The Saga of Rebuilding a School Program: A parent-coach's journal

[PJR202]

So our season has ended.

The game was pushed out to yesterday due to rain. Despite it no longer being graduation day, we were still missing 3 of 4 senior starters. There was (and is) some real heartburn over that one. I'm of the opinion that you go. Even though it was expected to be a bloodbath, it was still the biggest game for our program in 5 years. They earned it--and you just dont leave your teammates to the wolves...and they were definitely facing the wolves.

So we had a first year player in RF, a first year in LF, 3B was at 1B, 1B was at SS, and my kid started at 3B. 2B was the kid who always plays there. Literally, only CF (our one senior present), C, P1 and 2B were in their normal spots. Considering the circumstances, it was about as good as a lineup as could be put together.

Other than one start at pitcher, this was DD2's first varsity start. I could see she was nervous. She's played a lot of 3B the past few years, but she was pretty out-of-practice. She flubbed a couple grounders in warmups but her throws were on point. I would have been pretty nervous as well if my first start was against a team who went to the state final 4 two seasons ago. She said she thought she was gonna puke...haha.

She only had one come her way, and it was in the first inning. She fielded it but stumbled to her knees and pulled back on the throw.

Later in the first inning with two out and bases loaded, SS fielded a hard grounder and tossed it to DD2 for a force at 3. She had her foot against the side of the base and got throw easily in time. Ump called it safe. I saw her pleading her case, but I figured with him being on the opposite side of the bag he couldnt see her foot. I always thought you give that situation to the defence, but maybe not.

She said he said her foot wasn't on the bag. We were only sitting 30 feet or so from the base so it was clear in the moment, but I've since gone back and watched the stream and she's clearly against the bag. She did move her foot up some after the catch was made, so maybe the ump just decided it based on that. If there's one thing that kid knows how to do, it's getting to the bag. She does it on tag plays, throw-downs, pop-ups, etc. It drives me nuts.

This probably wouldn't have been such a huge deal had they not gone on to score 9 more runs with two outs. Our very inexperienced outfielders understandably dropped a few or misplayed a roller.

The girl in LF (who as I said is a first year player as a junior) is a tremendous athlete regularly used as a pinch runner, can pretty much always track and get under a popups. Unfortunately she just still has the ball hit her in the palm too often. She chased one to the fence and it bounced off her palm and went over. P1 started walking batters. P2 came in from SS, 1B went back to her usual 3B, P1 went to 1B, 2B went to SS and DD2 went to 2B. DD2 has never actually played 2B but she hit all her spots. She's seen it enough I guess.

Anyway, it continued to be brutal for all the same reasons and ended 15-0 after 3 innings. Their pitcher threw heat as expected, but didn't throw much with movement and honestly was kind-of wild. She didn't walk anyone but had several go over the catcher or in the dirt. I'd say she's just gotten by on her speed for the most part. She had a perfect game going until she hit one of our girls in the arm, then her no-hitter was spoiled by our catcher with two outs in the third and final inning. She's leadoff, so we did manage to get through the order.

Despite the sad finish, which would have still been sad but probably gone farther with our seniors, it was a great season vs the past few years. The regular season record was 15-15, and after it was all said and done they were 4-4 district, 7-12 region, and 16-16 overall.

We really didn't expect this team to do so well. 2021 team won 7 games against very weak opponents, 2022 won 11 against a few decent teams and some very weak opponents, and this year's team played a much tougher schedule and beat all the fringe teams at least once. Hung in there for a few complete games that they'd not been able to play a full 7 with in previous seasons.

I attribute this to a couple things. Firstly, getting P1 on a transfer helped tremendously. Having two kids that could throw strikes 50-55 mph and another a little under 50mph may not sound like much to most of you, but coming from a very accurate first year player throwing maybe 38mph in 2022, having a bit more speed was a game changer for us.

Secondly, we had three girls bat over .400 and two more over .370. Huge difference. We're only losing one of those as well, and are already making plans to get the other girls a lot of summer and fall reps.

