As a rookie baseball mom, I’d heard the fall season for Dilworth Little League was a little more laid back than the traditional spring season. The coaches spend more time and energy developing skills, which sounded perfect for our 5-year-old after he got his first taste of tee ball last spring.
What I’ve learned this fall is that it also means a whole lot of fun for the kids.
Wade got to wear eye black for the first time. He learned how to gently place a bat down after hitting – the things you take for granted! And he and his buddies got to spend the better part of a recent practice learning how to slide!
Coach Tim Bookout showing his form on a slide at home plate.
Not only was it fun for the kids kicking up a bunch of dirt, it was a huge chuckle for the parents. And we give big kudos to our coach, Tim Bookout, who’s not only amazing with the kids but got out there and demonstrated how to slide himself! I can only imagine how he felt waking up the next morning!
It was just another example of Bookout going out of his way to make this season fun, while still teaching the kids important fundamentals of the game.
After one of our games got rained out, and the other team couldn’t work out a makeup game, Tim just had our kids come out for an intrasquad game. Some kids wore their green uniforms from last spring, some wore their blue from this season. He brought eye black stickers for everybody as well as a battery-operated megaphone, which the parents passed around to take turn introducing our budding little stars.
Since the game wasn’t “official” Tim gave each kid the option of hitting against a coach pitching and getting a little flavor of what’s to come in the next year or two with machine pitch. And for us as parents, it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy this precious tee ball time, when there is no score, no outs, no strikes, and no monotony of watching kids struggle to make contact!
Wade (right) and teammate Ethan with matching eye black and game balls.
All the while, it’s been great to see how far the boys have come since last spring in their baseball development. They’ve had some time now to let these skills sink in – throwing has become a little more natural, swings a little stronger – and they’ve been able to rekindle relationships with buddies that they might not see otherwise because of school and other activities.
There’s so much to learn with baseball. And no offense to soccer – (I played and know it’s not easy!) – but when all else fails, kids can just run up and kick the ball. Baseball asks a lot more of these kids. It’s so nice to see them enjoying the process.
For information about programs at Dilworth Little League, click here. Registration for the spring season opens around January 1st and the season starts in March. To be eligible for Dilworth Little League, players must live inside the league’s boundary or attend an elementary, middle or high school within the boundary.
Dilworth Youth Sports Association
P.O. Box 12131
Charlotte, NC 28220
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
