High School Fastpitch Coach - story

[DonnieS]

We rag on these people a lot, and I have done my part but last night I heard a story that really helps me understand what these guys have to do. Met a guy last night , he is now an a/d for one of the small schools in our area. He was watching one of my dds take hitting instructions - and he told me he used to coach fastpitch.

He told me that early in his career right after finishing 4 years of D1 baseball (smaller d1) , he was hired into a pretty decent program as a varsity asst coach on football and baseball - just what he wanted. The a/d at that school came up to him, he was low man on the totem pole, but obviously experienced in baseball and said 'coach, got a challenge for you . The board just authorized girls fastpitch for our school, and they have granted xx dollars for the program, its all yours - go do it.' He said, he had never seen fastpitch but assumed it was just baseball for girls - the a/d told him to go and watch a tournament that was coming up.

He said he was shocked at the speed of the game. He came back and asked permission to go to some clinics, order books, etc. The a/d said, go for it, you have the budget. He said that he could not believe how close everthing is - what he said was that it seemed to him that any average boy athlete could handle baseball, with 90 foot bases, etc, but he found that it took well above average girl athletes to handle fastpitch because of the distance and the speed. He said 'on every pitch, you have decisions that have to be made immediately - in baseball, my 3rd baseman is sometimes behind the base, a ball gets hit, the fielder runs up, checks the runners, double clutches half the time, and fires the ball, gets the guy by a step - in fastpitch, at the instant the ball is hit, you charge, you already know where you are going - you fire the ball and its done - no double clutch, no hesitation.' And he also said, since doing fastpitch, baseball seems boring. He said his biggest problem was pitching, in boys, he could work with the kids , but in girls it was tough to impossible to get kids to want to take the time to do the practice, and find instructors for lessons.

I imagine this is the way a lot of programs start, I like that this guy took the initiative to go to clinics and try to learn the game.

[Tucson]

And if he was teaching, he was at school at 7:30 AM and still there 12 hours later. If he wasn't teaching he was working somewhere.

The game is easier for us that just walk up with a lawn chair and sit down.

[DonnieS]

And if he was teaching, he was at school at 7:30 AM and still there 12 hours later. If he wasn't teaching he was working somewhere.

The game is easier for us that just walk up with a lawn chair and sit down.

Not totally true, besides my lawn chair, my job is to bring the roasted peanuts for 'the gang', a responsibility I take upon myself.


And regarding his duties, he said that his first 4 years of teaching/coaching, he missed seeing just about everything his own kids were involved in. That would be very difficult.

[coolstuff]

Nice story! Sometimes we forget that most HS coaches are regular people trying to do the best they can and are willing to learn from the experts in order to be a better coach. They have jobs and families just like us (for the most part). That's not to say there aren't any clunkers out there; I'm sure there are. Thanks again for bringing some balance to these forums.

[Nzane]

I wish more Coaches would do that. Sounds like he's trying....

[turntwo]

Donnie, great story. I wish there were more coaches out there like him that took the time to learn. He is right about the speed of the game. I was wondering last night as I watched my son's baseball game how would these boys do if they were playing fastpitch. Would they be able to hit the ball and get on base? Would the fielders have time to make a play. The pitching seemed so slow like they had all day to hit the ball, and they still swung and missed.

I grew up in Edinburg, which if I remember from some of your posts, might be in the same area as where you are in South Texas? I am glad to see they have fastpitch in high school now. We didn't have softball at all in high school when I was there. And in the leagues we only had slow pitch.

[DonnieS]

I grew up in Edinburg, which if I remember from some of your posts, might be in the same area as where you are in South Texas? I am glad to see they have fastpitch in high school now. We didn't have softball at all in high school when I was there. And in the leagues we only had slow pitch.

That area has really grown - dont know how the downturn has affected it, but we played there in the Mission high school tournament right before district started. Its catching on, we have played down there for years and every year, there are more and more teams that are stepping up and becoming competitive. For a while, the only competition we had there were schools from our area that went down there, but now there are 6-8 very competitive locals teams among the 35 teams in the tournament. Mercedes knocked us out last year, this year we were in a good bracket and didnt face any weak teams, which helped though we still lost in the championship by one run.