My Kid!

[tim_s]

don't ever apologize for writing good stuff about your daughter......the day i stop being proud of my kids is the day someone is shoveling dirt on me.....which is how it should be

great read, great story, we want pics from that ceremony when it happens!

 

[Mike-Coach Q]

Congratulations

 

[uncdrew]

Excellent.

 

[Lobster Birch]

Great story.

So, how many girls were in her wedding? Like 50?

 

[Cannonball]

Great story.

So, how many girls were in her wedding? Like 50?

I think half of the total number of girls she played softball with. LOL She had 2 Maids of Honor and then a bunch more in the wedding party. I didn't count them and kept ignorant of everything knowing my main responsibilities were a speech and paying the bill. She had the largest wedding the reception venue has ever had. We invited more than 400 guests.

 

[Northball]

...my main responsibilities were a speech and paying the bill....We invited more than 400 guests....

Sorry to hear you will never retire.

 

[Jay Bolden]

Please forgive me for this shameless parent brag. Some on this site have been critical that I post too much about her so I've tried to stop posting anything about her. This might take some time so sit down, get some popcorn and ...

The kid just called and she has been selected for her universities' Hall of Fame. When she called to tell me, she was crying so hard that she could hardly speak. Then, I started crying. My kid's journey is like so many others so I don't mean to make it sound special. However, there were things that happened in her journey that made it different. So, here is where I might repeat myself for things I have posted here before:

When my DD was 9 years old, the rec program passed rules against her. They did so based upon the fact that she is my daughter. I was and am so pissed about that. At first, she was not allowed to windup to pitch. Then, she was not allowed to hit at the top of the lineup. Thank goodness the first of many exceptional TB coaches took the team out of the league and we started playing TB with a rec team. The following year, the team had tryouts. A young lady sat down next to my DD and said that she did not have a best friend and would my DD be her best friend. That was at tryouts. Little did we know that this young lady and just lost her dad. That young lady was the Maid of Honor in my DD's wedding.

As I posted, my DD was eligible to play 12U a second year but that coach told us that she needed to move up and play against better competition. Enter the second exceptional coach. DD's best friend was already going to play on that team. That team was 14U but was going to play 16U and 18U. We didn't know that but the kid fit in and they traveled all around playing. In reality, she was playing ball with more girls who would be in her wedding. They won a lot and the kid was ready for HS ball.

In HS, she ran into a different kind of coach. He was very hard on her. He expected her to replace an all-state player and she battled trying to do so. She started every game in HS. In the circle, she went 29-1 and was all everything. She was 1st Team All-State. Her HS coach was exceptional in a different way. He never lowered his expectations for her regardless of year in school. There were times when it was not pretty. This coach's efforts made her tougher and she would need that for college. I think the world of her HS Coach. She started every game of her HS career.

Her TB team aged out for what the organization offered. The kid tried out for a nationally known TB team and made it. She received a phone call from her best friend who said that she was going to play for a local organization and that they wanted the kid as well. In fact, her best friend said to my DD that they were best friends and they had to play ball together. My DD hung up the phone and, again, started crying. She asked what she should do, my wife and I told her that she knew the right thing to do. She got on the phone and called the coach of the nationally known program and said that she was going to play with her best friend. They were seriously good and beat many nationally known programs. The coach got her name out there. A friend who you all know who is a D-I HC came to watch her. He was in the SEC then. He said that she could play in the SEC but not at his school. He got her so many offers. Suddenly, the offers stopped.

I've posted before what happened. A D-I coach took a photo of her wearing his school's new uniforms when we stopped by for an unofficial visit. He started telling everyone that she verballed to him and his school. We stopped by a D-I university on the way to Chattanooga to play at The Summit and the coach there was not nice to us. She wanted to know why we stopped by and the word was out about the kid attending such and such university. I was hot and let that coach know it when we got to Chattanooga. The kid had an offer from a school where my family lives. It was a huge offer. That coach came to see her play in a tournament and she tore it up hitting a bunch of home runs and was great in the circle. They won the tournament. That coach told me to call on Monday and he would have her offer finalized. I thought that it was already finalized. When I called, he made his offer which was a lot less than what he had said. He wanted to recruit two other players from her TB team and was going to give each of them equal percentages of tuition. IOWs, he had lied to us. With about 2 weeks before NLI signing day, the kid was without a team. The D-I Coach who is a friend contacted me and had several offers for the kid including some from the B1G. I have great friends.

We got a call from a Coach who was recruiting her for another school. He had become the HC at a D-II school 35 minutes from our home. He said that he knew what schools were offering the kid and that he would make us an offer we could not turn down. He did. At the same time, my mom went into Hospice and my DD was really struggling with leaving for college while my mom was that way. My DD took the offer.

When they say things happen for a reason, that is so true. The kid's freshman year was pure hell. I could bore you silly with what happened her freshman year but why? She had lucked into a great coach. In fact, my kid would go in and talk to him about everything. I mean everything. She once said that she felt like he was her second dad. The school was such a great choice. She wanted to be a teacher and that school was the top school in that state for training teachers. She received so many awards and left the school with several records. In the meantime, she played ball with some other young ladies who would be in her wedding.

Obviously, we are proud of her. She has worked so hard for this. I don't think many understand just how hard. I'll wrap up by mentioning that in our phone call, my DD talked about getting sick and almost dying. She had been bitten by a spider and the venom "attacked her heart." When she was released, she asked me what it would take for her to start varsity softball as a freshman. I told her she would have to hit 100 balls a day. She said, "Great, I'll hit 300 balls every day." She never missed a day from that day until the week before she entered college. Not one day. She is the toughest player I have ever coached and she is my kid. Congratulations BB on being selected to the UMSL Hall of Fame.

Congrats!! Well Deserved!!