With a 10U softball team comprised of two eight-year olds, six nine-year olds and four 10-year olds, the Cherry City Crush ended the season at state in Albany with three consecutive losses against the RSGA Tornados, Sherwood Fireballs and the Gladstone Lady Gladiators.
In looking at the big picture, Crush head coach Ryan LeBreton said this group more than doubled its win total and both the pitching and hitting numbers increased by a large margin.
“Overall, our season was a huge success and it was such a pleasure to be involved in the lives of these 12 wonderful little women,” LeBreton said. “The successes and failures that we had this year provided these little ladies with plenty of opportunities for growth.”
One point of emphasis for the Crush program is breeding team results, not individual statistics and accolades.
Players like Lilly Schatz, Ashlyn Jones, Ella Smith, Alicia Anderson, Katelyn Vassar and Kennedy Abbas lived up to their potential and provided plenty of highlight moments this summer.
Keiliani Crichton-Tunai, Felicity Harvey, Kaleyah Crichton-Tunai, Naomi Heredia, Jeilane Stewart and Zoe LeBreton also showed progression and skills on the diamond for every pitch of every inning played in every game and tournament.
“We were still extremely young for the level of play we were facing, but our season was still loaded with growth in all areas of softball, especially their confidence,” Coach LeBreton said.
LeBreton and his assistant coaches Ryan Vassar, Jeff Smith and Joe Abbas worked collectively in bringing out the best in their athletes with constructive teaching and positive re-enforcement.
Coach LeBreton said that sometimes the fundamental practices can be rather slow and boring, but his kids’ work ethic and desire for excellence was second to none.
He called it a pleasure to watch these players never quit, never give up, and rarely complain about practices.
“They competed day-in and day-out,” Coach LeBreton said. “One of the things we truly strive to teach these girls is focused practice and motor memory through successful repetition. Working the fundamentals over and over while pitching, hitting, fielding, throwing and catching makes them more prepared and successful when the game is on the line.”
While all areas of the game showed a sharp uptick from previous campaigns, Coach LeBreton placed his emphasis on the mechanics of hitting, while spending more quality practice time working on good swings.
With the added swings, LeBreton admitted the confidence grew at the plate through experience.
The hitting work will continue from full swings to bunting accuracy and angles with a focus on the understanding of the strike zone and where to hit certain pitches.
“These are more concepts of conceptual understanding, which these little kids may not be ready for, but I like to tell them over and over so as they get older they already have a foundation of understanding,” Coach LeBreton said. “This will make their learning curve faster as they get older.”
After getting a hit or working a walk, knowing situations and establishing base running fundamentals such as two-out approaches, what to do on the bases when balls are hit in different areas of the field are huge keys that the Crush coaches focus on.
Two important positions the Crush had depth were pitching and catching where more than a handful of players took turns from the circle and behind the plate before practice two-to-three times a week.
Next year, Coach LeBreton has a plan of getting the pitchers throwing once or twice a week in December and January in an effort of getting the athletes in muscle memory mode a little earlier, to have them game-ready sooner.
“We ended the season with seven pitchers practicing and five catchers. This type of commitment really helps the future success of this age group, but also with the Crush program and softball in general,” Coach LeBreton said. “It truly was fun to watch these girls grow and compete day-after-day, game-after-game.”
Approaching a decade of coaching this group of players, LeBreton will turn his coaching philosophies to soccer and basketball this fall and winter before rebuilding the Crush next season for a deeper postseason run and even more team accomplishments.
“I truly have been blessed to be a part of Cherry City Crush Softball for the last seven years and look forward to next year,” Coach LeBreton said.
With the promotion of four players to a higher age classification, LeBreton will work on adding four players to his roster for competitive softball play next spring.
For more information on any offseason workouts and upcoming tryouts, call 541-980-9889.
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