And lastly, most of the kids we had this year consider themselves softball players first. They wanted to win, and when things went south against more evenly matched teams the wheels didn't fall off. They fought back and won most of them. It's hard to ask for much more.

I asked DD2 yearterday how much time she wants to take off before hitting the field again. She said a month. I said I'd give her two weeks. School is overwith today, so I know she'll be bored to death by then and looking for anything to do. We'll get back to converting her pitch to whip, a ton of hitting and 3B reps (and some outfield since 3 spots open up there), and she's planning on getting back in the weight room. I also think we'll also see more of the girls on the field in the offseason.

Personally, I look forward to having my evenings free again. 32 games in 8 weeks was a grind I'm happy to get out of for a while. I've had nachos for dinner at last twice a week since mid-March, so it'll be good to break out the blackstone regularly again.

I suppose updates for the next several months will just be practice stuff. I appreciate you all who have been reading and providing feedback. I'm thrilled that we went .500, came in second in the mid-season tournament and district runner up, but I'm certain we can improve next season. We'll give it our best shot regardless. The right people and players are in place.

 

[PJR202]

So I watched the stream of the semi-final and final games of the tournament. I was wrong about that pitcher. Having the opportunity to watch from behind her, I could see she has a very effective drop, good change-up, and can vary her speed in small increments. She had I believe 15 k's in both of those games, and no earned runs. They did lose in the final though. She also has 15 homeruns on the season, which is double what she had least year. She was intentionally walked in all three at-bats yesterday.

One of their other players had doubled her number as well, and I'm attributing both to the Suncoast bats. The team that beat them in the final has a player who hit 18 this year and 5 last year, and as I understand it they were also using the Suncoast. That must be a wicked stick.

 

[PJR202]

A couple updates. Practices started back a couple weeks ago, 2-3x per week. Seemed a little early for my taste but I think they just wanted to get a few in before the dead period. Since we went on vacation last week anyway, I gave DD2 a full month off. Got back at it this week, shaking off a lot of rust, but she seems happy to get back to it.

P2 has departed for another district school. I wish her well. That moves DD2 to P2 status now. We'll really have to put in the work this off-season. We'll have the MS pitcher coming in as a freshman. She's a solid SS, and IMO could take over that empty position already. She hates to pitch, but I'm expecting she'll see most of the JV work. Hopefully we won't have 25+ regular season dates though.

I started working with some new/mostly new MS pitchers yesterday and it'll be once a week from here on out. Doing the volunteer work I've planned on since getting into instruction last summer. It went very well and I'm feeling like my overly optimistic self so far.

 

[PJR202]

Some updates. Been working my kid on switching to whip. She's been bored sick with nothing but backchaining and wall throughs but I think she's got it. I haven't taken any slo-mo in a while to confirm it, but it's late October so we're pressing-on regardless. We started working on sprinter stance and back foot push. She has a tendency to fold over during the backswing, then shoot upright during the drive and get out of position.

P1 has some kind of injury. We haven't seen her since the season ended so we aren't sure if it was from pitching last season or something else, and no one seems to know much. Despite my best efforts, none of the girls seem to be interested in asking her about it at school. Girls are weird. We obviously care first about her health, but it would also be nice to have a better idea of what our situation will be in February.

That would put DD2 in the perceived #1 slot, which she's not thrilled about. We've always tried to prepare her as if she's gonna be #1 for this exact reason. We do have the freshman who can throw strikes and a junior who has pitched some and has been interested in working with me more. We still have to have someone throwing JV games too.

With the switch to whip, I don't know if we'll be able to work on a change-up before the season because that'll require extending the arm and it's been too much work getting her to keep bend in it. I believe Rick Pauly has a change-up that actually depends on MORE bend, so I'll look into it once we get drive squared away. That needs to happen in the next month or so because we have to start loading up on reps and do conditioning.

I also got DD2 started in hitting lessons a few weeks ago and she's doing very well. I can swing a bat pretty well but I have no idea how to tell anyome else. I try to avoid helping any hitter if they aren't brand new.

