The wins and losses of coaching success

How hard could it be to coach nine and ten year olds? That's a question I asked myself last January when I signed my name to the dotted line when registering my son to play for the Woodview Mite softball team.

I played for Baker Park from the age of 8 until 21 so I had experience. I'd also helped coach a woman's team while living in Toronto in the 90s. It was relatively easy considering most of them were older than me at the time. It felt like being an arm-chair coach, most of them were good at one position or another so I simply pencilled them in at their best position and let them be the heroes. It worked out well as we made the City of Toronto finals and had a great time (and a few beers afterwards) getting there.

But the team I coach these days cannot drink beer with me, they are of the juice box drinking variety and they  do not know the game. It's not so easy to pencil them in at this position or that because few if any of them know where they can play. It's up to me to coach them, to determine where they're best suited to help the team. Oh yah, I also have to switch each and every player into as many positions I can per game at this level. It can prove to be quite interesting.

I thought all was well when the first two games of the season came and went. Two wins, no losses, not bad for a first year coach. The kids were also encouraged by the two-game winning streak. That though was early June. Our late June record now shows two wins, five losses. Ouch.

This past weekend was our first tournament and for reasons that were beyond me we were slotted into the A Division. Two wins and five losses and we're in the A Division, okay, doesn't make a lot of sense but my team played along and we managed to squeak out a win in our first game against Kedron, a team we'd lost to in regular season play. The kids were on Cloud 9 when we'd won. They jumped up and hollered when we'd won giving me a sense of accomplishment. It felt good seeing them so exited about one win.

The next day we played Courtice 3, one of the few teams we'd beaten earlier in the season. It was a hard-fought match but Woodview came out on the losing end 15-13. Tough.

Game 3 saw us meeting Harmon Park and three of the players on that team were as tall as me. I'm 5 foot-seven but also hold the distinction of being 43 years old. These three kids were 10 years old and looked me straight in the eye! Bam, bam, bam, our team was literally giving Harmon Park batting practise. We went down to defeat, 16-4. There was no bronze medal game for Woodview this weekend. We played our hearts out but came up short.

Being the coach I felt the disappointment more than you'll know. My team wanted so much to play one more game and despite the huge loss we took at the hands of Harmon Park I hoped we'd still have a shot at a medal game.

The result left us all hanging our heads in disappointment. Then my Dad came forward to give me a heads-up. One of my players' fathers had struck up a conversation with him over the weekend and told him how his daughter was really enjoying the season so far. She thought I was a good coach because of my enthusiasm and that I moved her around the field so much. That was just what I needed to hear.

Truth be told it's in the rules that I have to move my players around to every position except pitcher and catcher. So if that makes me look like a good coach, I'll take it. But my enthusiasm stems from a belief that I think my team is THE BEST no matter what our record indicates. Yes, we have good players and not so good players. But each and every one of the 12 players on my team wants to play, have fun and hopefully win. I can always guarantee they'll play, I'm trying my best to make it fun but winning is not always as easy a recipe to follow. We've had limited success to date but I know we'll have more in the future.

No matter what happens between now and August, I want to continue making softball fun and I want to continue teaching my kids all I can about the game. My success won't be what record we end up with at the end of the season, my success will come registration next season.

I too started playing softball at the same age as my current team. We lost every game that season except one. We won that one by default. A few years later the same group of kids were winning city championships on a regular basis as they grew older and developed their love for the game.

My goal is to foster a love for the game. I hope I achieve it because the kids on my team now have so much potential. They're my team and I'm proud to be their coach.