And we’re open

Little league opened Friday night and all went swimmingly. Most of the players were there and suited up. They were introduced as they stood with their teams and coaches in the infield. The West Dallas Boy Scout color guard presented the flags and Whitney Houston sang the national anthem, not live of course. Then Miss Annie, Miss Jacque and myself all threw the first pitch. I am thankful to DonnaVin for showing me how to properly throw a baseball or else there is no way I would have been able to get it over the plate. Thanks D-Man!

Trey, Garrett, Luke, Joey and I served around 200 hot dogs to a crowd of mostly players and families, while the Red Sox and Tigers battled it out on the field. Red Sox won, I’m not sure what the final score was.

It was a beautiful night and I’ll post some pictures soon.

I’ll also post the schedule soon and if your ever in the neighborhood, come and join us at the Johnny Oats baseball field. I guarantee you’ll love it!

The baseball cap

There is a family that I love. In this family are four boys and one girl. Last year the oldest boy and the youngest boy played baseball, both are athletic and tremendously gifted. The oldest boy, M, was on his way to the All Star team. He is a quiet boy, who always showed up and performed well and was well liked by his peers and his coaches. The youngest boy, D, wasn’t always at his games and although he could hit the ball, catch and run like the wind, he is prone to temper tantrums and would often have to be literally picked up and removed from the field because of his raging temper. Mid season we learned that M. was sexually abusing D. M. was sent to a juvenile facility, for how long I don’t know. D.’s mother was instructed to get the family counseling and we’ve rallied around her and the kids. Several of the kids have mentors, which has helped. But, sadly I do not think the kids have gone through proper counseling and so I do not know if they are properly coping with what has happened.

Today, the boys and their sister were up at the baseball field. All of the boys are excited to play baseball this year, and the oldest boy at home now, A. was eagerly waiting for his mother to bring the applications. He had a baseball cap in his hand and when he flipped it over it had M.’s name written out. Seeing his name reminded me of our desperate need for our Saviour. We (the baseball coaches) have struggled the past couple of days as we’ve already dealt with D’s. attitude and I know I am not equipped for his emotional needs. But our dear Lord is, and with His help we can help all these young men and young women.

Friends, please pray with us as we start a new season of baseball. I recognize that to some of you, baseball may not seem like much. But you’d be amazed at the opportunity that exist to teach these kids through sports.

And please pray for this sweet family that I love and that God loves even more…

USYSA

I just returned from a rip roarin good time at the Annual US Youth Soccer Association Conference. This year it was held in the lovely town of Pittsburgh, which is actually lovely even though it sounds like a Pitt.

The weekend was packed. There were sessions on Risk Management, Progressive Systems of Play, Tactics of Tackling, Utilizing IT to Achieve Your Organization’s Marketing Objectives, and of course Goal Scoring Opportunities. But what was missing was a session on how a non-athletic, non-coordinated never played soccer in her life coach teaches the game. Something called, Soccer for total idiots. I was completely out of place. I totally forgot my black Adidas pants with the white strips on the side. What was I thinking.

So I just took it all in stride and enjoyed the warmth of a pair of borrowed UGG’s (thanks Melissa), seeing a bit of Pittsburgh, a slight, very slight snow fall, the local nightlife, and bonding with my fellow coaches from the West Dallas United club. I also managed to learn a bit and I now know the difference between technique and skill.

My favorite part of the whole conference…watching the kids from the TOPSoccer program demo their skills. TOPSoccer is a program for mentally or physically disabled kids and whenever they would score a goal the joy expressed was unmatched, I dare say even by the player scoring the winning goal in World Cup. It was priceless!

I’ll post some pictures of the weekend soon.

Please

Pray for THIS

The meeting is today at 11:45am.

Watergirl

My soccer star has been benched.

Sweet Aderika had her first soccer practice this weekend. I picked her up at 8:15am and she was ready to go, cleaks, guards, shorts, hair ribbon. She was the picture of a professional. She had a great time playing, and told me how much she was looking forward to her next practice and couldn’t wait until her first real game. (O, I love her enthusiasm.)