Twice a week practices have continued since late June. The middle school FINALLY hired a new coach. Seems like a good dude. That will split our practices back up, so we'll be able to focus on the HS and get into some deeper instruction. It's been 16-18 girls from 5th to 12th grades all this time.

We've picked up a couple first year HS players. One of them will have an outfield position on lockdown by spring. Probably the best I've seen at reading the ball off the bat and she catches pretty much everything at this point. This will easily the best outfield this program has had in at least 5 years.

The sprinter from last year has been coming out too, and covers an absurd amount of ground out there. I randomly timed her around the bases a couple weeks ago. She doesn't even take the proper angles yet and got it in 12.5 on her second try. I may see if I can time a 1B run as well.

Gonna be indoors hitting soon. Really need a few more kids that can bat .300+. We lost a .400 hitter and a .300 hitter, and if P1 doesn't play that's another .300 gone. A few of the starters are playing basketball and won't be able to get in any work until spring practices start. Gotta get the most out of who we have.

I've worked off and on with a few 5th graders, but it hasn't turned out how I had hoped. They come out a few times and enjoy it. Parents say they love it, then suddenly the kid comes to the realization that if they learn to pitch, someone will actually put them in the circle. I need to find some fearless players.

 

[PJR202]

Update.

Been working with the Junior who has pitched some and it's going very well. She's getting more in the zone and I'm noticing she's only got about 30 good pitches in her before fatigue becomes a factor. I'm bumping up her reps every week to combat this.

DD2 (henceforth to be known as DD since DD1 hasn't played for two years) is still working. She's not thrilled about spending all of november working on drive, but it seems to be improving. I've got her throwing out of the glove instead of using a backswing. I predicted (accurately, believe it or not) that taking the backswing away and making her first move FORWARD would help her with the sprinter stance. Last night was a good breakthrough on that one. She actually got a few out fast enough that her hip almost made it to the correct position.

She's still dipping the shoulder and extending her arm before release when she throws, effectively killing her whip. I had her throwing into a net 10ft away last night but it still happens. Take the throw away and she looks great, even while still holding the ball. The plan now is to just assault her with drive after drive and build up enough strength that it can overcome the mental side of the breakdown that occurs when she knows she's gonna actually throw. This absolutely has to be corrected in the next 2-3 weeks if we're going to stay on schedule. December and January will be all conditioning, reps, speed and spots. Her speed hasn't increased by even 1mph. After last night, I realized that's because despite the work on whip, she's still throwing the same straight-arm pitch when she throws an actual pitch.

Her hitting lessons are going great. There's a dramatic improvement. The big issue when the season starts is that she won't have the at-bats she needs to get confident. She had like four varsity at-bats all of least season, and probably 25 in JV since the games were usually only three innings. That fighting stance you see from an experienced hitter just isn't there. She still looks timid.

Still no word on if P1 is playing. I feel like she probably will, but if she's not back to pitching within the next month or so, it's unlikely she'll be ready to throw when the season rolls around. We definitely don't want her reinjuring anything just for the sake of us having another pitcher.

 

[PJR202]

Things are going well. Official practices start in 19 days or so. We've been working the team a lot on hitting since the weather has been pretty rough the past few weeks. We've averaging 6 or 7 at the cage. A few are in other sports. We've picked up a few promising new girls new to the game recently as well.

DD's pitching has really come along well the past three weeks or so after she had a chat with her hitting coach about frame of mind, and what softball means to her. The coach isn't a whole lot older so there's definitely a mentor quality there that I can't replicate as a middle age dad. The attitude shift has made an amazing difference in our productivity at pitching sessions. She typically puts out adequate physical effort so it doesn't seem that she's working any harder than before, but I think the focus is greater. Regardless, we're well on our way to fixing a few critical things in her basic mechanics and the accuracy is much improved. We may start fooling around with a knuckle change-up next week. It's the easiest to learn, and if she could throw a change-up in the zone it could be a huge help.

