Welcome to Coaches Corner
Monday, April 30th - The Final Edition
What a fun season! We ended up with a record of 20 wins and 8 losses and I personally felt that in only 1 game were we not in to it and that was the second game vs Cy Woods ( who by the way, only lost 1 game this year…to Austin in the Lamar Consolidated tournament). But, this season is history and these standards for junior varsity will be hard to match in the future years.
I have interviewed each player and talked about the season and what are their plans for the summer. We are an ambitious group of athletes. To the tee, each girl is willing to put some work in over the summer and try to get better as they all want to be a part of that first varsity team. Travis will be having their conditioning program in the summer and it is encouraged that they participate in that. Enrollment begins soon and there are sessions to fit the schedule of your daughter. If your daughter is not into the summer routine of playing softball, then they need to spend some time at the cage at least once per week, in order to keep up their skills. If you are wanting more information about summer teams, get in touch with me or check out eteamz.com…postings are coming up everyday of teams searching for players.
Our fundraising efforts were pretty good this year considering the lack of girls in the program. We pocketed about $1800 off of the ad campaign, $1000 of the 100 Inning game, $100 off of the programs being sold at the game and an unknown amount off of the concessions that we hosted a few times with soccer. As far as next year, I will be asking for input on the value of these fundraisers to see if there is something better that we can do to raise money. Our window is so short in term of when we are allowed to do any fundraising, that it seems we are always talking about doing something, but that is the way the rules are set up and we have to make the best of it.
Fall ball will be starting up as soon as school starts back in late August. The cost of it will go up, as we will need to fill two teams instead of one. Just like this year, it will be an on the job training and tryout session for those wanting to make the varsity.
Our field will be getting some new features next year. We should have grass added to the dirt area, next to the fence line. I have requested that maintenance seed about 15’ out from the fence and they said they would do that this summer. At the end of each dugout, a section of fence will be taken out to allow exiting the dugout in two places. It has been suggested that at Travis emblem, logo, etc be painted on the dugouts on the outside and that will be pursued. I would also like to look into the possibility of adding the words Travis Tigers to the outfield fence. Eventually, we will need to add that green netting all the way around the field instead of just the outfield.
When we return in August, we will need to put up the batting cage, fill sand bags for the tarp and get that on the roller, and do some basic weed eating, I am sure. Also, adding that exit to the dugouts and maybe a gate, if feasible.
I was more than excited to get to host a playoff game at our field this past week. Lamar Consolidated played Friendswood in a bi-district game. We were able to have a concession stand and it was a profitable evening for us.
Athletic banquet is on May 12th. We need to get the reservations by the end of the week. The meal for the athlete is free and the cost is $10 dollar/plate for any other member of the family that plans to attend.
Finally, it is 9 months until the first game of our first varsity season and we pretty much know the schedule already. By UIL rules, you can play 17 games plus 3 tournaments or 18 games plus 2 tournaments. With our 10 team district, that means there would have been 18 district games. All of the coaches agreed that they would prefer to play 3 tournaments, so what was decided to do was to eliminate 1 week of our round robin schedule of district games. By doing this, we now have 17 games and can schedule 3 tournaments. The way this was decided was by a draw. In this draw, we lost a home game versus Bush.
The First Varsity Game for Travis High School will be February 11th. It is a home game. It is a on a Tuesday night… and it is against ….( drum roll please……) Austin High School!!!!!!!!!
I can’t thank each and everyone enough for all of the help given to the program this season, and the best thing about it is that you will not graduate, and we can do this again next year. You are great to work with and look forward to making the first varsity season a memorable one.
Saturday, April 14th - The Home Stretch The end to this fun season is in sight. I just hope the weather holds up for 7 more days.
Some days you win the battle and some days you lose the battle in this sport. That sums up the Elkins game. Our inability to layoff the high stuff, was the difference in this game. When we compete in the fall season and see more of this, we will make better adjustments and be able to handle that situation.
FYI--Elkins defeated the Clements JV Friday night 2-0 also, so that make Elkins the District winner. Speaking of Clements, we will be playing there Friday night and our maturation as a team will be challenged again. One of the goals that I would like to see this year was for us to split with Elkins and Clements and we can do that with a win Friday night.
Saturday morning is our finale against Marshall. As you already know, it will be a part of our 100 Inning Game Day and the girls seem to looking forward to the day.
Now for the good news and bad news.....
We seemed to have let our guard down in regards to our academics. There was an alarming number of girls this time that was failing at the recent progress report period. Next season, our main concern starts in November and December, to make sure we stay abreast of our grades and hopefully be able to field 2 full teams next season.
