Family connections keep team running
It was a hot, muggy night and tempers were kept on a short leash. There was backslapping and a bit of backbiting, good-natured ribbing and all-out euphoria.
In other words, family night.
For the Lloyd family, the family room is a softball diamond. Dad, Rick, coaches at third base; mother, Mary, coaches first; eldest daughter, Jennifer, is behind the plate catching for sister Michelle, a left-hander with a wicked fastball.
“I’ve been coaching for quite a while, but this team is the most fun I’ve had,” Rick said. “This is the first time my daughters have played together, for one thing. And the first time I saw these girls practice, I said ‘This team is going to be good.’.”
The Lloyds aren’t the only sisters on the squad. Bree Snow, the team’s shortstop, and her sister, Emmily at first base, anchor the infield.
“It makes things more fun,” Emmily said of the double sister act. “Everyone gets along real well.”
The rec league squad wrapped up its regular season Wednesday night at East Valley High School. It heads into next week’s league tournament with a chance to win it all.
“I’ve never won a championship,” Lloyd told his players after the game. “Who wants to win one?”
Needless to say, everyone raised a hand.
In the meantime, it’s been a fun ride.
Both Rick and Mary are hands-on coaches.
“Mary gets out there and runs with them – and I use that as a motivational tool with the girls,” Rick said. “It’s one thing if I run with them and beat them. They almost expect a man to be able to beat them. But when Mary runs with them and beats them, I point out that it’s a (age deleted to protect domestic tranquility) year-old woman beating them.”
For her part, Mary believes having a woman in the dugout helps.
“It helps, I think, when it comes to explaining things,” she said. “I’m built the way they are and I can relate to them. When I talk to them about getting your hips turned a certain way, for example, it makes sense to them.”
There’s no argument with the way Mary taught her eldest daughter to hit.
“Jennifer started hitting when she was 2 years old,” Mary explained. “She started out hitting tennis balls with a plastic bat. We had a ranch-style house and she could hit the ball over the house.”
“My mom tells the story about when I was 2 and one of her co-workers came to the house,” Jennifer said. “He said there was no way a 2-year-old could hit a tennis ball that hard, so Mom pitched me a ball and I hit him right in the crotch.”
Having her younger sister playing on the same team has been fun, she insists.
“I’ve been on some teams that haven’t played as seriously as I like to play,” Jennifer said. “That gets frustrating. What’s great about having Michelle pitch is that she’s very serious about playing.”
So much so that the lefty has a special way of dealing with opposing hitters who step in and out of the batter’s box.
“She stares them down,” she says. “She gets this blank look on her face and she just stares at them. Then, once they get nervous and start to fidget, she fires the ball in there.
“The problem is, I can’t keep a straight face when she does that. She keeps telling me I can’t grin at her because it makes it too hard to keep a straight face.”
Not that it’s always a smooth connection between siblings.
“When I get the ball, I’m ready to pitch,” Michelle explains. “Jennifer likes to get set behind the plate and doesn’t want me to pitch until she shows the glove. The problem is, I don’t always remember to look for the glove before I pitch and she ends up firing the ball back at my head.”