Getting ready for games, and life: Softball coach on learning skills

It was a tough defeat for the Shelter Island varsity softball team on the highway against Pierson on April 12. But the closing lopsided score did not notify the complete tale, in accordance to Coach Kristin Andrejack.

“We experienced a rough start,” she stated. “We confirmed a lot of nerves, but then we settled down and ended up evenly matched the relaxation of the activity and our crew showed a good deal of assurance.”

The coach, who also is a actual physical education and learning and well being teacher at Shelter Island College “from Pre-K to seniors,” claimed coaching is in numerous approaches an extension of training. “It’s a break up in between educating techniques and framework to players who are just learning” and coaching approach and in-sport choice-making. “We have some returning athletes, but a whole lot of newcomers.”

Any activity necessitates observe and repetitions, and even the returning varsity players “always have to boost their capabilities,” the coach said.

The varsity squad is a large a person, with 17 players, a testament to Mentor Andrejack and the women who arrived out to wear the Island’s hues. She was especially delighted at the amount of girls becoming a member of the team who had been not completely acquainted with the match on an arranged stage.

“It’s the very first time for some of them to engage in softball, and it is excellent to see them using a chance, to get out of their comfort and ease zones, to be part of a varsity team,” she reported. “It exhibits the courage of these youthful girls.”

A stand-out high university athlete herself, the Jamesport native performed volleyball, basketball and softball for Riverhead Significant University. A graduate of SUNY Cortland, Mentor Andrejack lives in Westhampton.

Obtaining athletes to target — primarily youthful kinds — is a crucial to a thriving workforce, and the mentor stresses it, but has also delegated that talent to what she explained as “the crew leaders,” the returning players.

There are two captains on the squad, Isabella Fonseca and Bella Springer. The co-captains and returning veterans “always want to get much better, and the more youthful gamers see them enjoying the recreation and the level of competition. We have some actual role versions on this team.”

The gamers are discovering skills, which will go over and above the softball diamond. “Those management capabilities will aid these gamers in future endeavors all over their life,” Coach Andrejack reported.

It’s gratifying to see the communication among the gamers, she famous, by finding just about every other all set just before they just take the field on defense, and contacting out to each individual other in the course of plays when they are in the area. 

Just one video game circled on the coach’s and her players’ calendars is May perhaps 10, a return match from Pierson, this time on the Islanders’ home subject. “It’s a massive sport,” the coach said.

The game will be Senior Working day for the players and also a fundraiser for “Strikeout Most cancers,” a national corporation that makes use of resources for most cancers study and assist programs. It will also be a 2nd chance to take on Shelter Island’s longtime rival, and perhaps even the score a little bit.

“Oh, we’re seeking forward to observing Pierson once again,” Mentor Andrejack mentioned.