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The Fastpitch Bulletin, Volume 15, Number 2 - 2/15/15

02/15/2015, 10:15am CST
By Bob Tomlinson

Fastpitch Bulletin

Blistering Cold will bring the heat of the season

Hello Fastpitch folks

At least hello to those who read these diatribes. It's a Sunday morning here in Columbia County and it's just above zero after being below zero most of the morning thus far.

I have a couple of pitching lessons to take part in later today so I'll have to ring up the fella who owns the building where the batting cage and pitching station exists to coerce him into firing up the furnace a bit earlier than normal.

Don't fret though. Things will warm up and get heated. They always do. At least in the world of fastpitch softball they do. 

A close fastpitch coaching friend much north of me informed me the other day that unlike last year he could see grass on his outfield. Albeit the grass was not green but it was grass. Here in this part of the softball world there was more than a foot of snow in most places covering the ground and I got stuck with my 4-wheel drive pickup while out checking my trap and cable restraint line. That forced me to do some heavy work in bitter cold weather.

I noticed yesterday that the look and feel of the Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association website is new. It appears that there still remains a lot of work on it but for now the information is pertinent. Don't forget that the WFSCA annual clinic is this weekend. In the past few years the WFSCA has taken straw votes so to speak on issues relative to the game and issues central to Wisconsin High School fastpitch softball. If you are not there to comment, vote or whatever it is they do, you may not get a chance to do so when it counts. I'll be there this year. Being a parent or grandparent takes a lot of time and a person only gets to see their grandchildren at their events so many times. Last year I was with my grandson at a hockey tournament in Hayward on the weekend of the clinic. 

I've been putting together a new WIAA coaches list complete with school name, enrollments, Division of play, Head Coach's name and email addresses. Each year when I embark on this very time consuming project I am forced to shake my head at the extremely high number of coaching changes at the head coaching level across the state. Just a few years ago the WIAA overseer of fastpitch told me that softball has the largest turnover of head coaches of all WIAA sponsored sports. I don't know if that is still the case but to me it's a huge issue. Frequent coaching changes causes a lack of continuity and affects the girls playing the sport. It also is tough for people to stay in touch with the current coaching staff. Even the WIAA website is not a complete listing of head coaches. Some schools, and understandably so, are still seeking someone to be their head coach. 

2015 marks the 36th year that I will be coaching fastpitch. I've seen a lot of people come and go. Some hang in there nearly as long as I have while others are like many Kentucky basketball players, "One and Dones" 

Teaching and coaching is hard. It's time consuming and takes one away from other aspects of their lives. There is so much that goes into getting a program established or continuing at a high level of competitiveness. I believe that many of the people who get a head coaching postion have no clue initially just how hard this is. There are so many factors that a head coach has to deal with and many have nothing to do with the game itself. If all we had to do is teach the game and develop skills it would much easier. But alas, it just isn't that way. A coach finds themselves constantly trying to ferret their way through a myriad of issues that suddenly pop up. For too many, those issue and factors ultimately find them moving on to something else. 

In other cases a school needs a head coach and a parent takes over the program. Many times that coach bids the school a farewell when their child moves on in life as well. That school then must seek another person to fill that spot. It's not just softball I'm typing about. It occurs across the entire sports map.

To those of you who are reading this and are back for your second, third,, fourth or 35th year of being a head softball coach -- it's great to have you aboard again. To those of you reading this who are first-year head coaches my thoughts are that it would be wise to listen to the veterans of many coaching battles. They've been through just about all of it and can give you some perspective and perhaps some ideas that you can utiltize beginning today.

Numbers! Numbers!
Another issue that I see in our sport is the lack of participants compared to years ago. A myriad of factors have come into play over the years I've been coaching that have reduced the number of softball players in the state. It's just the way things are.

For me, recruiting enough bodies to field three competitive high school softball teams is not easy. With approximately 167 girls in our high school I need at least 32-34 kids to field those three teams. There was a time when we had 54-56 players in our high school program. This year I find myself at the school trying to recruit two or three athletes in order to field three teams. It is not easy. For coaches at schools smaller than where I am it's even tougher to get three teams much less even two teams. Heck, at some schools it seems to tough to get enough for a varsity team. As a matter of fact a school in our conference did not field a team in 2013 due to only having eight kids interested in playing.  

On another note -- March 28th is a date when we will be offering teams a place to play if you are still looking for games. Poynette will host games on that day if there are people looking to get some action in on some great facilities. Contact me if interested. I'm also looking for teams to take part in a scrimmage on or about March 24-27 or the March 28th day may become a scrimmage day.

The Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree is May 1-2 this spring. A huge list of teams has been filling the file folder in the athletic director's office. The JV Jamboree is May 9th and has a large number of teams entered as well.\

The Poynette Fastpitch Organization, an organization separate from the school district is hosting a 10-Under and 12-Under round robin event on May 16th at Diamonds of Champions here. If you have a team in that age category and are interested in an event that is very affordable and offers a great softball atmosphere just check out the website at www.pfo.clubexpress.com or go to www.eteamz.com/poynette for more information.

The Poynette Summer Jamboree has been forced to move its weekend to June 19-21 due to the way the calendar swung after last year. That tournament is open to all 10-U through 18-U teams interested.

That's about it for today
Have a great day and stay warm!

Keep it Rising!

Bob

Tag(s): Bulletins