Photoessay #459 - Rainy Hawks

Today, Dennis and I went to see the LadyHawks play. We had a pretty good time but we never did see any softball.

We've stayed active in the travel-ball community helping out the Washington LadyHawks. I help with recruiting and Dennis runs the recruiting-oriented website (http://www.ladyhawksfastpitch.org). Mostly we help families of kids who would like to play college softball. Is it the highest calling? Not really but we have a lot of specialiIzed information. There's always an information imbalance, the coaches know what they want and can run their system. But the prospecitve players and families don't know WHAT'S going on. By the time you catch on, it's over. Why not pass this information to the families coming up?

A college-oriented Gold team like the LadyHawks mostly play out of town. Increasingly they pull from throughout the northwest including Oregon and Eastern Washington. When they do play, it's usually linear south from us. Dennis wanted to see them play and if I'm going to help them at all, I've got to meet the kids and parents.

So, off we go, to the "Service Groups Fields" in Kent. Dennis has the address, we followed the directions. And we ended up .... nowhere. In some small residential area in Covington, no field to be seen. We wander aimlessly, call one of the parents who isn't there but gives us some directions to the right place. Which work! We get there. Games rainied out. Chat with the 14U coach and players. Work the phones, find the team. We meet them at the indoor practice facility 20 miles more south. Talk to parents. They set up some practice games at local high school, we go there. Talk to more parents and kids. They start setting up the games. We leave for the LONG ride home.

But the main coach did introduce us to the team and I gave an adhoc recruiting lecture. And Dennis (pictured) talks about website and email address issues. Looks like a good group of players. Glad to have a chance to see them. Wet, typical western washington softball weather. Parents from eastern washington amazed we would play in the rain. Of course, we play in the rain, if we didn't we would never play!