Softball

Youth Athletic Associations

By Lisa B on March 26, 2008

As you may remember, Duck and I coached Doodle’s Upward Basketball team. Upward is a wonderful organization that allows the kids to not only learn about the sport, but also Jesus. They make sure to tell the coaches to be positive toward the kids, parents and referees even if they disagree. The atmosphere there is so radically different than any of our athletic associations around here.

We went to practice on Saturday and got there early. A younger (5-6) boys baseball team was finishing up practice and there were 3 adults who were coaching or helping during the practice. A ball was hit to the first baseman and the boy missed it. The comments and the tone of those comments that followed totally floored me.

“Get down on the ball!”

“You should’ve had that!”

And they came from more than one person. I felt horrible for the little boy. I’m all about the kids learning fundamentals and how to play ball, but they were being brutal. Not to overly boast on Duck, but he probably would’ve said something like this:

“That was a good try, but you need to pay attention so you can get your glove down sooner. Then you’ll stop the ball.”

A different youth association we were trying out when Doodle was younger was said to be an instructional league — not competitive. I’m all for that, but the problem was they weren’t very instructional. I can understand being positive, but you also need to show the kids how to play. You can’t just sit on the sidelines and say “that’s a great try! You’ll get it next time!” without giving some instruction on *how* to do it.

Duck has really got coaching in his blood. He’s a great coach — especially when he has tried coaching the non-athletic like me He taught me the finer points of playing softball for sure. I’ve seen the kids he’s coached in basketball and now softball really respond to him. They listen and improve and have a healthy respect for him. I believe they’ll be better ball players because of Duck.

I am really frustrated with the state of the youth athletic associations. The one we’re in now is cursed with the ‘competitive’ reputation. No one wants to play us — they say we’re too competitive. And from what I’ve seen of the other coaches, they are too competitive. We’re talking about 4-16 year olds playing associational ball. Winning records should not be coveted. What should matter is that the kids play ball and have fun learning how to play better.

The leader of this youth athletic association (at least the baseball and softball part) had mentioned he was disappointed in the sign-ups for the girls softball 7-8 (the team we coach). It seems softball is dying, he guessed. They had 50-60 girls sign up for soccer and only 13 sign up for softball.

Being the Blessing that I am to my wonderful husband, I sent out mass emails to every mom in my address book. I got 5 more girls from the first email blast I sent out. Now we had too many for one team and still not enough for a second team. But seriously? That just goes to show that people didn’t know about it — and/or — they know Duck and I and trust their daughters to our coaching.

I’ve enjoyed coaching and helping the girls, although we have a parent who is rather loud, rough and obnoxious with his “help.” Duck grew up playing ball in this association and if it was ever like this when he was younger, I’m guessing he didn’t see it — or maybe he just thought that was the way it should be.

My questions for you: Do your children play sports? Do they do so in a youth athletic association? How is it for you? Where do you hear about the sign-ups and such for the sports your children play in?

| Filed Under: Softball

You know you’re in trouble when …

By Lisa B on March 24, 2008

Mom IM’s you to make sure you’re still alive — because it’s been for-e-ver since you blogged!

I’ve actually had quite a few people get on me for not blogging lately. So here’s a somewhat update since the last blog post.

Charter School: Well, I went to the lottery. I was really disappointed because Doodle is #31 on the wait list. I know God has a plan, but it’s really hard for me to believe His plan is for her to stay at the school she’s in now. I know others whose children were on the waiting list last year and got in, so I’m holding on to the hope that she’ll get in. We’re trying to get her in to the 4th grade there. To give you an idea of the public school system around here, there were 2 spots open for the 6th grade — and about 175 kids on the wait list!

Walking Pneumonia: Almost 2 weeks ago, Duck was sick with coughing and congestion. I wanted him to go to the doctor, but he kept saying he was getting better — that it was viral and the doctors wouldn’t do anything about it. After he kept me up a few nights coughing, I made him an appointment and told him he’d better go. He was a good boy and went — the doctor said he had walking pneumonia, gave him an antibiotic and super-duper cough medicine, and he’s all better now. Doodle started coughing along the same time Duck did, but neither she nor I have it.

