Manteno Youth Baseball Softball League Softball News

Congratulations Manteno Pixie Champions - 2011

What a great season 10-2, 2-0 for the tournament. I can't thank the girls, parents, and Assistant Coaches enough; everyone worked very hard to make this a fun and successful season. Very exciting to watch the girls improve from the first practice to a Championship win. I appreciate the opportunity to have worked with such a wonderful group of girls, parents and Assistant Coaches. Congratulations Manteno Pixie #3 and Thank You for all your hard work and dedication the other Coaches and I are very proud of all of you for a truly great season! Sincerely, Jeri Konecki, Doug Fricke and Shawn Mepham
Do You Believe in Miracles? ... Well you better in Manteno! Submitted By: Dan Hofmeister
Before this year, I had never been the head coach of a Manteno rec. ball softball team and it did not start out as I had planned. First, I missed the draft meeting of minors softball players, so my team was picked by someone else. All my keen draft strategies, charts, statistics and movements were for naught. I got who I got ... and thank goodness for that. Second, my wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hofmeister of the Prairie Rock Foot & Ankle Clinic (yes, I am the doctor's husband, as I am known at nearly ever social gathering I attend), was the sponsor of the team and she was hoping I would not embarrass her or her clinic, which prides itself on delivering excellence. Third, we were given purple for our team color (shirts, etc), which I like (Go Manteno!), but that turned into, quite creatively and totally in a girls' softball sorta way (props to Mrs. Zawisza), a team name/theme: Barney's Angels ... named after the TV purple dinosaur with the nails-on-the-chalk-board song ... "I love you, you love me" ... I want to scream! And it stuck.

When I first looked at my rag-tag team, I thought we might be in for a long year. But, they surprised me ... as girls often do. The draft netted me twelve girls ... two of which had never played softball ... ever ... and were as green as a nicely polished John Deere! They knew next to nothing about softball and there were a handful of others that were in no way steeped in softball. We were relatively raw, but for four players with some part-time travel experience. That said, from our opening practice, after one of my many Vince Lombardi-wannabe speeches to the squad, I could tell these girls wanted to play and get better ... and they were willing to work at it (as long as it was somewhat fun too). Our theme ... beyond Barney thing ... was getting better: every practice and every game. And we did.

While the regular season was not spectacular, far from it at times, it was a critical building block to better things to come. We gave the girls lots of chances to play in lots of spots, encouraging them to swing the bats, and even tried using something like 6-7 pitchers with varying success. But, if you don't try, you don't know ... and, if you try, you can at least appreciate how challenging it can be to be the pitcher or the catcher when the heat is on. We were something like 5-6 in the regular season (tying or losing to both the other well-coached Manteno teams), and ended up being the 9 seed in the minors softball tourney held in Crete last week. And that's when things got most interesting.

Sometimes its a matter of when your team gels. And that was true for us. From our first tourney game, for reasons beyond my comprehension, the girls were believing they could do something special if they all played well and did their jobs. And they did. Our first tourney win was against Momence and that gave us a boost of confidence and our bats started to come alive ... up and down the line-up. Our second game was a squeaker. We played the #1 seed in the tourney, Grant Park, and beat them in a tie-breaker scenario where we won the coin toss and got to bat first with a runner automatically on second base ... and we scored that run, via some overthrows by a very solid Grant Park team, after some aggressive base-running by Jenna Heflin. Our third game was against an extremely challenging Peotone 2 team that was also a much higher seed than us. We lost that game late but even then the Peotone coach knew we had the stuff to make it further in the tourney and that we might see them again soon. He was right on both counts.

To advance, after our lost in the double elimination tourney, we needed to be a very solid Manhattan team and, of course, Peotone 2, who gave us our first loss (all on the same hot night). We did both. Those critical wins, which were produced by some outstanding pitching by Emma Hofmeister and Shannon Meegan, as well as stellar catcher play by Kylie Zawisza (with an honorable mention to Megan McShane for her play behind the plate an inning and at second base ... and Jenna Heflin at 3rd and Jessica Schindler at 1st), ... not to mention the multiple home runs by Shannon Meegan and Kylie Zawisza, and great hitting by nearly everyone on the team ... The Barney's rolled ... with everyone on the team contributing in notable ways (including the girls that had never or not played much at all ... kudos to the Alannah, Karah, Kristen and others). It was an amazing evening.

To win it all, Barney's Angels had to beat undefeated Crete 1 ... twice in one day. No easy feat, but the Barney's were believing ... and things looked great at first. The B-Angels were up 6-0 after the second inning and the girls were hitting and fielding well. The "Heatmeister" was bringing it. But then the Barneys hit a tough stretch in the 3rd and 4th innings and ended up losing the game to multi-year champion Crete 14-10. That said, Manteno's B-Angels fought hard throughout and really lived up to their potential. Their runner-up trophies will also mean a lot to them ... as they know how much hard work and perseverance went into them and their remarkable accomplishments ... from a rag-tag squad of raw softball recruits to championship contenders.

My take-aways from this season:

• Coaching girls softball can be one of the more rewarding things you can do with your time.

• If you are a head coach ... get great, smarter-than-you assistant coaches and treat them well. Much of our success this year goes to coaches Laurie Zawisza and Chris Schindler ... and very supportive and positive parents. Thanks!!!

• Never underestimate girls ... and their amazing potential. Challenge them! Barney's Angels overachieved in the best sense of that word this season and it was beautiful to behold. Like the U.S. women's soccer team just did, the B-Angels wowed us with their intestinal fortitude and true grit, despite their raw beginnings and uphill circumstances.

• Seeing girls (and boys) at a young age blossom and start to realize that God made each one of them special and unique ... and through that great things can come via hard work and tenacity, is all the reward you'll ever need as a coach or a parent.

• Make it fun ... and do it with class and professionalism. (Please also join me in my quest to eliminate mindless, childish sing-song chants by softball players).

It takes a Village ... one like Manteno ... that really goes above and beyond to provide tremendous leadership via MYBSL, fields, equipment, structure, administration, coaches (I can't tell you how much I have learned from guys like Kevin Mansfield, Brian Meyer, Jerry LeSage, Mike Daly, Rick Selk, Adam Dotson, Todd Crockett, Jim Worby, John Liss, my assistant coaches and hosts of others in Manteno), as well as supportive fans and parents, etc. There is a reason why Manteno has as many green sports championship signs as it does at the entrances to our fair town, not to mention the other regional and district championships in baseball, softball, soccer, etc. Manteno is a special place ... because its people make it so.