Now, the good news. I have already been told that Coach Tice, who is already on campus as the replacement teacher for the one who left in the fall, ( whose basketball position I filled )...she will be my jv coach next season. Coach Robinson will be my varsity assistant. So, we are fully staffed!!!!!!!!! Coach Tice will also be the JV basketball coach. I was beaming on Friday when Coach Cunningham informed of that news. I plan to invite her to this weekends activity so that she can meet some of the girls and to watch a game.
More good news.... I have ordered the tarp and roller. The tarp is here in Houston and we will save shipping by going to pick it up ( saved us $250) and the roller will arrive sometime this summer when the company makes a shipment run to Houston from Bay City. Since they will double up on that run, they charged us half price on that shipping!!
All that is left is to order the sand and buy sandbags and we will do that in the fall....
Your daughter should have brought home a flyer about the athletic banquet on May 12th. If not, have her to remind me and I give her another copy.
It is TAKS week for the girls, practice will be over early each day if you can pick them up by 3:30 or 4, that will be great.
Have a good week ahead and Go Tigers.
Coaches Corner
April Fool Edition
Mother Nature won the battle this week. It was a pretty easy call at 6am. Fort Bend does not make up JV games, so that is it for this season.
This past week was a week of despair and ended up on an unexpected glimpse of pure giddiness by the girls over this great game.
If you read or watch softball enough, a team will establish a pattern of playing a particular way against certain teams. This pattern has already started to take shape in that we seem to compete pretty well against the established programs…Brenham, Elkins, Clements, etc and then there are teams that seems to give us fits for no particular reason..Dulles, Hightower, etc. Dulles seems to our thorn. The big difference is when we make mistakes they capitalized on them. More experience will hopefully swing the pendulum in our direction in the coming years.
We did take care of business the rest of the week in our pool play games and at Kempner on Friday night. I was very pleased to see that our bats came alive against a better quality of pitcher. On more than one occasion this season, we have seen the teams drop varsity members down to get in some work and in all cases, we have defeated them.
I guess the unexpected highlight of the week was the “hanging out with the big dogs” after the Kempner game Friday night. That was a marvelous opportunity to see where we need to be in a year from now. For those of you who watched that short scrimmage, the most glaring difference between that and what we have seen this year is the speed of the game picks up a lot. I probably learned more from that short hour than the girls did. I certainly enjoyed seeing the giddiness by Holly, Becca, and Rachel over their successes in this short time. In our few remaining practices, the tempo will probably be different after experiencing this.
FUNDRAISER---Last thing on my list to talk about is $$$$. We took a “hit” by not having the Saturday games so we really need to make this up somehow before seasons end.
In doing some early checking, the cost of a tarp will be about $2100 including sandbags, roller, and shipping.. We have $1800 in the account.
I have passes along information to David about the opportunity for a fundraiser at an Astros game this season. The more volunteers = more money in this venture. If we can get a date to handout their promo items, this is certainly different and I think it would be fun for the team to do. For each volunteer, you make $13.50/ 3 hours worked. …You do the math….this could be very minimal or a decent paycheck. He will be talking about this in the coming week at the games.
At the end of the season, I would like to meet with all interested parties and kinda set a timetable of what I am looking to purchase, how much, types of fundraisers, etc.
This is a short week. We play Tuesday @ home vs Bush and then have a Thursday game @ Hightower due to Good Friday holiday. Hope you have a good week and we will see you at the field.
Sunday, March 25th
Week in Review--Oh so close vs Clements! It was a good effort against a team that was undefeated.When you go up against quality programs like Clements, Elkins, etc...one of the first obstacles that you have to overcome is the fact that you belong. Once you realize that you do, then that creates confidence. We showed a little of that against Elkins and with our little spurt at the end of the game, I hope that we will have a little more confidence against Clements the next time we play them.
The Marshall team that we played on Friday was one of the better ones that they have had since their inception. You can really tell that they work with the girls on their skills.
I was really pleased with the way we came out on Saturday and took care of Austin. You never know how players will react to a Saturday game against a team that they already had beaten once. Our hitting showed some "pop" again and that is a good sign heading into a big week.
Fundraiser results-- we came up a little short in reaching my goal of $2000..( we ended up with $1700). However, with the money from the program sales, and hopefully a good weekend of consession sales at the tournament, we can get over that amount and purchase the necessary items.
When I talked to Mrs.Hall, our bookkeeper in charge of fundraisers, here are just a few of the little facts that were told to me.
1. 2 major fundraisers allowed--can't be done until your team is picked..Yes, the spring sports get the shaft on this issue. A major fundraiser is more than $3000.... So, from this, you can have all of the tiny ones you can during our "fundraising time" which would be January to May.