Allergies: I am allergic to many, many things: grasses, trees, pollen, house dust, pet hair, makeup, housework, laundry, work, etc. You name it — I’m probably allergic to it. Friday morning my nose started running and hasn’t stopped yet. So whether it is pollen season or the little bit of cleaning I tried to do Friday, I’ve felt run down. Yesterday I broke out in my typical rash — the kind that makes it sort of painful to be wearing clothes. Out comes the big sweatshirts (it was kinda cold yesterday!). The rash will go away in a few days and hopefully my runny nose with it. With this crummy feeling, I haven’t been riding my bike either.

Easter: I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We ended up not going to church, which bummed me out but I needed the rest. I had to take Benadryl for my allergies — which knocks me out. Poor Callie did her best to wake me up at 7:45 am Sunday morning to see what the Easter bunny brought, but I couldn’t make myself move. She was excited to get a Google — did you know there’s actually some kind of animal from Webkinz that they’ve named Google? Amazed me.

Softball: Softball season will be starting soon — for all of us. Doodle is actually doing quite well with Duck coaching. We picked up some more girls on Doodle’s team, and lost a few. We’re still at 16 which is still too many for one team — and not enough for two teams. I’ll share some things about Youth Athletic Associations in another post. There’s too much to comment on in this post.

Slump: I am in a slump. I started out the year desperately wanting to be in God’s Will for my life and it’s just March — I already feel off-track. I haven’t been doing my quiet time each day or reading my Bible. Due to sickness and my motorcycle class, we haven’t been to church in 3 weeks — and I feel it. I’ve fallen into looking at other blogs and thinking I don’t have anything really important to say or share. I look at other women who are making money online and know I have the knowledge to do the same, something’s just holding me back. Whether it’s procrastination or the lack of follow-through I’m not sure. I had wanted to work my way to She Speaks, and I saw last week where they are full — they’ve started a waiting list. So if I go to this conference, it will truly be a miracle from God.

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Church, Family, School, Softball

YATIDF!

By Lisa B on August 22, 2007

Yet Another Thing I Didn’t Finish!

Yep, I’ve officially blown the 30-day challenge. It’s actually quite often I start out something such as this with great excitement and anticipation — only to flop about halfway through it. I usually get distracted with other *stuff*. In this case it’s been distraction by sinus headaches (dern air pressure changing all the time!), a little girl not wanting to go to school any more, and figuring out that I should not work out the same day that I play ball.

So, for today — I’ve taken tylenol for my headache. I took my little girl for breakfast and got her to school late. I am not working out today although it’s my scheduled day, but I’ll fit it in tomorrow so I can offset the workouts a day. Hopefully this will mean that my body doesn’t freak out on me when I’m on the ball field trying to run to first base (assuming I hit the ball!).

That’s where I’m at this week. Hope and pray you are doing better and thankful I am not doing worse — because it can always get worse!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Family, Fitness, Softball

Unconditional Love

By Lisa B on August 14, 2007

Unconditional love and unconditional friendship have been a common theme in my life the past few weeks. I’ve been pondering the awesomeness of the unconditional love Jesus shows us. While we strive (or should strive) to be more like Jesus every day, it’s hard for us to show unconditional anything!

We are very self-centered. If you love me, then I’ll love you. If you buy me roses, then I’ll love you. If you are a good ball player, then I’ll love you. If you are not gay, then I’ll love you. These conditional statements are based on choices people make. We also look at conditional statements based on things people cannot control. If you are white, then I’ll love you. If you are black, then I’ll love you.

There’s a young woman who plays softball on my church team. It is rumored that she is gay. I say rumored because I, personally, do not know for a fact that she is gay. Many people have said she is, but I have never come out and asked her — and she’s never asked me out. Hence the “rumor.” Honestly at the beginning of the year, I did not want to play with her. I couldn’t understand why she would even want to play church ball knowing that the church does not agree with the gay lifestyle. Some of us at church would talk about the situation. Some would say we need to reach out with love — use this as a witnessing opportunity. I struggled with this because I didn’t want to reject this young woman, but then again I didn’t want to enable her lifestyle either (how self-centered is that? thinking I enable her lifestyle by not coming out and bible thumping her).

