Training helps young Softballers
We’re not yet back to the glory days of the seventies but if the resurgence in Belizean softball is to be sustained it will only come with hard work. This week a good foundation is being laid with instruction in the basics.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The one week training course is teaching the fundamentals of softball to the next generation of coaches and selected players. President of the Belize Softball Federation David Cruz says the sessions were not on the calendar of events for 2004, but when monies became available through the Olympic and Commonwealth Games committee, the Federation wasted no time in mobilizing resources.
David Cruz, President, Belize Softball Federation
?It is a level one training. It is primarily for people who are new in coaching or management or have not been trained. And so most of the people here today are people who are experienced or have been managers and coaches, but with limited training. So the purpose is to upgrade their skills. Those that are new would be getting new and a different angle of the sport.?
While for many of the participants like veteran catchers Ruth Lamb and Delcie Lizama, the course will give a fresh perspective, up and coming players like Lanisha Jones and Garth Godoy represent the future on the diamond. And they are soaking up the information being shared by veteran coach from the United States, Liz Kelly.
Liz Kelly
?This course is covering everything in the fundamentals of softball. From how to throw, field, catch, field fly balls, field ground ball and pitching, as what we are focussing on today. It?s practical in the classroom type theory and then we go and go outside and do the skills in the afternoon.?
Kelly, who has coached extensively in the U.S. for the last fifteen years, is fresh off an assignment as softball?s technical operations manager for the Athens Olympics. She says with the enthusiasm that the group brings to the course, her job is made much easier.
Liz Kelly
?I think they are highly motivated and just hungry for more softball knowledge here. I learned since I have been here that Belize has been playing softball for seventy two consecutive years and that?s very impressive. And I think that the coaches here and the players here just are so excited and motivated to get more and more information.?
Gidget Villafranco, who coached her team from being the underdog in the Cayo competition to a third place in the Male National Competition this year believes Kelly?s instructions can?t help, but raise the level of competition.
Gidget Villafranco
?We?ve gone through several different things. Being a coach with the Hope Creek Falcons it has taught me a lot of what we did and we didn?t know what we were dong. There are a lot of different techniques, a lot about the mechanics, about the drills, even out here the practicing and everything. It will help us for sure to make sure that you make those adjustments that you had not been making then, know about different ways of going about doing different plays and so on. So it should help a great deal.?
At the end of the course this weekend, the participants will be certified locally by the Belize Softball Federation and will be expected to share the information with their respective teams. And with a full slate of local and international games already on the calendar for 2005, organisers believe that the competition next year will be better than ever.
Apart from sharing practical tips with the participants, Kelly will also be donating instructional materials, including video tapes for use in ongoing training, which the coaches are now expected to conduct with their teams. Cruz says that Belize will be hosting the second Central American Under-19 championships at the end of April.
