Over a week ago, Princess five decided to collide with a very fast and hard softball. She has never been able to play community sports due to visitations. She has always wanted to play and try different sports as her sisters all got to play and most of her friends play.
So, this year, she asked if she could play community softball. I have coached all the girls in several sports in the past. I coached each of them in softball as that is my favorite sport. I did basketball but that isn't my best sport but at least it gave them an option...
She hasn't had the opportunity to have me coach her so when I went in to sign her up for the sport, I checked that I would be willing to coach or assistant coach.
You must keep in mind at this point that Princess five, having never played community sports, has NEVER thrown, hit or caught a ball or played on an actual field. I brought this to her attention and asked if she would be embarrassed playing with kids that have played for years.
She has a friend on the team so she said she really wanted to do it. I go to the "try out" day where the coaches get to see all the players and then pick players one at a time to try and make the teams as even as possible.
I took Princess Five out and had her hit a few balls, throw a few, catch a few and ground a few. She is a natural. Of course I didn't throw with speed as she hasn't had time to get the reflex of it yet.
She was in line to catch at second base when one of the coaches told her to go to third instead and there was a father throwing the balls to the girls. For some reason, perhaps it is that Princess Five isn't a tiny thing, but he threw the ball hard right at her face. Most of the other girls he threw it soft and above or to their left so they could easily catch it.
Princess five was so stunned that it just hit her right in the face. It popped the lens out of her new glasses and within seconds there was a goose egg and bruising. I rushed her home for an ice pack and put some arnica gel on it and was going to take her to the emergency room but she said she didn't feel anything pop or feel like it broke. I think her glasses saved her eye. I was able to put the lens back into the glass and she though about quitting but we headed back with the ice pack and she was a trooper. She was supposed to dance the next day and so I caked her face with make-up for the performance and you couldn't really tell other than it was swollen. However, over the past week, it went from light to really dark and now is fading into light again.
We have gone to the field and practiced catching, grounding and hitting twice in the past few days and she really is a natural. She is now afraid of the ball and when she catches, she flinches and faces away but I am so proud of her for continuing to play and face that fear and overcome it and in general, I am proud that she wants to learn something new. Many children wouldn't do something they didn't think they would be great at and especially teens doing it in front of peers.
I really have stress in the month of May (click here for a post about that.) There are so many activities as there are all the end of school activities and now I get to coach two games a week and do practices along with having a very large team and making sure everyone gets a chance to play. It has been many years since I coached but all of that is worth it if princess gets to play and have a good experience. The other coaches are all dad's so I will be the lone mom which is weird because when I did coach pitch and t-ball, many of the coaches were mom's.
Keep your fingers crossed that Princess will have a wonderful chance to learn and develop her skills without any more injury. I am impressed with her already! I am also very grateful that her eye is ok and we didn't have any serious facial injury and that it didn't break her glasses as the insurance ended and they are new.
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