A few days off from writing but I am back to tell you we won yesterday against the Adelaide Crow, in Adelaide, by 25 points. Ha Ha yes I mean the mighty Fremantle Dockers not our softball team. Congratulations to the team and Matthew Pavlich who has just broken the Dockers club record for games played with 239. Lets hope he makes it to 300. Two wins away home now puts me in a very good mood for the season.
So as for softball, the week has turned out very well for the team.
Monday:
Monday was a day off play but a day on practice. Practice began at 10am with 4 girls coming every 90mins for 90 mins of hitting each. We set up 3 hitting stations and each girl hit at each station. Without exaggeration, I am estimating that each girl would have had at least 1000 swings each in that 90mins. Then about 2.30pm the girls had weights for 30mins. Then at 3.30pm I began pitching practice and then at 4pm the whole team came for defence practice until about 6pm.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was more of the same except indoor practice this time. Two girls would come on the hour for an hour - 30mins hitting with me off a tee or toss ball and 30mins facing live pitching next store. Then at 5pm we began whole of training on the field. I also ran pitching training. Practice finished at about 7pm.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was game day against Radford University. There was extra special incentive due to some of the girls having close relationships with some of the girls for Radford as well as the Raford coach being an ex assistant coach at Longwood :-)
Radford is about 3 hours away so we met at the buses at 10am for a 10.30pm departure. On arrival we played game one at 2pm, winning 12-9 with about 20 hits to about 12. It was a frustrating game although we won. A few temperaments were frayed however it was all put down to what happens in the heat of the moment between competitive people.
I am to do a talk to the school this Thursday on my experience of the USA v Australia in sports culture. One point I am going to make is that I feel in the USA, it is all about winning and winning above all else. In Australia I believe sportsmanship, the social aspect and simply trying to play the best you can that are at the core of playing sport, as well of course as trying to win in the process.
Game two began with a cold snap. We also did not fair as well losing 3-1. You could look at it that we won the day over all, however the teams record will not reflect that!
This is a point where I would like to mention the weather in Virginia....WEIRD! Its even worse than Melbourne's 4 seasons in one day! One day it can be 30 degrees celcius and the next 10 with a minimum of 4 over night. One day I have the heater on, like now, but two days ago I had the air conditioner on. Today I was wearing gloves during the game with about a 10 degree max and tomorrow it is forecast for close to 30!!!!
So after game two, we grabbed some Subway (My nutritionist would be proud) and then the 3 hour drive home arriving at 1230am.
Thursday:
Thursday we had off and I made the most of it with a shopping trip to an outer suburb of Richmond called Short Pump. I planned to hit Macy's and Men's Warehouse, however when I found Men's Warehouse, I also found Ross's and TJ Max. These are extra special clothing discount stores! So I found some good deals there and then hit Men's Warehouse who have a special for buy anything int he store and get one free....so a couple of suits were the order of the day with the weight I have lost, plus some shirts and ties. Yee ha. Then back to Farmville for some reading.
Friday:
Thursday night the training schedule for Friday came out. Same as Tuesday. I had to do an online security training program for the school which took about 2 hours. It was so that I can use the schools computer system, however logging on to do the test was the first time I have used it in 6 weeks!!!!! That done I did some scouting for the games for today and then it was pitching and team defence training at 4. I feel I am really getting somewhere with my pitching troops :-)
Saturday:
Today we had a double header against University of South Carolina who were coming off a big series against Alabama who are one of the best teams in the country. So there were some nerves going into this one.
So after a warm night last night, we were playing in about 10 degree weather today after a morning of rain. We won the first game 3-1. Next game was harder fought and in the bottom of the 7th the scores were locked 7-7. Then with 2 out up comes the fun loving girl from New Jersey, Margi MARGADONNA who hit the walk off home run over left field deep. We have been working with her for 4 weeks trying to get her to pull the ball and BAMM, it finally happens with the game winner. I was so happy for her and proud. She is a wonderful young woman with wonderful parents who drive down from NJ for every game which takes about 8 hours a pop.
So all in all it was a great day. One in which I felt our intensity was up all day and never dropped off. This was great especially on a day where players could be forgiven for worrying about the cold a little. I was also happy with the at bats we had where we hit a lot of home runs and did not swing at that many bad pitches. I was also satisfied with my scouting analysis which told me they would probably be weak in the pitching department but strong hitters. This turned out to be true. YAY.
So now it is Saturday night and with very little happening in Farmville, I had dinner at a local Italian resturant and am now here blogging away.
Tomorrow we have another double header at 12 and 2 at home against Charlestown Southern University. We then have Monday off games and then a double header against Georgetown on Tuesday in Washington and then another double header at Norfolk State at 4pm and 6pm on Wednesday. We then have 6 days off before the next games after that. So its10 games in 7 days which we all love. The 6 hour travel days, like at Radford and on to Georgetown, are however not so much fun :-) Thank God I got myself an ipad :-)
Just a couple of small photos below of our trip to Radford.
Stay safe.
D
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