ABSTRACT
One of my favorite jobs over the past dozen years has been to serve as a baseball and softball coach for young people ages 5'17 in community and travel leagues. On a good day, I get to see development happening in real time, follow young people's thinking, and laugh with them. On a really good day, I get inspired by them, seeing their courage in action and being part of their in-the-moment experiences. When you do it right, there are no bad days in youth coaching. In our first age-10-girls' travel softball tournament, we lost every game by a lot, with some games ending because the other team made outs on purpose just to get it over with. Afterward, we had our team meeting where we highlighted the few good things that happened, especially the girls' wonderful sportsmanship. Nonetheless, I was in a foul mood, compiling a long mental list of the things we did wrong and thinking I had let down the girls and their families. I was following three of our players out to the parking lot and as I was catching up to them I could hear their laughter and excitement. One was saying “… being in a tournament is so cool!” and another one agreed and said “I can't wait’ til our next tournament!” The other two immediately agreed with smiles on their faces.
