By Josh:
I enjoy coaching. I actually started coaching in high school when I was an assistant coach with my dad for my youngest sisters fast pitch team. I later was a head coach for a youth basketball team and also coached some men’s league softball.
None of that, and I mean absolutely none of that, would prepare me for being an assistant coach with my daughters t-ball team.
You see because in t-ball the rules are completely different. Bases are just a suggested path for runners to go to. First base isn’t always the first place you run to. Fielding a groundball is like a mini gladiators battle to see who can come away with the ball amongst teammates. Helmets are worn more so to protect the players from hitting themselves in the head then from the ball or others. Digging in the dirt seems to be a requirement of all players in the field.
T-ball games don’t get broadcasted on TV but my daughter thinks they should be. A part of me thinks that watching t-ball on TV would actually be pretty fun to watch. If for nothing else it would be at least good for a laugh at the coaches as they run around trying to get their team to look the right direction, stop drawing circles in the dirt and, in my daughter’s team case, to stop eating their hair.
The season this year wasn’t very long. It was shortened some due to nonstop rain this spring and my daughter missed a game because we went to Disneyland and another because she had the flu. It was still fun. I think it even sparked my daughters love for baseball/softball again. Last year she didn’t want to go to games with me, but this year she is not only going but sitting in her chair and watching games. She also plays on her own camera and writes in her notebook but hey she comes and does great at games.
For me as an assistant coach I loved it. It was fun to see the team develop even over just a handful of practices and a short season. The girls understood where and when to run on the base paths. Fielding and throwing the ball to first started to become a little quicker and more natural for a few. We even got a handful of ‘outs’ in the games.
I truly enjoyed the season and am ready to bring on next year.
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