How do you witness to others by playing softball? Seriously, I’d been contemplating this question all season. At the beginning of the year, this young woman never said anything to me. Part way through the season, I’d try to talk to her and encourage her (nice hit, good play, etc.). Then I found out we had some mutual friends — ones I hadn’t seen in awhile and ones she plays ball with on the weekends. So we’d talk here and there catching up on different people. I asked my Better Half how I could possibly witness to this woman and he said we should pray about it. So we did.

During a highly tense tournament game, this young woman got hurt. She always gives 120% in playing ball, and this was one of those times. She hurt her shoulder pretty bad — we were concerned she had dislocated her shoulder. Some friends left with her and took her to the hospital and we resumed our game. The next day, my Genius Better Half emails me and says “you’ve been asking how you can witness to <this young woman>, get her phone number and call to check on her.” Ugh is what I thought. It’ll be kinda awkward, but of course the Genius makes a good point. So I got her number and called to check on her. She didn’t answer so I left her a message saying I hope she was ok — she’d been in my prayers — and if she was up to it, call me and let me know how she’s doing. She called back and we had a nice conversation. She hadn’t dislocated her shoulder — just bruised it really bad, but she thanked me a couple of times for calling her.

I share all this — not to try point to myself, but to point to God. My human side didn’t want to talk to her — like she had the cooties or something. My human side didn’t want to play ball at all. God had different plans. I don’t know if I’ll have more opportunities to talk to her, but I started thinking about things from her perspective. She probably doesn’t have much unconditional love or unconditional friendships in her life. Her church friends are probably focused on her being gay. Her gay friends expect her to act differently. Everyone has their expectations of her — the conditions of their friendship and love. I hope and pray that I don’t make her feel like that. If God so chooses, I hope He’ll show His love through me to this young woman — that she will have at least one non-judgmental friend she can talk to.

How so very thankful I am that Jesus did not have any conditions on His love. God loves each and every one of us because we are human — we are people. That’s it. He created us and He loves us. Some of us are murderers. He still loves us. Some of us are just liars. He still loves us. Look past the exterior you see on others. Look to the heart of the matter. If you look and you don’t see Jesus, then pray for them. Until you have Jesus in your heart, nothing else matters.

| Filed Under: Personal, Softball

My “Better Half” is pure genius!

By Lisa B on August 3, 2007

You just don’t know how hard it was for me to write that. It feels very permanent. More so than just telling him. But he is perrty smart. He encouraged me to workout, which seems to be working well.

AND

My glove has a velcro strap that tightens to help hold it on my hand. One part of the velcro has been coming off for a couple of years now, and really bothering me. Duck kept telling me to take it to a place that works on shoes (there’s one in the mall 10 minutes from us). I just kept getting by with it for “one more season” or I was playing with it and didn’t know how long I’d have to leave it. Finally, last week I took the glove to get it fixed. Two days and $5 later, my glove is like new! I LOVE IT! I think it made a big difference in the way I played last night because I wasn’t worried about my glove slipping off my hand while trying to catch a fly ball!

So there you go. Duck is a genius and if you ever need some piece of leather stitched, see a shoe repair shop!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Softball

Wuhoo! Second Gear!

By Lisa B on August 3, 2007

My “Better Half” said I actually looked like I made it into 2nd gear last night at my ball game! I’m so excited He said it was the best game he’s seen me have in a very, very long while. I haven’t been working out but just a week, and I could definitely tell the difference last night. I wasn’t nearly as winded as I usually get (although I still did get somewhat winded). I actually for the first time in a long time felt comfortable on the field — like I knew I could catch the ball. I can’t wait to see what happens when I start the fall season in a few weeks Hopefully my playing will improve!