Softball Doesn't Really Use a Soft Ball

I am going to let you in on some daily happenings in my life. I don't usually talk about my life outside of the plants, dirt, food, and animals but I have something I want to tell you about. This tid bit is just another piece of the pie that makes up my life and one of the big reasons why I don't get to post as often.

I am a coach.

I coach girls fastpitch and where I live, that can be a challenge because every athletic girl usually plays soccer, not fastpitch. For years, I have been recruiting, maintaining, and growing the local fastpitch league for girls 8 - 14 years old. I haven't been doing all the work though, I have a lot of support from co-workers and parents. Sometimes things go well and sometimes things are frustrating but I keep trucking on because it is fun.

Currently, I coach 13 and 14 year olds. I have been coaching some of the girls for 4 years and it is a lot of fun to see them grow, learn, and deal with me tormenting them. Luckily I haven't offended many families with my sarcastic comments and the girls seem to enjoy a little back and forth occasionally.

I do get frustrated with my team sometimes though. In fact, just last weekend I told them they were playing horribly, it was true. None of them cried about it though, at least not in front of me. And then the next game, they all did about 103% better, it was great. I guess some of them have had coaches in the past just yell at them, I don't think I can do that but I can verbally abuse with quieter words. Sometimes, I swear (go figure) but only by using the word "crap". (It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.) As in, "that was a crappy throw", "get your crappy glove in the dirt already", "used two hands you crapster". Well, maybe I don't say all those things, but I think I just gave myself some new material.

So anywho, that is where I am during the evenings when I should be making dinner and blogging. I am in the world of softball with 13 and 14 year old girls who win about half of their games because sometimes they can't hit the ball because they are playing crappy. Sometimes the play amazingly though and it makes the evening one totally worth not being home making dinner and blogging and snuggling kittens.