Softball

Jasmine has played soccer from the time she was four. I was her U 6 (under six, so 4s and 5s) coach and she was the player the other team dreaded. She went after every ball. Every one.
I mean, look at her go!!












But then when she moved up to U8, she lost her fire. I don't know if it's because the kids were so much bigger and ran her over, or if she just lost her competitiveness or because I was no longer her coach. She became the child who stood and watched everyone else go for the ball. She played U 8 & U 10 and would still be U 10 this fall.


Anyway, after five years of soccer, we decided to try softball. Soccer was two practices on week nights and then a Saturday morning game. I figured softball would be about the same. But it's not. It's practices Mon & Thurs 6-8 and then games Tuesdays --usually at 6:00 game AND a 7:20 game. Then a two hour game on Friday nights. Since there weren't enough girls for both U10 and U12, they put them together and made it a U12 team.


All the softball games are child pitched starting with 6 year olds. So basically, everyone walks. It's a matter of getting to home safely. And sliding in. Sliding is required in some situations and if you don't slide, you're out. And really, it's not that much fun watching girls be walked for two hours. No field action.




Then, of course, Jasmine had nose and lip surgery--and then was hit in the face with a ball a week later. Lots of blood but no permanent damage. That scared her though so that she would no longer play field.


Last night is the first night she went out in the field. And notice that she's wearing her helmet with face mask. We are waiting for the actual mask for fielding to come in at the sport's store.



She got walked and she made it all the way home and even slid in.




The coach was really proud of her and gave her the game ball. Rick got her a pizza but he didn't get the pizza in the picture! It was a thin ham and pineapple.




Jasmine won't play any sport in the spring due to her neck surgery, but then next fall we'll have to decide between soccer or softball. Softball is much bigger in the spring so maybe fall soccer and spring softball.

Jasmine also has a half hour tap class (wish it were an hour!) and a 45 minutes ballet/jazz combined class.