That evening I got a phone call from my brother, who mentors Aderika’s brother Jakari. He told me that Aderika had been in a car accident and was at Children’s. He didn’t know the seriousness of it. About 45 minutes later I spoke with Adrienne, her mother, she told me that she was okay, but that she had broken her right leg.

The next day, Sunday, I went over to see Aderika, Praise the Lord, she is just fine. She does have a broken leg…actually broken ankle, but she is a-okay otherwise. She has a great family, Aunts, Uncles, grandparents that love her dearly. While I was there several people gave her money, a few bucks here and there. They were sweet acts of kindness towards this precious child.

As I was leaving, She asked, “What about soccer, Miss Hannah” Aderika, Kids, Soccer, West Dallas, WD Kiddos,
I said “O, don’t you worry about it, we’ll find a special position just for you. You can be our watergirl.”
“ALRIGHT!!!! I’m really good at that.”

Driving away, I was reminded that every moment is special. This accident (which was actually quite serious…a man not paying attention because he was rubbernecking another accident hit his gas instead of his break and floored his car into their completely stopped car) could have just as easily been more serious. I do thank the Lord for his protection over not just Aderika, but over her sister Leeoshia, (16) and Leeoshia’s daughter Shakari (8 months) who were also in the car and walked away without a scratch.

I’m also thankful for her enthusiasm at being the new WDU watergirl.

Cleaks

Last night Aderika and I set out to buy her cleats for soccer. We are both pretty excited that she is going to be playing for the West Dallas United soccer team this fall. So in preparation for her first practice I wanted her to be totally prepared; cleats, ball, shin guards, soccer socks, soccer shorts – the whole ensemble.

I’ve never purchased this stuff for me or a child before so I asked our sport ministry guys where to go and they pointed me to Luke’s Locker or Not Just Soccer, both located in Highland Park, and we headed out. Unfortunately Luke’s doesn’t sell soccer stuff and NJS was closed so we headed to Dick’s Sporting good store. As we drove down Preston road Aderika was climbing out of her seat looking at everything around her, I asked
“what are you looking at?”
“the cars, and the people.”
“hmmm”
We sat in quiet for a while, and she continued to practically crawl around the car, her head doing 360′s while she took it all in.
Then she said,
“There’s a lot of people running around here, they sure like to exercise.”
“Yep, exercise is good and they do a lot of that around here.”

That was it….that was her summary of HP.

When we got to Dick’s she said to the store clerk, we are looking for cleaks…I said, Aderika their called Cleats. We picked out the perfect pair of pink and black cleats, to which Aderika exclaimed, “these are prettiest cleaks I’ve every seen.” I corrected her one more time, but as she continued to call them cleaks and I realized how cute it is I decided to leave it alone.

Our trip was successful. We found cleaks, guards, a cute pink ball, shorts, socks, and even these little odor protectors. We had a blast…and even got to talk about the importance of exercise.

Aderika

have a new mentee…Aderika. She is in the fourth grade and she is precious. Actually her nickname is Precious. She is so enthusiastic about life, she has been waiting for a mentor for over a year now. Her favorite t.v. show is Bernie Mac, she told me proudly yesterday that she never misses an episode. Her mother Adrienne was born and raised in West Dallas, and my brother Johnny mentors Aderika’s older brother Jakari.

Here is Aderika…

P.S. I’m still mentoring Rissah…

Concession Stand

I was just reminded at our staff meeting that I volunteered to run the concession stand for the West Dallas Little League…Yeah! That means we will have lots of hot dogs (with sauerkraut and spicy mustard), nachos, definitely must have root beer and of course sunflower seeds. But what else is a must have at a little league concession stand???

The games begin April 22.

Little League

West Dallas Little League is getting ready to start and I am excited. The teams will begin practicing in March and the first pitch is sometime in April. We’ll have around 12 teams and the league will include tee-ball and softball. We are currently recruiting players, coaches, team-moms, concession stand workers, and people to cheer these kids on.

I never played sports as a kid but my brothers did and I loved going to the games. I loved when I was able to work at the concession stand. There is just something fun and simple about little league. I am also so excited about what this is going to teach the kids, they are really going to be a part of a positive organization and that excites me.

Hip Hip Hooray for Baseball!