I'm hoping we can get in 5-6 more sessions before they start official work. Once I'm on someone else'e schedule, I don't know how much time we'll get. I'll probably be helping a couple other girls as well. I'd like to see everyone throwing a few hundred per week leading up to the season so we don't end up with injuries related to durability halfway into the season.

DD's hitting is dramatically improved from the beginning of her lessons in October. It's like two different kids at this point. I'm really optimistic that things will fall into place by a quarter of the way into the season. If she went .250 it would be a huge help, but I think she can get to .300. We'll know in a few weeks once she's batted against more live pitching.

I'm told that P1 is going to play and is even working some on pitching while trying to rehab her shoulder injury. That's a huge help. Even without her pitching, that's a solid 1B and .390 hitter.

 

[CoachJD]

I so badly wish I would've done this for my team, but I get exhausted just thinking about reliving everything.

Good stuff.

 

[PJR202]

I so badly wish I would've done this for my team, but I get exhausted just thinking about reliving everything.

Good stuff.

Do it anyway. I'm wordy, so I was fine with typing it all out. You can certainly do an abridged version to get the world caught up. I'm curious how other programs do what they do. I'd like to know more about how coaches structure things, how they manage pitchers, what their offseason work is like, what the parents are like (I omit a lot of the inter-personal strife from these stories though), etc. Like, from what I've heard, the parent/competitive situation at the school on the other side of the county is a lot more clique-ish and drama-filled. Our parents all get along and support each others' kids. If we were a more advanced program I don't know if that would be the case. And they do things like offseason weightlifting. I'd love to do that, but we would never get the kids out for that. That's just not where we're at, and I don't know if we ever will be. When the schools consolidate I expect the environment will change drastically vs what we have here now. I hope it's a positive thing, though.

Thanks for following along.

Now go write your story.

 

[PJR202]

Things went official on the 15th. Other than one basketball player, the whole team is in attendance, which is really nice to see. The batting cage is full and loud, and the infield dirt has cleat marks on every square inch of dirt. Weeds be damned.

We have a few potential hitters emerging. DD has developed a really nice swing that has the attention of her coaches. There's still a touch of hesitation when deciding on a pitch, but I think that'll diminish pretty quickly with game speed pitching and adrenaline.

Her pitching is going pretty well. They throw a lot of live scenario BP. She tends to miss high, so her coach has asked that she work on lower spots so her misses aren't between the belt and chest where they'll get crushed. She seems to be adjusting to it well.

I stress and stress about her pitching, and in the last post I mentioned trying to figure out how to work with her when she's on someone else's schedule. The thought of it and attempting to get both of us to do it was contributing to my anxiety attacks. I was concerned about her even getting enough reps, but he's been pitching her a lot, and I finally just decided to let her go for the season. It's been a big weight off my shoulders because I tend to obsess over things like that. I toss her a tip here and there when I'm at the field, and she's starting to remember her checkpoints. I think at this point it's just where she needs to be, but the parent in me dreads the possibility of seeing her struggle. But, struggles are lessons learned, and that's really what this is all about. She's also happier, and some of it is because she isn't feeling anxiety about trying to find time to work with me.

On a related note, this is the happiest bunch of girls I've ever seen in our program. They're talking on the field, congratulating each other, and getting along amazingly well. Their communication and confidence in each other on the field is night and day over the past couple weeks. We've finally got a collection of like-minded individuals, both on and off the field. I have no idea how this season will go as far as wins, but I'm pretty sure it won't end the way last season did.

 

[PJR202]

The girls had a scrimmage Saturday morning against a team in the region we don't often play, but they are on the schedule this year. It was an absolute disaster. I'll spare the details, but it was just...horrific...lol. Every one of them looked so nervous it was almost funny.

Hopefully they got it out of their system, though. The last practice before the scrimmage, they were flying around, making plays, and everyone was hitting. The first-year player hit a homer OTF. They looked ready to play...but things didn't go as expected. Not super concerned about the defense. They're tons better than what they showed. The jury is still out on hitting, though. We shall see.