2. Donations are gladly accepted. All you have to do is fill out a form with her and turn it in.
At the end of the season, we need to sit down and discuss some different choices for fundraising and how to go about them, what items need to be bought for the players, and what are our long term needs.
The Week Ahead-- The weather forecast is making me a little nervous. We have had such good weather that it was bound to happen.
Tuesday--home game vs Dulles. I think the girls will be ready for this one. Another highlight of this day is that the Brazos Bend choir will sing the anthem.
Thursday--Fort Bend JV tournament--We play at 4 and 7. Concession stand is already in the works and you may be called upon to assist in running it or providing food.
Friday--away game at Kempner
Saturday---Fort Bend JV tournament-- Games start at 8am that morning and the last one starts about 330. If it is played out right, we will play at 12:30 and 3:30.
We will need everyones help this day, in one way or another.
DADS---We need to get the games in this week. We may need your help in getting the field ready in the case of rain. So, be prepared to assist....especially Thursday and Saturday.
Please check your email regularly this week as there will be information concerning the tournament.
Go Tigers
Saturday, March 10th
Wow, what a busy first month of the season. 16 games in less than 30 days. But, very rewarding and I am looking forward to some time off to regenerate the batteries and getting more into district play.
Our progress is coming along and as expected, there are the peaks of valleys of a young team. Our record stands at 12 and 4 and with the exception of the Dulles loss, the other 3 losses were to much better teams. The key word that the girls here from me is "compete" and let the game take care of itself. We are starting to develop an identity as a team and that "is a good thing". We have a busy 2 weeks upon our return from the spring break. We start off by playing Clements on that Tuesday following the break, and then do the double dip on the weekend with Marshall and Austin. The following week, we have the rematch with Dulles and then the Fort Bend JV tournament that weekend sandwiched around a district game at Kempner..that is 9 games in a 2 week span. I encourage you to take your daughter to the cages over this holiday period to keep her on her hitting game and be ready for the Rangers on the 20th.
Fundraiser---I think this has been a fun thing to do and pretty successful considering the number of girls involved in the program. Originally, the dates of this was until spring break, but I think we can probably do this 2 more weeks before we run out of legitimate time to ask for ads for the program. I encourage you to meet your goal of $100 worth of ads so that we can purchase items for the benefit of the softball program.
As far as the game program, my students that have been doing this for us have done a great job of meeting the deadlines and I will like to apologize if we have left any ads out the program. We are doing some checking as soon as we get back from the break so that we can get this right and have a good one for the Clements game. If you would, shoot me an email at school if we have left your ad out of the program, and we will get it done on that Monday when we return. Thank you for your help on this matter.
Just a thought---as a great big softball family of 20 girls, do we have enough junk laying around our houses to combine forces to have a mini-garage sale and then donate that money to the program?
Game night-- thanks for buying a program and each one is different and I know that some of you like to keep score just in case another coach questions the score. Our color guard is a nice added touch to the evening and you will be pleased to know that in the coming weeks, Brazos Bend and Oakland elementary choirs will be at our games to sing the national anthem.
Enough softball...time to let it go and take care of some Honey Do's. I wonder what LeBron will be doing during the break?
Have a Safe Spring Break
Go Tigers
Thursday, March 1st
This is the first installment of a weekly series about our season. It will bring to light some the past games as well as what is ahead of us in the coming weeks.
I am very pleased with the progress we have made in the first part of this season. But, with every young program, you will experience some growing and learning pains. We learned a valuable lesson at Dulles that I hope will carry over to the rest of the season and in to the years to come. You never take an opponent lightly. I am just as guilty as the girls about doing this. All you can do from something like that is to bounce back and learn from it.
Our first home was a rousing success. All of the pieces kinda fell into place and made the night a little different. We will continue to tweak the evening in the areas of announcing and parents, I have already requested some better listening music in-between innings.
Fundraiser-- I stated at the kickoff parent luncheon, no program can maintain itself without materials and equipment. This is especially true for such a young program. After some deliberations with parents, we felt that this ad program was a good idea and that it would work. Each girl was responsible for $100 worth of ads. If each girl did their share, that amount would be enough for us to purchase the next big ticket item on the wish list, an infield tarp for those rainy days. If you don’t like to go out and solicit monies, then please contribute to the fund via a donation to the program. We have about 2 weeks left to try and round up these ads, please do your fair share.
Upcoming events—our second tournament is next week at Waller. To avoid mapquest error, the directions from the coach was very simple. Take 290 west out of Houston. Exit Field Store Road. Turn right and the school will be on your right.
March 31st…that Saturday, we are hosting the finals of the Fort Bend JV tournament. There will be 6 games here that day starting at 8am. Please be prepared to work the concession stand
Go Tigers
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