Spring Softball.

This past Spring, Chris, a nearby PCV and I decided to start a softball team in my village. There were several factors that went into starting this project. The first and probably most important was the success of frisbee. My village breeds great kids who like to play sports. There are so many kids who want to be part of an organized sport. I have no trouble getting to kids to show up. For example, if I say I'll bring frisbees to school at 6:00, I'll have kids knocking on my door at 5:30 asking if I need help carrying the discs to school. The second factor is that anyone who knows me knows that I don't know much about softball/baseball, but Chris is a former college baseball player. He played most of his life, and he even coached little league before joining Peace Corps. We decided we'd make a pretty good coaching team. 

In the beginning, we knew it would take a while to teach kids how to play. Catching with a glove and throwing with your whole body, not just your wrist, would take several practices to sink in. We also knew hitting would take some time. What we didn't really take into account is how unfamiliar kids in Azerbaijan are with the fundamental principles of baseball. It's something I think most of us wouldn't realize as Americans. All the variations of baseball and kickball, the "diamond" shape field, the concept of touching each point before scoring a point when you return to the spot you started. It seems second nature to us. Even after explaining the rules and the concept of how players hit and move around the bases, it took a lot of learn-by-practice for most kids to start to get the hang of it.

Some things that seemed very simple, but took a laughably long time to teach:
1) Only one player on a base at a time
2) Your foot actually has to touch the base when you run by it.
3) If an outfielder catches your ball in the air, you're automatically out. Don't get mad when this happens.
4) Don't run when someone else hits a ball in the air and the outfield can catch it easily.
5) If you're on first and the next batter hits a grounder towards second base, you still have to run there.
6) The catcher is part of the game. You still have to participate.
7) So is the pitcher.
8) Don't swing the bat like a golf club.
9) You can NOT change the batting order. It doesn't matter if the person you're switching with agrees or not.

Explaining tagging out is in a category by itself..

That being said, my students LOVE this new game. I've reached out to a lot of kids who weren't that great at frisbee but want to participate in sports. I have a tall, lanky left handed kid who couldn't change directions to catch a frisbee if he had to, but can swing a baseball bat like a pro. I have identical twins who drive me crazy in English class for their lack of attention but are the first kids to offer to carry equipment and pack it up after practice. I still can't tell them apart, but one of them excels at third base and the other is a great hitter.

Here are some pictures from our early practices:

Chris demonstrating proper hitting technique.

Check out the pitcher. Only slightly intimidated when Chris is up to bat.

This season, we were able to participate in three tournaments. At the first, we played two games. We lost the first game 11-2 to a team with two years experience. It was a significant learning opportunity for us. It was the first time our team saw other kids playing who know the rules of the game and had even developed strategy. The next game we won 7-5 to another team who also just started this year. Despite our eyeopening first game, we left the tournament smiling.

On the bus, on the way to the first tournament.

Our awesome gear thanks to Katie Crocker's volleyball team's service project. We LOVE them! 

Setting up.

PCV coaches.

All smiles after the tournament.

At the second tournament, with a little bit of experience under our belt, to Chris's and my great pleasure, we actually looked like a softball team. We played better defense, and we had two kids hit homeruns. The lanky lefty had a grand slam. We went 2-0 at this tournament. 

Our boys.

Team chant.

Coming home after the grand slam.

Lining up to shake hands.

We went into the third tournament lined up to play the team we played first, when we lost 11-2, and another team with two years experience. We knew we had our work cut out for us. We played the team we hadn't played yet first. They were a lot bigger than us and had some good hitters, but we kept it tight defensively. We led by one point the whole game and came out on top. The next team was better, but we quickly realized our team had developed significantly since our first game with them. They led us by a few points the whole game until the last inning. Our defense was solid in the last inning, and we were up to bat last. We needed 3 runs to win, and we did it! 

Encouragement.

Cheering on their teammates.

Victory snap bumps.

Happy.

Shaking hands after the first game.

Proud coaches.

Despite all the talk about each tournament, as any real sportsperson will tell you, it's not about the wins and losses. That's just one way to measure athletic progress, but you're belittling sport as a means of self development if that's the only thing you look at. In just a few months, I've seen these kids go from not knowing the first thing about softball to being able to throw doubles, tag runners out, hit grand slams, and still be able to shake hands with their opponent after they lose. Maybe it's because I grew up playing sports, and it's just a part of my make-up now, but what better way can you prepare young people for what the world has in store for them than teaching how to be part of a team, taking personal responsibility for making mistakes, being rewarded for accomplishments, learning to accept defeat, and perhaps most importantly, learning to win humbly? It doesn't all happened at once, but as in our case, it's a work in progress. 

At our last tournament,  although there were four teams there, for time and weather reasons, we played two games. The fourth team was Xatinli, my sitemate Andrew's team. Xatinli, another village in Tovuz, is our biggest frisbee rival, and there are many kids that play on both teams from mine and Andrew's villages. We both have strong frisbee teams, and our teams (not us, of course) have a history of hard competition. Half-way through our second game, Xatinli, watching us play from the sidelines, started chanting Ey-yu-blu, Ey-yu-blu...they were cheering for us. My kids loved that, and thanked them with thumbs up and hand shakes. After the game, I looked over and saw two kids play wrestling. I could tell they weren't being serious, but they were from two different teams, and I didn't want it to escalate, so I told them to knock it off. Once they stood up I realized it was one kid from my team and one kid from Xatinli, but I was confused because they'd switched hats. If that wasn't a sign of solidarity already, a couple minutes before I took this picture they switched jerseys entirely. 

As a side note, our team was able to participate in tournaments in different regions of Azerbaijan thanks to the Azerbaijan Interregional Softball League. It's a Peace Corps project several years in the works. The website will be updated in a few months as the Spring season is preparatory for the Fall season. I've also had a lot of support from friends and family at home. We wouldn't have been able to do what we did this Spring without your loving support. I am so blessed, thankful, and most of all inspired.