Holland!

Pictures from this post coming soon- it takes awhile to load them and I have to go to practice!

Hey everyone!
So I’m back from Holland, exhausted but otherwise great! It was a really fun week both from a softball perspective and a social one- both the junior and senior National Teams have great kids on them, little to no drama occurred, and the dynamics on the coaching staff were good. We were participating in an international tournament in Appeldoorn, Holland, which is outside Amsterdam. The junior team came in first and the senior team came in second, both to Netherlands national teams. There were also teams from Czech, the USA, and Italy there.
I was on the coaching staff as the pitching coach, but ended up being more of a general assistant coach, which I preferred anyway; basically that meant that I worked with the pitchers and called the pitches for the semifinal and final, but also worked on hitting, baserunning, and some infield with the girls during practices and warm-ups- all the coaching staff worked together on a lot of things, with each of us specializing in whatever area we knew best (Lina, the assistant coach, used to be a catcher and infielder, the head coach knows more about outfield, etc). It ended up working out very well; Mattias (the head coach) is not that experienced in softball yet, he’s a baseball guy, but Lina knows what she’s talking about and they both really want to improve softball in Sweden. They both told me how much they enjoyed working with me and how good the dynamic was between the three of us, so that was nice to hear.
The Blue team (the junior team), had three of our best players from Enköping on it, and had all Swedish pitchers. The senior team had two American pitchers (which is pretty standard for these European countries), both of whom are very good. I wasn’t too crazy about not having a Swede pitch at all for the senior team, but after taking to the senior team and the Swedish pitchers it seems like this arrangement was what hey preferred- this way they got experience pitching at an international level, but at a level more suited to their current abilities. The biggest weakness in Swedish softball is pitching, no question, so the senior team was happy to play behind an American pitcher, especially since Ashley and Annele (who are from Maryland and Seattle) are really good people and non-pretentious players. It was really fun to coach two such experienced pitchers as well- Ashley pitched DI and Annele DII. They both graduated already, Ashley this year and Annele a year ago.
Most of the players were girls I had faced in games here, with the addition of two Swedes who play in Holland right now year-round. Emelie, who played short for us and is a very powerful hitter, was the coach last year and was the oldest player on both teams at 26 years old. She had a rough time coaching and has gone back to just playing- she was great about listening to me and respecting my coaching even though I’m younger and she knew nothing about me, which I really appreciated. Annakarin, the catcher, is actually the younger sister of Johanna, who plays with me in Enköping. Before I left for Holland I had several people, including Johanna, Ingrid and the Leksand coach, tell me how well the two of us were going to get along, which made me a bit nervous- after the 5th person told me that all I could think was “what am I going to do if I end up really not liking this girl? What am I going to say to these people?” Turns out they were all right, she’s great, and I would give an arm to have even one player like her on my future teams. So having those two on the team was a big boost- they’re also older than most of the other girls so they were great leaders.
This is why I’ve gotten so into developing softball here, why this summer’s been so exciting for me as a coach- we did that well in the tournament, and there were only two girls on the team above 22 years old! And with Swedish pitchers, the junior team won it- is says a lot about the potential for great softball in this country, but they need help in getting younger kids going on the sport, and in winter training programs. Anyway, so the tournament was good. The best Netherlands players were not there, they’re training for Beijing with the Olympic squad (which Sweden does not have right now- they need two to five years of concentrated softball development in the country before they’ll be able to pull it off, and more money than they have access to right now), but the national teams, the feed teams for the Olympic squad, were there and are coached by a Dutch man who is basically single-handedly responsible for softball in Russia (he build it up from literally nothing), and who’s very very good. The US teams weren’t bad, either, they were two of those pay-to-play groups that end up being kind of hit or miss. One of the teams wasn’t anything special, the other was pretty good and well-coached- she also happened to get six girls who are great hitters and faster than anything- we beat them in the semifinal after a tight game on Friday. We beat Czech in the quarterfinal in a great game Saturday, which I called the pitching for- Annakarin had been calling the games very well, but wanted me to call it for that game, and man, was it fun! It worked well and gave me a huge rush watching batters strike out exactly like I plan- it’s like… I don’t know, a composition or something- it’s all planned in my head, then just falls into place, pitch after pitch.
Anyway, so then the senior team was in the finals on Sunday against the Dutch National team, and the Juniors were playing Sunday against the Dutch Juniors. I wasn’t calling any of the Junior games because Amanda How, my catcher in Enköping, was the catcher for that team. Not only is it necessary experience for her to call the games at that level, she’s also been working with me all summer and has been doing a terrific job calling pitches- she’s 16 and I’m already recruiting her to wherever I am in a year or two, she’s a great player. The Junior team played first and won it relatively easily, then the senior team played- they came out flat for the first time all tournament and unfortunately that was all it took, one flat inning. Part of that was because of how close together the games were- the coaching staff was split and there wasn’t time for a full warm-up before the senior games, they had to do part of it with only one coach on a different field before the junior championship game was finished. Not very well organized by the tournament directors. So it was a disappointing finish, but it really showed the girls as well as everyone else at the tournament that softball in Sweden is definitely on the upswing. The junior national baseball team from Sweden was there as well (they were on the same bus as us), they also came in first. Baseball here is pretty good, always competitive within Europe and on the rise with help from a year-round baseball school in Leksand where players meet weekly to practice and work with coaches from all over Europe and the US.
We stayed in a youth hostel within easy walking distance of the fields; it had a full kitchen and served meals dining-hall style, which was convenient. I stayed in a room with the other three females on the coaching staff- Lina, the assistant, Helena, the manager in charge of food, lodgings, getting us everywhere on time, etc., and Pernilla, team psychologist and personal coach. It was a bit awkward the first night as they adjusted to having to speak English at least some of the time in order for me to be able to participate in the conversation, but then it was great. The four of us got along really well and had a good time hanging out together.
Apparently the Dutch traditionally have huge parties at their tournaments, and this is an expected part of the whole week- there was a dance on Wednesday night, karaoke on Friday, and a BBQ Saturday. We didn’t go to the dance Wednesday (much to the dismay of the baseball teams- they’re BIG fans of the Swedes) but we went to karaoke directly from a double header, and got lots of applause. We sang Mamma Mia (of course) first off, and somehow I got stuck holding the microphone- I felt like a bit of a fraud in my Sverige shirt, but what the heck. Then Lina, the assistant coach, sang “I’m Too Sexy”, with three players as backup dancers, and I laughed harder than I have in a LONG time- she just went for it all out. Some of the girls sang “Summer of ‘69” then I sang “The Time of My Life” (from Dirty Dancing) with Annakarin, which was pretty funny as well. There was a lot of twirling each other around and trying not to step on the mic cord (it produced a huge screech if you did).
Yesterday’s trip back was not so fun- 16 hours on buses and ferries followed by a four hour wait in the train station before finally getting back to Enköping. The long bus ride actually wasn’t too bad, because it was broken up by the ferries- one from Denmark to Germany, another from Denmark to Sweden. The train ride was the worst just because it was HOT. It was hot the whole week, actually, and in Holland it was super-muggy as well, I felt like I was melting most of the time- but that was better than the weather our first day there, which was cold and rainy.
Well, so that’s all I can think of right now. It was a fun week! I had a great time coaching, and went to Holland, what more could you want? Hope all is well where you guys are, I’m practicing a bunch this week before my last games here this Sunday (against Sundsvall). Then I have a couple weeks before heading home. Time’s flying!
Love to all,
jen