[Ksyrup]

So some of you might know from my postings the last year or so in the OT forum that my daughter Caitlin plays fastpitch softball. She's 11 and in 6th grade, so she's now in middle school. She'll be playing both middle school softball and travel team tournaments this summer, and I'd like to keep track of how she does and how the teams do, so I thought I'd start a dynasty/diary-type thread here to give me a place to document the year in real-time.

Last year, we finished the 10U travel team season with the team we joined in April, and because that team was half 9 year olds and half 10 year olds (not to mention, 3 of us lived 45 minutes away), the team split up after August and we went looking for a new team. Without going through the specifics of all the drama that goes along with girls softball, the gist of it is this: we had originally joined one team in September when our first choice team didn't look like it was going to add anyone. A month later, that team split up, and the coach (who coaches middle school in another county) joined forces with our middle school coach to put together a team with 5 girls from our middle school, 4 from his, and 2 from another county, so we bailed on the other team at the beginning of October before the "commitment" (i.e., money was due) deadline.

With 2 middle school coaches running the show, and a team full of solid players, the last few months of practice have been great. We went to Indianapolis 3 weeks ago and played an indoor tournament, where we finished 5th out of 13 teams. Not bad for a 1st year 12U team. We still practice once a week, but now middle school is starting so the travel team will go on the back burner for now. Our travel team tournaments start at the end of May, and we're shooting for 10 tournaments over the summer.

Middle school tryouts were Tuesday, and although nothing was official until the team was announced, we knew Caitlin made the team. The team has 22 players - 8 8th graders, 7 7th graders, and 7 6th graders. There are 'A' and 'B' games - essentially, 8th and 7th grade games - and some of the 6th graders will have to play since there aren't enough eligible girls to cover all positions in either game, but playing time is obviously an issue. Where Caitlin was guaranteed to play nearly every inning on the travel team, she'll have to fight for playing time in middle school.

Practices started yesterday - 6 days a week, 2.5-3 hours a day. Tough stuff. They actually run more than the basketball team (which is odd - the basketball coach rarely ran the team, yet when I played, all I remember about basketball was suicides!). I think we get the schedule tonight, but I believe first games are around March 15th (I think we have a tournament the weekend of the 19th).

Caitlin plays 1B and pitches. She's a big girl - 5'4", 145 lbs and turns 12 in August - so she doesn't move all that well and is pretty slow. But she can hit, she can throw a ball with as good mechanics and as hard as a boy, and she's really done well as a pitcher so far. I think she probably could have played baseball.

Anyway, my goal is to update this thread from time to time, especially when games start. I'm mainly doing this for me (and her, eventually) to keep a running diary of her season, but I hope it's interesting enough that you guys enjoy reading it.