An Upmire Made My Day

How often does that happen when an umpire makes your day? This 10U summer season has been a challenge. We have a number of girls that came up from 8U and most of the experienced 10U players we had during the spring are up at 12U since they have to play there next spring. So with a number of 7 and 8 years olds who've never played softball before 2006 it's been a challenge. We knew going in that wins would be limited, but as a coaching staff we wanted to teach these girls the game and give them a good foundation on which to build come spring when the more serious competition heats back up. The thing we stressed most was best effort and hustle. Hey everyone is going to make mistakes, but what are you going to do next? Whether we win or lose on the field, we should all be able to look back and at the very least know that we did our absolute best. I told them last week, that it was so important for me that they understand these ideas because it doesn't only apply to softball, it applies to life as well and that's why I'm such a stickler about it.

I must say that with the short season (just 3 weeks of games) I didn't expect to see a whole lot of improvement, but these girls are coming around. They aren't close to where our spring team was (mostly older girls), but I think that in two years when they are the same age our spring team was, they will be a tough team.

So anyway - back to the umpire. This summer we've taken our lumps as expected. Thankfully all games were played with a 5 run cap per inning so things couldn't get too boring or carried away. This past Saturday, we posted our only two wins of the summer season. These were the last season games before the summer ending tournament that runs this week. For both games we had an umpire that I've never seen before. After the second game he came over and told me that we had a well coached team. They players know what's going on, where they need to be, and how to play the game. He told me the skill will come, but he said ,"They are well coached and that comes from you." I was so surprised, but very touched at the same time. That just completed my day. It was already a good day because our girls got to see that they can do it! They can be at the right place at the right time. They can hit the ball and they can get outs. But to hear what that umpire said on top of all of that was like icing on the cake. It was definitely a great day.