Again, I have to say thank you to all of you guys here, you have been a great encouragement and helped me think through some things as I went into my first year as a Varsity Baseball Coach from just being an assistant Dad. I guess the only bad part now is having a coaches kid on the team, lol.
Yesterday was our first game and because this is the interwebs and I can be honest, I was anxious and nervous all day. I've been coaching recreation, church and competitive leagues for 20 years and I am a black belt in 3 different martial arts disciplines so I have been instructing students for many years...I have no clue why I was so anxious other than just the stage of Varsity level competition.
I shared in my original post that we played decently in our scrimmages and got to see that we had potential to be competitive, but I was still nervous. As with many, I am sure, weather has not been conducive to play so we actually had to swap our game with our opponent because their field was playable and ours was not. I was okay with that because only thing that could have made it more nerving would have to been a home game. We had to travel about 45 minutes with a 4:00PM start time so I was pretty confident that there wouldn't be many traveling with us, and when your school has had 5 coaches in 5 years there's not much buzz around the diamond for fans coming to watch...well, hopefully we will change that.
So, I decided to start the season off with my ACE on the mound and go hard after the first game. He sure did not let me down, 51 pitches, 33 strikes/18 balls, 11 batters faced and 9 strikeouts, 1 base on balls (which the ump told me he felt the catcher framed the 2-2 pitch which is why he called it a ball). We secured the first victory in at least 5 years, 25-0.
Tomorrow we face one of my biggest rivals, not necessarily the school for our home opener and there has already been buzz around the school system all the way to the School Board Chairman and Superintendent of Schools...and even some local Prep Sports Twitter buzz.
It is amazing how a team can turn around if the players buy in and make themselves coachable. I'm by no means a great coach but having students willing to listen and respond makes the world of a difference.
Even more than securing the long sought victory, what meant the most to me yesterday was being able to circle both teams up for a mini sermon on the mound and hearing 2 of the leaders on my team encourage the team we played, telling them they have been there and to put in the work and stay committed to the program. My boys learned hard work pays off yesterday and turning them into productive, responsible men...I couldn't ask for anything more.
Thank you all again for all your encouragement and help preparing for this season. I'm praying we can keep the spark alive and put in a winning season. District play will be much tougher, having to face several teams ranked high in the state including one team that is #8 overall and #2 in our division. The good thing is we have no expectations on us and maybe we can go sneak up on some of those teams and give them a little surprise.
