Head Coach, Brad Schneider and Assistant Coach, John Pickford spoke with me at their Tuesday night training session to talk through the birth of West’s inaugural U14’s girl’s team, as well as the core values and morals they are both installing into the young athletes at Wests.
What is your background with baseball at Wests?
Brad:“I’ve been playing/ involved with the club for about 25 years. Back in the day, I played my way through all 3 grades, starting in C Grade and moving my way up. Even back then we had volunteers putting back into the game and I’ve been really lucky in that sense to be able to now put back into the club and help out with the juniors. I’ve been involved with the junior programmes for a few years now. I’ve got kids here that I’ve coached as they’ve been growing up and they’ve now made our senior teams- that’s pretty cool to me. My son plays here as well and I’ve taken a step back from that team and decided to take on the girl’s team this season.”
How did this team come about?
John:“It’s grown from a small 10-week workshop we did with female players to a group of 16 girls wanting to play on this U14’s team. About ¾ of the team hasn’t played baseball before, we’ve had some girls come from different clubs to participate in this new team and we get to coach them through a really prominent time in their life. We’ve been talking to the parents too, the key thing we’ve found with coaching these girls is that we need to be in close communication with the families to ensure that we aren’t taking up too much of their school work time but having them still know that this field and this team is their safe place to come and be themselves. If we can help develop these girls and guide them on the right path then they will take care of the rest; they are so supportive of each other. We are all about the girl’s developing their skills, it’s building their social awareness too because there is so much bullying that goes on now, we are really big on this being the area that they can be themselves in.”
Do you have any particular goals for your team this season?
Brad:We are going for little milestones at a time. A win isn’t even on my radar at the moment. We are going to reach a new milestone each week and move up from there. A lot of our team hasn’t played the game before so us coaches haven’t set unrealistic goals; we are expecting them to have fun and to bond as a team. There is a big growth for baseball in the country right now, so hopefully other girls can see this team and then join their local club and play too!
How do you think the team will go once they are up against the boys in the GBL?
John:(laughs) “That’s the big question! We’ve had a few scrimmage games with the younger boys at the club and they cheered each other on and overall the confidence level was fantastic. They know that we only expect their personal best, as long as they are happy and having fun then we have done our job! Even though a lot of our team hasn’t played baseball before they are all very athletic so I think people will be surprised when they see them play!”
Brad, as someone who has been part of Wests for so long, what are some of the club’s biggest values?
Brad:“At the end of the day we are a working club, it’s nice to have great facilities but we really work together as a club and get things done as a community. Our committee over the past few years have put a lot into the club, for 35 years we haven’t had a clubhouse or a functional canteen and now we are getting little instalments to better the club. We will have a big clubhouse-opening day, which will be a great start to our season! We still have guys involved in the club from the Victory South’s days, so we are proud of our history and where we’ve come from and that is definitely something I’m trying to put through to the kids now. We need to respect and value the people who played before us because at the end of the day if it weren’t for the guys before us we wouldn’t be playing on this field we all love so much. We are a club that’s filled with people who just love baseball and maybe we aren’t as well off as some of the other clubs but we sure turn up every week and do what we love!”
John:“As a club we are very respectful. We see kids come from tough backgrounds and if we can drill into our players that respect is the #1 thing than we can all feel equal and comfortable at our club. You do find bullies wherever you are and that’ll never change but we are big on keeping our club respectful and filled with pride.”
Tuesday trainings for West’s U14’s team is anything but boring, players and coaches were all sporting bright pink playing shirts, with music pumping through the air, it was definitely a welcoming environment for new and existing players to learn the great sport of baseball in.
Long time baseball player, Matilda Shepard says, “I love it here at Wests, I love even more that we have an all girls team this season because we are already so much closer than I ever felt when I was part of the boy’s team. We all know each other really well and over the past couple of weeks at training we have really started to bond with each other more. I just moved from another club and here at Wests they teach us so much more technique, which I really love, and that’s what I looked for in a club because I wanted to improve as a player. It’s a really fun team and I really hope I can hit a homerun this season; I was so close last year!”
After being introduced to baseball this year, Elliarna Rein comments on how supportive and welcoming the sport has proven to be for her, “ I’ve never played baseball before but I’m really enjoying training with my friends here. My team is really supportive when I actually hit the ball! They all cheered for me and we do that for everyone; it’s really fun! I hope that our team can keep on being supportive during the season and all achieve our personal goals.”
It’s safe to say that the boys better keep an out on this group of girls because something tells me they could be the team to beat!
