Coach Janine

Saturday, 4 April 2009

I had to miss last week's Ladybugs practice-- our first-- because of the play. Though it was a pretty good play ('Happy days-- The Musical'. See it. It's cute), the whole weekend became something of a mess of scheduling. Gran had got us the tickets for Christmas. I had written down that it would be the 4th and had got it wrong, so I had to politely excuse myself from the first organised practice and ride up to Philadelphia in the green Cadillac with Mother and Jessy for the matinee. We ate some pretty good pizza at a place round the corner from the Academy and actually ran into some old friends and got back much too late to recover anything from the day.

This weekend I arrived at Castle Field with a vengeance... meaning a box of two dozen doughnuts and three-litre bottles of Coke. Fortunately none of the girls had forgot who I was. At the first team meeting two weeks ago I had been the first to formally greet them, conducting a tour of the facility starting with the visitors' locker room, going through the snack bar and the tower and at last sitting them all down in the red-white-and-grey Ladybugs' official locker room where I drilled them all, pointing at each one in turn.

'What is my name?'
'Janine!'
'What is my name?'
'Janine!'
'What is my name?'
'Janine!'

I had already explained to them in my decidedly UN-Virginia-like accent that I absolutely refuse to be known as 'Miss Janine', which had been part of my planned lesson on etiquette and protocol. (They are, after all, girls, and to me that means young ladies.) 'Miss Janine' is for second daughters in the Old South, or a slightly more respectful way to address adult servants. It is not appropriate for me. If I am their teacher, they can call me 'Miss' and use my last name. I would prefer to be their teammate, and so I am 'Janine'.

Because of my insistence on this point they all liked me from the start. After my somewhat theatrical and amusing self-promotion I had turned it over to our head coach and after they had all got a list of what they needed to do and bring we all had all gone out for pizza (with no meat, because it's Lent).

This weekend we got down to business. It was very windy and not at all warm, but we coaching staff had reminded them that they should always bring a long-sleeved t-shirt (red, white, or grey, no other colours) in their gear bag and should either bring their team jersey separately or wear something presentable under it so they can put on the long-sleeved t-shirt in the dugout if they need to. Most girls wore long-sleeved t-shirts or sweatshirts today since this practice did not require team jerseys.

Mother says she will get have red team t-shirts made for wearing to and from games and for wearing on team outings when we don't have to have our playing jerseys. I think this is a good team-building idea... and they can wear them to school (we already told them they may not do that with the actual playing shirts-- it's unprofessional).

We started out by stretching and then jogging three laps of the infield, round the bases. Many people were winded (but not, surprisingly, me. And I was in jeans). Then we issued bats. Due to the weather we three coaches arranged ourselves in the outfield with the batting girls on the left-field line so that they were hitting towards their own dugout, into the wind, which made a better workout. I typically counted about 10 pitches per person. After each at-bat we let them choose any one of the three of us they wanted for next time. I was glad that they did not all pick favourites but really did try to experience each one of us. I think they are still getting used to all of us, but that shows a level of trust.

Coach Harry left early and went in to the field office to file reports and contact info and all that, leaving Michelle and me to conduct the rest of the practice. That means I left it to Michelle. She's got far more experience in actual coaching than I have. First we had them all do dashes from home plate to first. I stood on the base and slapped their hands as they finished. Then Michelle quizzed the girls on strategy, such as when to bunt, when to steal, and when to slide. Most of these girls have played organised ball before and had good answers. At least two have never played anything on a team. Those are the girls that make up my mission, for I refuse to let anyone feel alienated by this whole process and won't let anyone be left out. We stopped before lunch and there was no plan for going out, so as people's parents came to collect them we sat in the (warmer) locker room, chose lockers, sipped Coke, asked questions, and got to know each other. It was fun.

I am not going to mention the girls' names here. We will shortly have a team website, which I will not give out on AOL, and it won't mention last names either. We'll just try to keep the the photos of players from revealing their last names on the backs of the jerseys, but the parents already know you can't have everything. The site will probably only be accessible through the league network anyway.

When I got home this afternoon I typed up a cute little email and sent it out to all the girls (meaning, their parents' email addresses. We didn't ask for and won't save the girls' own ones, if they have them). I thanked them all for coming and promised them more fun 'and hard work' next Saturday. And I signed it, 'Love-- Coach Janine.' I think that sets a mood then. So what if it's sappy? It's what I do.

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