So tonight's first practice went very well. It started at 6pm, and we were (of course) about 5 minutes late. All 10 (or so) kids were already doing their warm-up stretches with the coach, so the twins had to join in while everything was in progress. The coach seemed very nice. As soon as stretching was done, he told all the kids he was going to divide them up into three groups so they could work on different skills (running, batting, fielding). At that point, he split them all up and then said (to all the dads in attendance), "Anyone want to help out? I could really use it."
He really did need it. I don't know how he could have gotten through practice without assistance from the dads. If no one stepped up, it would have been chaos. As it was, at least 4 or 5 other dads jumped in and took over some of the smaller groups of kids, which was really nice. They had a batting area, which also encompassed fielding skills because while one child would bat the other 3 or so kids would field the grounders. Then they had a father working with another group on fielding grounders and catching/throwing the ball. The third group worked on running from home plate to first base (I helped out here a little bit when the coach got pulled away). At the end of practice they had all the kids run the bases from home to home (and they were timed).
After that, the coach gave out their uniforms. They each got an official red "Mount Laurel Baseball" shirt with a number on the back (Dillon is "1", Jason is "2"), a Phillies cap (their team is the Phillies), and a pair of red sport socks. The twins were super excited about all of this, and they said they had a great time playing with the other kids. Sometimes I thought they were a little bit too interested in laughing and goofing off with the other kids because they weren't paying attention to the instructions; but then I remembered that they're 5 years old! :-)
I was just a little disappointed, though, because Jason never got the chance to bat. I didn't make a big deal out of it because he was having fun doing everything else and didn't seem to care, and we had worked on hitting at home on Saturday ourselves. But after we got home he mentioned to me that he really wanted to bat. So I told him we'd work on hitting again this week so he'd be ready for opening day...THIS SATURDAY!
Opening Day starts this Saturday at Laurel Acres Park in Mount Laurel. Festivities begin at 8am with a parade (the kids get to be in the parade) and then their first 'game' is played at 10:30am. I hope the weather is nice because it should be fun. We're all looking forward to it.
He really did need it. I don't know how he could have gotten through practice without assistance from the dads. If no one stepped up, it would have been chaos. As it was, at least 4 or 5 other dads jumped in and took over some of the smaller groups of kids, which was really nice. They had a batting area, which also encompassed fielding skills because while one child would bat the other 3 or so kids would field the grounders. Then they had a father working with another group on fielding grounders and catching/throwing the ball. The third group worked on running from home plate to first base (I helped out here a little bit when the coach got pulled away). At the end of practice they had all the kids run the bases from home to home (and they were timed).
After that, the coach gave out their uniforms. They each got an official red "Mount Laurel Baseball" shirt with a number on the back (Dillon is "1", Jason is "2"), a Phillies cap (their team is the Phillies), and a pair of red sport socks. The twins were super excited about all of this, and they said they had a great time playing with the other kids. Sometimes I thought they were a little bit too interested in laughing and goofing off with the other kids because they weren't paying attention to the instructions; but then I remembered that they're 5 years old! :-)
I was just a little disappointed, though, because Jason never got the chance to bat. I didn't make a big deal out of it because he was having fun doing everything else and didn't seem to care, and we had worked on hitting at home on Saturday ourselves. But after we got home he mentioned to me that he really wanted to bat. So I told him we'd work on hitting again this week so he'd be ready for opening day...THIS SATURDAY!
Opening Day starts this Saturday at Laurel Acres Park in Mount Laurel. Festivities begin at 8am with a parade (the kids get to be in the parade) and then their first 'game' is played at 10:30am. I hope the weather is nice because it should be fun. We're all looking forward to it.
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