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Reply to "Team Chemistry"

We didn't ask about it, which in retrospect seems odd. My son's youth team had amazing chemistry that the coaches actively promoted by having the kids do service projects together, or they had them run from the practice field to the hitting field while the coaches drove along yelling insults to them. (One of the most effective mound speeches son said he ever heard was this coach telling him "you suck." For graduation, he gave all the players key chains that said "don't suck." Insults between coaches and players went both ways and were part of the chemistry.)

I don't know how the chemistry is on the college team. He doesn't talk about it, but to my mind it would be harder to build because it seems really like two teams wearing the same uniforms — pitchers and everybody else.

But i wonder if "team chemistry" can also be phrased as knowing that you are playing for something bigger than yourself. Maybe it's for your team, maybe it's for your coaches, maybe it's for the institution. That I think son's school does well. Kids are often encouraged to visit elementary schools to read to students or to visit the children's hospital to spend time with patients. On son's first travel day he texted me that he was surprised when some Iowa fans stopped him in the airport and had their picture taken with him — even though he had never yet played a game, to them he was one of THEIR players. I think that gave him and some of his teammates a sense of unity that might also be called chemistry.

Now I wish we had asked. I'm curious about what answers we would have gotten.

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