It was November, it was brisk, but a beautiful day. Despite all the
tragedies around us with weather related flooding and devastation, we
managed to turn out 16 kids. One of the best parts were the new faces that
never played organized ball before. I am proud to report that I appointed
two stand up kids as the leaders for this project. Miles Eberhard and Quin
Maloney faced the challenge I asked of them and proved to be up for the
task. We met and we talked about how they would accomplish what we needed
to do as a whole. I gave them situations we needed to avoid for safety and
multi aged attendance. They returned for our last meeting prior to the
event with answers to the possible scenarios and how they would handle them.
There was an unknown amount of kids coming from ages 5-12. To their credit
they chose the not so pretty field that had two diamonds just in case we
needed to run two games at the same time.
It was adult free! Moms and dads had a mini picnic and watched the kids
work it out. Mikes and Quin chose the teams. They chose the littlest kids
first and worked their way up. It was inspiring how they made all the kids
feel included in the game. More importantly, how they felt accepted by the
bigger kids that they want to emulate. It wasn't about pitching as hard as
they could, it was about having fun and the bigger kids pitched
appropriately to their competition. Miles suggested to avoid the catchers
position with unnecessary equipment and replace it with a lawn chair for
balls and strikes. Everyone rotated positions and if I recall
correctly..after 4 innings the cold got to everyone and it ended with a
score that no one remembers except that it was a good time.
tragedies around us with weather related flooding and devastation, we
managed to turn out 16 kids. One of the best parts were the new faces that
never played organized ball before. I am proud to report that I appointed
two stand up kids as the leaders for this project. Miles Eberhard and Quin
Maloney faced the challenge I asked of them and proved to be up for the
task. We met and we talked about how they would accomplish what we needed
to do as a whole. I gave them situations we needed to avoid for safety and
multi aged attendance. They returned for our last meeting prior to the
event with answers to the possible scenarios and how they would handle them.
There was an unknown amount of kids coming from ages 5-12. To their credit
they chose the not so pretty field that had two diamonds just in case we
needed to run two games at the same time.
It was adult free! Moms and dads had a mini picnic and watched the kids
work it out. Mikes and Quin chose the teams. They chose the littlest kids
first and worked their way up. It was inspiring how they made all the kids
feel included in the game. More importantly, how they felt accepted by the
bigger kids that they want to emulate. It wasn't about pitching as hard as
they could, it was about having fun and the bigger kids pitched
appropriately to their competition. Miles suggested to avoid the catchers
position with unnecessary equipment and replace it with a lawn chair for
balls and strikes. Everyone rotated positions and if I recall
correctly..after 4 innings the cold got to everyone and it ended with a
score that no one remembers except that it was a good time.
