The hardest thing I've done in recent memory was telling Coach Terry that Kenzie was moving from his 10u softball team to Charlie's 12u team, the Riviera Beach Spirit. Terry is an awesome coach who did awesome things with an awesome bunch of girls last season. From the Bayside Breeze, two years ago, Kenzie went from a 10u team that introduced her to the world of softball, to the Lake Shore Lightning that introduced her to winning in the world of softball. Kenzie's first two years of fastpitch softball could have been written in Hollywood, except in the movies there are usually more sad parts than the one at the very end.
Kenzie had every intention of spending another year at 10u with Lake Shore. That is, until the first weekend of tryouts when only two quality, older girls showed up, and one veteran player decided to go up to LSL 12u. This left Kenzie and a couple other girls as the core team with which Terry had to develop next year's team. Everyone was discouraged. When word got out about the apparent collapse of the 10u team, other coaches began contacting us about Kenzie playing somewhere else. No one seemed to be trying to steal her away from a happy situation; but they did want her to look their way if she decided to leave Lake Shore. One of those coaches was Charlie, with whom I'd developed a rapport over this past season. Charlie was one of the original coaches for LSL when Kenzie originally tried out last year. She liked him from the start, as she liked all the coaches, but Charlie stood out to her as a coach who aggressively sought the best performance that each girl had to give. For one reason or another, Charlie wound up not being an LSL coach; just a gung-ho sideline father like myself.
My original plan, before tryouts, was to have Kenzie try out for Charlie's team next year. Kenzie would have a chance to develop and mature as a team leader at the 10u level, something she has never had the chance to do since she's always "played up" in all her select and club level sports. We never considered RB's 12u team until several things came together, the first being the low turnout at the first LSL tryouts. That, and the fact that Kenzie, herself, does not want to be, to put it in her words, "the top player on the team". I don't know if she'd be the top player on Terry's team, but she would be among the top players. She functions best, and improves the most, when she is challenged; when her position is threatened; when she has to continuously earn her keep. I'm not sure she would be in that position, based on the girls we saw on that Saturday. Keep in mind, Kenzie's birthday is 16 days after the age cut off for 10u. If not for those 16 days, she would be forced to go up to 12u, regardless of her talents and experience. Also, if she moves up now, when her skills are fairly equivalent to the other girls on RB's team, she maintains the option of staying down for a third year at an older level. I really like having that option. Say her second year at 12u (or 14u or whatever-u) is a frustrating year, for whatever reason--she would have the option of taking an additional year at that level if she needed to work on certain skills that may be lacking. Right now, her skills aren't lacking enough to merit taking that extra year at 10u.
Well, in the end, we decided to check out Charlie's team this weekend. If nothing else, it would give Kenzie another chance to see Caroline. What I saw was a good group of girls with a lot of softball ability. Then I saw Kenzie fit right in. I saw her extend herself beyond what I thought she was capable of, beyond what she doing even at the World Series. Over the last few days, playing Devil's advocate, I told her she may not, for Charlie, play in a position she wanted, but rather in the outfield, where she spent most of last season. She was not happy about this. So, what did she do? She wowed the coaches with her play at third base. She also wowed the coaches with play in the outfield. She also wowed the coaches with her bat. She shifted into that higher gear that is inspired by the challenge placed before her. After today, she just felt plain good about her performance. Her last words before we headed over to talk to Terry were that she felt good about our decision to go with Charlie. I offered her $100 to talk to Terry for me because I am a coward, I felt like throwing up, and I was on the verge of hyperventilating, but she declined. She is only ten, after all. I hate hurting people, and I know I hurt Terry today, but Kenzie has to come first; and she, Vicki, and I (and Charlie and his assistant Bob and almost everyone I've talked to) believe she's ready for this move.
There are some other miscellaneous factors we considered as well. Some positive and some negative for RBS. Some positive and some negative for LSL. When everything balanced out, we did what we did with the best intentions for Kenzie in mind. But for having done it to Terry, the end of this two years is on a note of sadness.
