Change is hard . . .

Inevitably, the wonderful athletes that I have worked with for years and years will go on to college.  In fact, that is what I try to train them for.  We always address preparation for the higher level and make sure that it figures prominently in our workouts.  Still, I feel like this year is probably the toughest it has ever been to say even a temporary "good-bye" to my graduating seniors.  Kerri, Liz, and Kaitlyn have been tremendous fixtures in my life for years and years now.  They have been athletes that I looked forward to working with every week.  I was always excited during the season to open up the paper and learn of their most recent successes.  Not having that weekly interaction in person is going to be tough, and yet, I feel so confident in their respective work ethics and their abilities to succeed, that I am anticipating that wonderful joy at seeing them conquer the next level of play.  It is something almost tangible:  all those long hours they spent perfecting their craft seem destined to culminate soon.  It is incredible.

But, of course, I will still miss them terribly.

As if that weren't enough, Danielle Henderson, an amazing friend of mine (and a fellow pitching instructor) was offered the incredible opportunity to be a pitching coach at Ohio State.  She is someone with whom I have always discussed spins, methodology, and the various topics that come up when working with young girls.  I am truly so blessed to have her as a friend.  Aside from being knowledgeable and having experience at the highest level, she is honest, sweet and wonderful in every way.   I remember looking up to her as a young athlete when I just started to learn pitching and then interviewing her for a newspaper article when I wrote for The Three Village Times.  After all of that, to have the honor of being her friend is just a great gift.  I know that this job means a kind of success for Danielle that she can't experience here.  I am so happy for her, but I can't help but be just a little selfish and want her to stay.  She is going to be wonderful and inspiring for girls at a very high level, just as she has been wonderful and inspiring to me and her students for years now.

Finally, some of my younger girls who are wonderful athletes at other positions have decided to dedicate their time on perfecting these areas of the game as opposed to pitching.  This is actually something that I wholeheartedly agree with.  It is tough to  decide that, as skilled as one may be as a pitcher, it might be better to dominate at a different position.  Pitching is so much time, dedication, and heart.   It also requires mental tenacity and a certain amount of fearlessness.  It takes a very strong person to realize that she has these qualities and can cultivate them, but it also takes a very strong person to do the opposite.   I love these girls.  They will always be a part of our softball family.  However, even Natasha Watley was a pitcher at one point.  I am sure she does not regret the decision to focus on her abilities as a short stop and offensive player.

So what is my message today?  Change is hard, and sometimes even heartbreaking.  Should that ever stop us?  No.  In my experience, all of the great things in life are hard, but they also make us stronger.  You don't want to pass up the experiences in life that will give you that gift.  

Once in a lifetime . . .

Happy Fourth of July!  This has been a huge weekend for tournaments (as usual), but it has also been incredibly hot lately, so be sure to be drinking plenty of fluids at least twenty minutes prior to going out in the heat.  Remember, caffienated beverages do not help with your hydration, and can actually make matters worse.  So-called "energy drinks" are particularly bad in this respect. 

I have been trying my best to get around to blogging, but this has been an insane time of year between coordinating for the muscle fatigue study, scheduling lessons, and actually giving lessons.  I have been dying to write about all of the wonderful events concerning Liz, and now here it is:

As many of you already know, I have worked with Liz Weber since she was ten years old.  What many of you don't know, is that she cried before her first lesson, and did not talk to me in lessons for about the first year.  What many of you also don't know is that Lori and Liz had a huge hand  in my doing lessons on a full-time basis.  When I first started teaching Liz, I was still teaching at Smithtown High School.  After working with Liz and some other students, I decided that I would much rather work with dedicated young ladies all day long than search for a few kids willing to work hard in an average English class.   Everyone thought I was crazy for leaving a good job at Smithtown, but I knew that I had something really unique with the girls that I was teaching.  Nevertheless, the  first year is always tough, and Lori helped tremendously by setting up clinics for me at a gym in West Islip.  Liz and Lori would also drive over an hour so that they could come and pitch in my parent's basement (where I used to practice growing up).  When I bought a house, they came to pitch in the basement there as well. 

Many people have helped me along the way, but Lori, Coach Ventre, my parents, the Gallo family, and the Huntley family all made it possible for me to really get through that first tough year of starting a business.   They all found ways to get me gym space and made it possible for me to do group lessons.  They also referred so many people to me, which gave me confidence and really got my business off the ground.  Lori was constantly encouraging me to open my own facility, which always  unnerved me because of the overhead.  She had even offered to help!  Very few people realize this, but this was one of the many factors that drove me to finally rent my own place after several years of renting at other facilities.  The other two major factors being the wonderful advice and help of Deanna Dovak, and finally getting the blessing from my dad.  My dad also put in countless hours helping me to set up the facility the way I wanted it.  He helped me to find, and to work with, a truly wonderful landlord. 

Now I have been in my facility for about five years and this has been the most exciting year that we have shared as a group.  All you need to do is check the homepage at http://www.flawlessfastpitch.com/ to see how we have all excelled this year.  The part that is particularly exciting, however, is the fact that Liz's  high school team (Bay Shore) won the New York State Championship in this, her senior year.  I could not have hoped for more as she prepares to head for college in the fall.  And yet, there was more.  She was Newsday's Player of the Year and Suffolk County's Pitcher of the Year.  Newsday did an entire article on her.  Just incredible.  I saw Liz on June 24th for a lesson and was amazed to learn that she was graduating the next day.  It seemed like that went so fast!  Needless to say, I had to be at her graduation.  It was then that Lori told me that Liz was up for NYS Player of the Year.  This is a tremendous honor because only one girl in NYS is chosen.  I was honored to join Liz and her family for her graduation dinner and, immediately following, we found out that she was in fact New York State Player of the Year.   I feel like such a sequence of amazing events, from that first lesson eight years ago, to the amazing conclusion of her high school career, is a once in a lifetime scenario.  I feel truly blessed to have been a part of this process.  Though I know it will be very different with Liz away at school, I feel that I will be a part of that process too, and I am so thankful.  Huge thanks to the Weber family, and major congratulations to Liz!