Hello Fastpitch Softball Followers,
This is the first Fastpitch Bulletin for 2019. It has been a busy day here in the office of the Chronicle. I tried to send out a pre-season team survey to every head coach in the state. As usual I ran into hundreds of issues trying to get every head coach a copy of the document.
The turnover rate of head softball coaches from one year to the next is unbelievable. I try to use the WIAA School Directory that is online but often times, too often, softball isn't even listed as a sponsored sport at schools that actually have softball as one of the sponsored sports. Therefore the coach does not get listed either and I can't get the information to them until I sort things out online and find it. Other instances include the wrong coach listed and new coaches not updated. I can't even seem to find an alphabetical list of WIAA member high schools to be able to check things out and cross check in that order. I will keep at it in an attempt to get this sport more publicity than is normal.
Coaches are really responsible for getting their program some or more notoriety. A coach can not expect the normal media outlets to give your program and your players the kind of coverage they deserve. One of the duties is to communicate with the media sources in your area and even on a statewide basis.
If you are thinking that nobody cares about your program or that it's impossible to cover this state entirely, you need to look a bit further. This website has been covering the sport for nearly two decades. There are dozens of coaches who send in there pre-season previews, game summaries as they get played, announcements and more.
Each and every year I hear this from far, far too many coaches, "I am so busy I don't have time to send stuff out like that!"
Who suffers when that happens?
I sit on an all district selection committee and have done so for more than two decades. Come selection day we committee members are charged with naming an All District team. More times than not we have to try to separate players from one another to name a limited number of players on our list. Last spring our small school district had well over 100 players to cut down to the limited number of nominees we can forward to the all state selection committee. It's tough and good players get left off because we just have little to go on. It behooves each and every head coach in the state to join the coaches association and do the things that will promote your program and the sport in general.
Right now I am writing as one of the dinosaurs in the state's coaching ranks. This sport, thanks to the other fossils still coaching and those that have recently retired we have moved this sport from one viewed by many as just a recreational activity that schools were required to provide as a result the Title !X. Many of the early teams wore a jersey and blue jeans for uniforms. In order to play in the WIAA softball tournament series to get to the state tournament teams were required to play a minimum of 4 games and could not play more than 12 regular season games.
At the Hall of Fame Induction banquet Saturday night at Chula Vista the WFSCA inducted two head coaches that have coached for 30 years or more. Another told about playing just four games in 1976 and all against Marion and then had to play Marion in the tournament and then made it to the state tournament.
In the early days the newspapers didn't post scores. Later they posted scores but no line scores while baseball had full box scores. It took until the late 90s to get things better.
Coaches need to keep digging and doing a better and better job of promoting their own programs and the sport in general.
A good start would be making sure you get pre-season previews to local outlets and to this outlet. I emailed every head coach a preview sheet. Send it back filled out.
Within ten minutes of hitting send I had the first one back from Steve Remington of Elkhorn and a minute or so late one came back from Andrea Mahr of Stanley-Boyd and then one from Brian Phelps of Gilman. Brian Johnson of Shawano also sent in his preview. Take a page out of their book and get er done!
Be sure to take a look at the Pre-Season Rankings/Watch list. If we missed somebody just email in and let us know what team we need to take a look at.
I will update some coaching changes in the next couple of weeks as well. A few noteworthy ones tonight are: Ken Dischler, former coach at Park Falls now Chequamegon has taken the head coaching job at Oshkosh North and Paige Herbst is in as Head Coach at Chequamegon; Dan Lewison has taken over the helm at Baraboo and will lead the Thunderbirds; Alexandra Taylor has taken over the reins at Lodi replacing Jamie Midthun; and Mike Nilssen has been named head coach at Saint Croix Central replacing Mindy Ramberg.
Have a great day!
Keep It Rising!
Bob
