I thought it was something, as parents, coaches and players that we will all have to face in our own way. This young lady certainly handles it with class

One Day This Won’t Be Your Life Anymore by Emily Edwards

I spent nine years chasing the game I loved. I played every weekend, holiday and summer until I was 18 years old. I collected memories and trophies and battle scars. And then, in one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made, I walked away. I felt sure that it was best for me and most days, I believe I was right. I was watching my dad’s team play this weekend (he coaches high school softball) and a parent asked me “What would tell these girls if you knew they’d listen?” And this is what I would say:

One day you will walk off the field for the last time. One day you will untie your cleats forever. One day you will put your glove in your bag and there it will stay for months at a time. One day your tan lines will fade. You’ll forget the feeling of seams beneath your fingers. You’ll struggle to remember the way it felt to hit the perfect pitch. You’ll see your teammates once or twice a year instead of every single day. You won’t slide into second. You won’t round first. One day you’ll be on the other side the fence.

One day this won’t be your life anymore. And when it’s not, you won’t remember the things that you’d think. You’ll have no idea how many times you struck out. You won’t know how many errors you made. You won’t be impressed with how many home runs you hit. You won’t care about your batting average or ERA. For the most part, you won’t remember wins and losses at all.

After your last inning has come and gone, you’re going to remember the times when you wanted to quit— but didn’t. You’re going to remember the teammates (and families) you loved along the way. You’re going to remember playing in the freezing cold, driving rain, and unbearable heat. You’re going to remember the hotel bonding and the eight hour road trips. You’re going to remember the early practices and late games. You’re going to remember the coaches that never gave up on you. But most of all, you’re going to remember the sheer happiness that came only from being between two chalk lines. You’re going to remember the moments you did more than you ever believed you could. You’re going to remember the times you used every bit of talent God gave you.

One day this won’t be your life anymore. So for today, run as fast as your feet will take you. Whether it’s a pop up to the pitcher or it bounces off the fence in left field. For today, swing as hard as you can. Commit to every pitch and give it everything you have. For today, make every play like it’s the last chance you’ll ever get. For today, play because you want to. Play because you need to. Play because the little girl you used to be fell in love with this game all those years ago.

For today, don’t stop until the last pitch is thrown. Play with every piece of your heart and leave it all on the field. One day, this won’t be your life anymore. When that day comes, make sure you wouldn’t change a thing.

www.emkayed.wordpress.com

 

[knightsb]

That was a good one, here is another making the Facebook rounds:


For Those Girls Whose Summers Were Consumed By Softball
You know who you are

Lisa Kentris in Sports on Feb 16, 2016

You were that girl who during the summer had to leave the pool early to get ready for practice, the one who turned down weekend trips to the lake, the one who couldn't stay out late on a Friday night because you had games early Saturday morning.

Most notably, you were that girl who everyone thought was absolutely insane for sacrificing pretty much your entire summer for a sport. In retrospect, you may not know what having an actual summer is like. For years now you probably began tournaments the weekend after school ended and played up until early-mid August, with maybe a weekend off here and there.

To the outsider looking in, this concept of spending every single weekend at a tournament is just baffling. The idea that typically your entire family would pack a cooler full of goodies just to spend the weekend at a softball field was just unheard of.

Even crazier, this idea that you would travel sometimes across the country just to play in a national tournament was definitely cool, but still not understood by the “non-softball family”. To those “softball families” and trust me you know who you are, this is not only normal, but spending your weekends any other way would be strange. For those girls whose summers have been consumed with softball, here are some things that you can relate to.

First of all, chances are that all of your family vacations have been planned around softball for the last several years. You may have had to wait until the week before school to take a family vacation, or better yet turn an away tournament into a family vacation. Whether you were at PONY Nationals in North Carolina or lucky enough to be at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Disney for USSSA Nationals, the sunny states provided a perfect opportunity to go a little early or return home a few days later in order to spend some days at the beach.

With away tournaments comes the horror of hotel beds. They may look great and dandy, but after sleeping on them for a few nights you feel yourself longing for the comfort of your own bed. Additionally, if you happen to have siblings, chances are you didn’t have the bed to yourself. If you were really unlucky you spent a night or two on the rollaway cot after your brother or sister had a temper tantrum about sharing a bed.

Away tournaments go hand-in-hand with long hours spent driving to the various tournament locations. That being said, you’re most likely a pro at sleeping in the car.

At longer tournaments, you typically didn’t have enough uniforms to avoid doing laundry. The clan of mom’s from your team went down to the laundry room together with a sharpie and piles of smelly uniforms, most likely using every washer and dryer that the hotel had available. Afterwards there were texts exchanged when someone had the wrong sliders or pants brought back to their room. In a way this was like the social events for the moms, something that they seemed to take pride in doing. I have never seen a group of people so excited to do laundry.

Regardless of what you do though, you will always have those mornings where you are running around like a mad-woman because you are missing one sock. You run up and down the stairs swearing under your breath that the dryer ate your sock, when reinforcements are called in: your mom helps you look. Come to find out it was stuck inside of your sliders the entire time. Let’s face it we’ve all been there.

If your team was anything like mine, if there was spare time before games there would be a braiding train going on behind the dugout. It is an unspoken rule of softball that your hair must look good in order for you to play well.

Along with the braiding comes the bows. Now I'm sure all of you are thinking of that one girl on your team who was notorious for coming with cute and exotic bows for the entire team. Granted she stayed up until 1 a.m. the night before making them, but hey, you looked good. Thank God for her.

Unfortunately, your uniform is awkward and leaves you with some pretty funky looking tan lines by the middle of the summer. During the week when you can actually find some time to hangout with friends by the pool there is constant talk about how distinct your tan lines are. We all know that our arms look like we spent a year in Mexico, but the rest of our body looks like it could use a little more Vitamin D.

Walking into games with your team behind you, bucket in hand, hearing your catcher drag her body bag across the pavement and the metal cleats pound against the pavement is such a comforting mixture of sounds.

When warmups start your music starts too. I mean what’s a talented team without an on point playlist? Of course we all have that one old Jesse McCartney song that finds it’s way into the play list amongst the pump up songs that even get a laugh and little smile from the opposing team.

God forbid you have to pee. Spending the entire day at the fields it is likely that you will have to go to the bathroom at least once, if not multiple times. On average softball complexes don’t have the most luxurious bathrooms. It is actually pretty common for the only thing available to be a porta-potty. I know you all have had the awful experience of rushing to the porta-potty in between games. You have a lot of factors working against you with the porta-potty alone: lack of space, the foul stench, overall unsanitary, lack of toilet paper.

Now factor in that you may have already played two games, you have dirt in places you should never have dirt, you’re sweating like an animal, and your sliders are actually glued to your legs. Even if you manage to get your uniform off, the chances of you getting it back on properly are slim to none, leaving you with a massive wedgie for the next game.

All of these things probably made you laugh a little reflecting back on all of the little things that you love about summer ball. Regardless of how crazy people may think you are or how many parties and other various events you missed because you were out of town or had games, there’s a reason that you did it for so many years. All of these little relatable things are those reasons, because it has given you some of the best memories.

 

[voldad]

I posted this on our teams face book page. its reality and inspiring.

 

[Il softball fan]

Def worth sharing. Thank you.