Coach Niki is Miss June!

Monday was the big night!  Mitch from Global TV and his cameraman came down to HRSTC to do Coach Niki's interview and get some shots of her leading a practice.  Special thanks to the two athletes from the Dakota Lazers softball team who came out for some skill development (they are awesome players by the way!) and to TK, Shaye, Amber, Mac, Coach Tara and Coach Haylee for helping out.  Coach Niki did an amazing job running the show, and we can't wait to see the final product when it airs on Global TV next month!  (And don't worry, of course it will be posted on the blog!)

NIKI LITTLE - GLOBAL SPORTS COACH OF THE MONTH

WOOT WOOT!!!!!!

Wanted to send out a huge Congratulations to Niki Little in honor of being named Global Sports Coach of the Month for June 2015. As member of the 2015 Team Toba Coaching Staff, Niki continues to make great contributions to our Sport as a past High Performance player and currently as the Western Canada Summer Games Provincial Softball Coach. Throughout the years she has shared her developmental skills with players and coaches of all skill levels throughout our province. Her range of work includes working with our most elite group of athletes (Provincial Team) at Manitoba’s Sport for Life Center right on down to traveling to remote areas and introducing the game to the children of Winnipeg’s inner city schools. For the past five years she has promoted the game within Indigenous communities and increasing the presence of Indigenous players in the game of softball. Her current position as a Softball MB Clinician includes teaching and coaching Aboriginal youth in the Urban and First Nations communities through development camps. This has created points of access for Aboriginal youth to be able to play this sport and to promote healthy and active living within Aboriginal communities.  With the 2015 provincial team, Niki has been focused on improving the quickness and aggressiveness of Team Toba’s infielders. Every single athlete has benefited from her consistent, focused and calm approach. Team Toba’s infield has become a smooth and confident group under her guidance. She has also worked extensively with Team Toba’s hitter’s throughout the winter, reinforcing solid fundamentals and building confidence within each and every player. Niki’s goal is to gain a more in depth understanding for the sport and to advance her knowledge in the technical breakdown of the fundamentals and techniques of softball that reflects the philosophy of Softball Canada’s National Team. She has been selected to attend the upcoming Pan-American Softball Organization Conference in Cloverdale, BC along with fellow coaches Haylee O’Neill and Stephanie Kababie.

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

Athlete Coaches

Giving back to the sport through coaching is so important.  Softball in Manitoba has had few female coaches (relative to the number of males) in my life time, which is a shame considering how important female mentoring is!  Athletes do not have to "retire" from playing to begin coaching either.  It is amazing to see how an athlete's game improves when they begin teaching it.  I'm not sure if it's the "now I have to do what I'm teaching" part, or that technique and concepts are reinforced when you have to understand them fully to teach them.  Either way, coaching does many marvelous things!

This edition of 'Athlete Coaches' features toba athlete Makensy Payne who started out working with one athlete and soon was working with a whole team! 

Our daughter, Hailey, began her softball journey in January of 2012 when she first started throwing the ball with the intention of joining a league.   By the first of May, Hailey had played her first game, and near the end of May, Hailey had her first meeting with Makensy Payne at a softball diamond in our area.  Makensy went through many basic softball drills and they continued to meet at least twice a week.  Soon our 16 year old daughter, Shelby, had joined in, and we arranged for some of Hailey’s U14 teammates and players from other teams to join them.  As I watched the girls practice, I was amazed at how detailed and prepared Makensy was.  She had the practices broken down into five minute intervals.  At every practice she would add more advanced techniques.  Even though the weather was hot, both Shelby and Hailey didn’t lose their enthusiasm and enjoyment of practises with Makensy, always looking forward to the time they spent with her. 

Now in the fall, the whole family looks forward to next season.  Shelby will be signing up for fast pitch for the first time at the age of 17, and Hailey earned a spot on a U14 “A” team for the 2013 season.  This would never have been possible if not for the time and dedication that Makensy gave.  She is a great role-model for all young players.  The high quality coaching that Makensy received has been passed down to our daughters, and we hope that other successful young softball players are doing the same.

Hopefully one day our softball journey will continue with our daughters passing their knowledge and experience on to the next group of young players. 

Kelly, Sandra, Shelby and Hailey Yuskin