Boys Just Need to Have Fun

He crouched slightly, a few feet away from third base, hands on his knees in his “ready position,” and waited.

The ground balls came to him faster than he was accustomed, which was to be expected coming off the bat of a coach instead of other seven-year-olds. He fielded each one cleanly, though, getting his glove down to the ground and squeezing the ball as it hit the webbing. He popped up quickly after each catch and fired as hard as he could across the field to throw out the imaginary runners at first.

Not one throw reached on the fly.

I clapped and cheered for E as he made each catch and throw. I reminded myself that the summer league team was made up of seven- and eight-year-olds and that, as one of the youngest kids trying out, he was still small compared to the other boys. I reminded myself that he did well fielding the grounders, which was the harder part of the play; if arm strength was the problem, his coach could play him at second or shortstop instead of third. I reminded myself that the coach had talked about creating multiple teams because of the number of kids at the tryout.

I reminded myself that this was supposed to be fun.

I felt my stomach tighten as I pictured what my son would have felt if he thought I was at all disappointed in him. If anything, I was disappointed in myself for jumping to the idea that E needed to make the team at all. My wife and I had explained the differences between the competitive team of the summer and the recreational, instructional league of the spring. We told him that, as opposed to a few above average players on each team, almost every player on the summer team would be above average. We told him that the games wouldn’t all be easy and that they would keep track of runs and outs. E said that he still wanted to try out so we brought him. Who was I to add more pressure to a situation that was ultimately about playing a game?

E didn’t need to be on the team; surely he would have been just as happy goofing off during his summer evenings instead of suiting up for extra baseball practice. But he went to the tryout and did exactly what I had told him to do: he used his skills, followed directions and tried his best. And, most importantly, he seemed to be having fun doing it. One of his teammates from the spring team (no tryouts needed) was there with him and they laughed their way through the evening drills. They cheered each other on, watched the other boys give similar efforts and joined the group chants for the coach to hit a ball over the fence (which he eventually did).

I felt much more comfortable watching him at the next few tryouts. First of all, the coach told us later that he was likely going to be able to make two teams; the first would be the more competitive team and the second would be a mix of competition and higher level instruction than the spring league. I was fairly confident that E would make the second team which, honestly, was likely more his speed anyway. He still needed to develop a better understanding of how the game works and the techniques used at each position and the “B” team was the most constructive setting for him to do so.

img_1611-1.jpg

Second of all, I finally allowed myself to relax. As I sat next to E’s teammate’s dad at the second practice (whose voice you can hear on the video), I forced myself to stop for a minute to take in the scene. I felt the sun on my arms from behind the bench where we sat. I looked out at the boys taking grounders in the infield and shagging flies in the outfield. I recognized some of the boys from the earlier tryouts and admired the plays they were able to make. I cheered for E and his teammate when they were close enough for us to see them and I called out support for the players I didn’t know. At one point, I told my friend, “I could do this all day,” and he agreed. We knew that, no matter what the final decision was for our boys, they were having fun.

And so were we.

One thought on “Boys Just Need to Have Fun”

Comments are closed.

Verified by MonsterInsights