Athlete Coaches: Marissa Lajeunesse

 My First Coaching Experience

On top of working a fulltime job this past summer there was an opportunity that arose in my community that without a doubt I couldn’t let pass by. The Mitchell Minor Baseball league was short on coaches for a couple of their teams, and they were looking for someone to coach their Girls Mites Softball team. I quickly agreed and wanted to know everything that it entailed as I had never coached before. Here is a little overview of my experience.

First Practice

As I headed for the ball diamond the day of our first practice I still had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Thoughts ran through my head, “will the girls all know each other, will they not know each other, will they be shy, will they listen to me”, etc...Well it turned out that in fact they almost all knew each other from school (Pheew what a relief I thought), Not realizing that I now had twelve 9-10 year old best friends with tons of energy on my hands. Essentially the outcome of this first practice was complete chaos being a first time coach. During the team meeting out on the grass (once I got all 12 girls to sit in somewhat of a circle) I asked each girl how long they had been playing softball and where they liked to play. The majority of the girl said they had been playing for 2-3 years on the same Mitchell and 2 girls were newbies to the sport entirely.

For warm up I introduced the game ‘Hot Dog’ (a silly tag game that I was introduced to when I joined Haylee’s team a couple years back) to the girls and they instantly fell in love with it, and for the rest of the year became the team’s favourite game (with a close second being the game ‘guts’).

We then moved onto the couple drills I had planned just to see where everyone’s level was at and to find out what we needed to work on as a team. As the practice progressed it was clear that I had my work cut out for me, seeing as most didn’t know the rules of the game (or just forgot from the year before). Leaving the diamond, I was relieved to have the first practice over but was also excited about my decision and was looking forward to the next practice.

Over The Season 

Throughout the season (both during the games and practices) our team began to take shape. Hidden superstars stepped up, everyone became team players (no matter what position they were playing, or if they had to sit), and the team jokesters always kept it a fun atmosphere.

In Mite Girls Softball the rules were as follows:

• There is no score kept
• No running on overthrows
• 11” indoor ball is used
• Parent of the home team will Umpire the game
• After 4 balls, the batter gets 3 soft tosses from their coach to attempt to hit (instead of a walk)

At the start of the season the girls struggled with hitting (or not wanting to hit) off the pitchers, knowing as a batter that if they didn’t swing that they would get a nice little toss from one of their coaches. Well this was a big problem because some of the girls would be moving to the next level next year and the rules are not as nice in the older levels. So we worked hard at our batting (telling the girls if they came early to practice that they would get extra hitting practice) and showing them the proper techniques. 

After the first couple games I noticed that the girls were still a little bit scared of the ball, so I pulled out one of the softballs that I use (and all levels above mites use) and I let them feel and compare both of them. They were shocked at how hard the softball that older girls use and most realized that there was no reason to be scare of the ball that they played with. In the games that followed my team started to look more confident at the plate and slowly began to swing their bats more. By the end of the season the girls had become more comfortable with hitting off the pitcher and hardly relied on soft tosses. 

At the tournament at the end of the season the girls really came together as a team on the field. All the girls were smacking the ball off the pitcher and their game knowledge had greatly improved. To cap up our last inning in our last game in the tournament (and the season) the girls made an amazing double play and were only about half a second from making it a triple play (which would have ended the game). That play was the highlight of the season for me and is the reason I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. To see that improvement in the team as a whole, as a coach is one of the best feelings out there.

What I learnt

Coaching the Mites team was a very good learning experience for me and it made me realize many things.  Here are a couple:

1. I now have an even bigger appreciation for coaches of all sports for the commitment level involved. I did not realize the amount of time and effort that was involved off the field and behind the scenes with contacting parents and players, rescheduling game, making practice plans, batting order, defensive positions and in the end making it all fun for the girls.
2. It is possible to play the game “Hotdog” with as little as three people if you are that passionate about playing the game but don’t have enough players (instead of having groups of two on the ground, you would just have everyone be their own “hotdog” on the ground with no bun at all!)
3. It is mandatory that someone is designated to bring a snack after every game. (This should be implicated onto every team’s rules!)

To Sum It All Up

Growing up in Mitchell and playing in the community softball league was a great experience and was one of the many stepping stones that lead me to where I am now. I am glad to give back to the program and hope to give the players in the league as much knowledge and support as I have received. I am so happy to be able to share my knowledge, experience and techniques with the developing softball players of my hometown and hope that they choose to pursue softball to its fullest or simply to enjoy the sport, make friends and feel like part of a team. Whatever the case I am glad that I have had the opportunity to be part of it. 

The level of support from the parents was amazing. With the cheering, volunteering to be the umpire for our homes game, getting their kids to practice/games on time and all around being very supportive of the coaching staff and our decisions. I can’t thank you guys enough!

Last But Not Least

I would like to give a shout out to the Mitchell “Fireballs” (Girls Mites Team) and I want to thank both the girls and their parents for making my first year of coaching an amazing one. I can’t wait to coach some of you girls again next year and for the girls I won’t be able to coach I hope to see you around the diamonds.

P.S. I will get you all back for the water balloons! Miss you girls