Croton-Harmon Varsity Softball Team Runs Clinic for Entire Little League Softball Program

Each year Varsity Softball usually runs a softball clinic before season, however, due to COVID this was not possible. Many little league coaches who I have built a relationship with were reaching out about needing help with pitching and other skills for their teams. We were volunteering and making personalized team visits each Saturday but were not able to accommodate everyone in the league. That is when I thought let’s do a one day event and get everyone! It was very last minute but we made it happen even with a hectic Varsity schedule. These younger girls are the future of our program. So I shortened one of our Varsity practices on Saturday and invited all 40 little league softball girls to a Saturday morning clinic. Of the 40 in the program 34 came.

The day began with slight rain even before I got to the field but I knew cancelling was not going to happen. Softball is tough and rain won’t stop us. While others may have cancelled because it was too cold or too wet we pushed through. The clinic began with me leading the girls in a warm-up, stretching routine, throwing progressions, and base running drills. Then I had 16 of my Varsity girls help run the stations I created. The little leaguers participated in a pitching station, a catching station, two different hitting stations, a throwing station, a ground ball station, and a fly ball station. We even ended the clinic teaching sliding. Each of the Varsity girls stayed at their station and taught a designated skill to the little league girls with a selected drill to follow. The clinic ran from 10-12 after Varsity had already had practiced that morning. We did not charge anything as it was all volunteered on our end.

On Monday, since I am a physical education teacher and teach these little league girls, they came up to me in the hallway and said “Ms. Leslie can we do softball every Saturday with you and your team?” They told me they had so much fun and wanted to do it again. In class we are currently teaching the skills of softball and baseball and I overheard the girls letting the boys know they got to practice with the Varsity team and felt proud. It was nice to hear. Since then many little league girls have attended our games, such as yesterday at our senior game. It is great to see as the Varsity coach as I told them yesterday when I saw them, this will be you one day.

On a side note: Each year Croton-Harmon’s Varsity Softball Team does a Pink/Teal Game, where we do a game under the lights in support of helping those who have, had, or are currently struggling with Breast and Ovarian Cancer. Two years ago I believe we donated just over $2,000 to a local organization called Support Connection (https://supportconnection.org/)  which supports people going through these tough cancers. This year our Pink/Teal Game will be Friday, May 21st @ 6:30 under the lights against Pawling (a league and very important game).