Wisconsin High School Sports | Wisconsin Sports Network | WisSports.net

It s high and tight! 

 

Hello Everyone – It was great to be at the state tournament and at the all star games within the past week. It gave me a chance to chat with many of you and to watch some good games and some excellent players.

 

The high school season is officially over now and it s time to start reflecting on what transpired during the past year and what the possibilities are for the future.

 

My agreement with the Wisconsin Sports Network was a noteworthy one and a move that I contemplated for a while. I knew that it would be tough to get the word out to many people that things were a bit different and I also knew that, in fastpitch softball in this state, publicity and notoriety for players is a tough thing in many areas.

 

Simply stated, there are just too many schools whose coaches fail to get involved with that aspect of being a coach. In the end their players are the ones who suffer.

 

I m sure the WFSCA all state lists that are now posted on that site will raise many, many conversations across the Badger State and many of the gripes will come from parents of players whose coaches simply fail in the area of publicity, promotion and notoriety.

Take a look at the all state teams. They are posted on the wfsca.org website and there is also a link to the page on the WSN site s Opening Pitch Blog that I write. There are some excellent, excellent players on all those lists and in my humble opinion there s not much, if any difference between a kid who is listed on the first team and a kid who is listed as an honorable mention player. To me, they are all simply all-state players.

 

Coaches and umpires who still don t understand the DP/Flex rule and how it can be used to benefit a team could take some lessons from New Berlin Eisenhower s great coach, Jeff Setz. We were impressed with what he was doing with the DP/Flex rule and using it to directly win a state championship. It was Eisenhower s first state title in six trips.

 

I thought the state tournament featured a lot of defensive lapses. Errant throws, dropped throws, dropped balls that seemed like "cans of corn" to the fans were all a part of what we saw take place down there. Most of those lapses cost that team a victory.

 

A parent once told me that "errors are part of the game" and that I should accept that. My answer was the same one I used on a basketball player who told me that "basketball is a game made from turnovers." My answer was, "errors certainly are a part of softball and the team that loses normally commits more errors than the team that wins!"

People forget quickly that an error occurred when the team gets out of an inning without yielding a run. However, that base runner determines the part of the batting order that opens the next half inning. There is a reason that coaches put their better batters at the top half of the order rather than the bottom half. When an error occurs, that s one inning sooner for the leadoff batter to step into the batter s box and the entire game is different than it would have been if that error the inning before had not occurred.

 

Great teams seldom give the other team a chance to steal a victory from the jaws of defeat. Great teams combine pitching, defense and offensive success.

 

Another thing I liked this year at Goodman Diamond was the decreased number of campfire songs emanating from the dugouts. I m old school and I like diamond chatter as I grew up with it. 

 

Congratulations to all the teams that advanced to the state tournament and congratulations to the four state champions and to the state runner-up in each division of play. To the coaches who won the title, those that lost in the championship game or lost in an earlier round – I know the feeling of all three situations – I ve been there.

 

Keep checking the site as I will try to keep bulletins flowing and will try to get other interesting information to you.

 

Have a great day and a great summer.

Keep it Rising!

Bob