Beseball is Over (sigh of relief)

Well I coached a team for about 4 months and I managed to survive and I believe that most of the kids had a good time and more importantly prepared themselves to play at the next level of competition. We ended the season playing a team that we were severely mismatched against. They were simply bigger, stronger, and faster than us. The weekend before they had taken 2nd place in a difficult tournament. We jumped out to a 3-1 lead, and held onto that lead for 3 innings. I truly believe that if we had been more mentally tough, we might have won that game.

A kid that we perceived as a leader of the team asked to come out of the game b/c his arm was hurting. We let hime come out before the 4th inning and the kid that replaced him subsequently had 3 errors that hurt us a lot. The next inning the kid with the hurt arm said his arm felt fine now and he could play. Soon after another kid came to me and said that he thought he needed to sit out b/c he had a headache. So the person that took his place had another 2 errors. My only point is that sometimes you have to play through the pain. I asked Brian if he would have taken himself out of the state tournament and he said not unless he was hurt to the point that he could not return to the game. It was unbelievable, but at the same time we did the best we could with the team that actually wanted to play.

It was nice to see the progress that we had made as a team. At the beginning of the season there is a good possibility that we would have been run ruled by that team. At the end of the season we were going toe to toe with them with a good shot of winning. It is very satisfying to know that you were an integral part in shaping a player and to know you gave them tools to help them compete at the next level. I would do it again if the opportunity arose, but in the meantime I am going to really enjoy my time off.