So Nate and I decided to coach the littles Tball team. We kind of figured if we had 1/4 of the team, we might as well be the coaches, especially since we both know and enjoy base/softball. Neither of us had ever coached, but we knew enough from watching the coaching of Z's prior teams that we could CERTAINLY do as well as them, and probably better since a) we had watched their mistake and b) we are teachers and have an idea of how to direct kids.
However, we are not pre-K teachers. The "coaching" could be described as barely herding cats. We really had a good time though, and tried to get the kids to learn some basic skills, like throwing, not dogpiling when the ball is hit, and watching out for other kids when you have the bat in your hands. You know, basics.
Our team was Orange Crush (we vetoed the Orange Monsters or Dragons). We also recruited any friends that we already had in the area and had them be on our team, so we knew 8 of 12 kids (more importantly, parents!) before we even started. That made a huge difference for us as coaches and it just made our team a bit more coherent.
Our boys, well, they did pretty much as expected.
L couldn't have cared less. He was very content to sit and draw in the dirt or pick flowers. He would sit on the bench while we were in the field and halfway through the first batter would decide to join us. He did actually pretty well when the ball was hit, and he charged the ball more so than some of the other kids, which kind of surprised me. His batting was kind of ridiculous. He is kind of ambidextrous in general, using his left and right hand interchangeably, so we had him bat lefty...which was about as good as when he batted right handed.
The first several games/practices C was kind of freaked out and cried if one of us left his side (which let me tell you, we loved). He loved to be the first batter and (no surprise) was the best of our boys in general while playing.
N was the hardest working of our boys. He was pretty awful at batting, although he had a great swing without the tee. But he was always happy about it.
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