The past couple of weeks have found me back at work teaching this game to young and old.
I've had many phone conversations with coaches from around the state and neighboring states as far as that goes that center around technique etc. that we have used here in Poynette throughout the years.
I have always said that once I've left the Poynette High School program I'd be willing to share things that we've found to be great ways to teach the game, have fun teaching and learning the game and of course winning at the game. The nightly coaching calls have been a great way to stay involved and is a great way to Keep It Rising!
Over the years some people have asked me what Keep It Rising means. Of course the answer is multi-faceted. It means we all need to do our best to keep interest in the sport rising because the general public and press tend to view it as a minor sport. Even administrators tend to view it as a minor sport because there is usually not an admission fee and crowds are not as large as they are at those events that start after 6 PM. PM.
Keep it Rising also means that one of the pitches in the game is a pitch that a baseball pitcher can not throw and many fastpitch pitchers struggle to "get lift" on a certain pitch as well. Some do throw a pitch that starts low and steadily goes up but few can throw it fast enough to have it stay on the same plane then suddenly lift (rise) and go over the top of a cylindrical shaped weapon. Keep It Rising also refers to the number of coaches who commit to sending news and game reports to The Fastpitch Chronicle. It is still a paltry number compared to the 420+ softball programs in the state but the numbers are "Rising."
I wrote recently about my son Eric moving to Salt Lake City. Eric loves fastpitch softball, was a highly successful young pitcher himself and has taken in a University of Utah game where they hosted UCLA and has gone to a couple of tournament games that involve Salt Lake City East High School. East plays their games only about four blocks from where Eric is living so he can walk to the games. Tonight we chatted for nearly an hour. During the conversation I told him about the Grantsburg pitcher taking a bat in the face and of walking the bases loaded story in Marathon by Athens. Eric then told me about a story that hit the airwaves in Utah late this week. Utah high schools started their state tournament series (which is double elimination) recently. This past week on a field with one of those darn plastic fences that collapse to the ground when stepped on, an outfielder lept high into the air, hit that plastic fence with her lower body and got upended but snared that 12" optic yellow pill in er 13 or 14 inch glove and crashed to the ground on the other side of the fence.
Of course the umpires got the call correct so with two outs the inning ended with the legal catch and because it was an inning ending catch the runner that was aboard could not be advanced for leaving the field of play after the catch.
Here is a link to the video of that catch and the ensuing explanation as to why the batter got robbed legally thanks to my son for telling me about it. Take a look and learn from the play.
I am really proud of our Poynette Fastpitch Organization in lots of ways. The past two weekends have seen us run another successful 10-U and 12-U event and saw our 14-U team take second place at the tournament in Janesville. Our 14-U team is, for the most part, a team composed of Poynette school district players. There are several players who are not Poynette students but two of those players have deep Poynette ties whose parents or grandparents are Poynette graduates. This past weekend the team traveled to New Berlin and came back with another second place finish after beating an excellent Outlawz Red team coached by former Marshall and Monona Grove head coach Bruce Wuchterl (who happens to be a great friend of mine as well). The girls were then beaten in the championship game by a team based out of Burlington.
We will be hosting another tournament on Father's day weekend where the age divisions are 10s, 12s, 14s and 16s and we will be back to using all three fields at the school where the Poynette Fastpitch Jamboree was always staged.
There are some key games across the state this week during this the fifth week of the season. Divisions 2-5 have this week and the next to get games in. The first round of regionals for those divisions start on June 9th. Of course the higher seeds will not play on the 9th and will start at the regional semi-final level so those higher seeds have three full weeks to get games played.
That's it for tonight. Have a great tomorrow.
Keep It Rising!
Bob
Tag(s): Bulletins
