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What an honor and privilege it has been to run the league for the past 5 years. Softball
is a sport, which I truly love. Growing up with three brothers, I’ve been around sports practically all of my life.
The youngest of six children, I had no choice but to compete at a very early age. I went to college on a swimming and diving
scholarship, but I played softball in high school. When I enrolled my daughters in the League 16 years ago, I first volunteered
as a coach, but soon became a serious, fast-pitch student myself. As a result of weekly, private hitting and pitching lessons
for my youngest daughter, Alex, I had the privilege of being exposed to the methods of two truly great teachers: Julie Bolduc
and Angel Manguel.
Helping Alex excel has allowed me to gain a plethora of softball knowledge. I coached
her CYO team at The Villa Maria Academy, bringing home the Bronx CYO championship trophy. Then, as I moved on to coach at
Preston High School, I brought home five Bronx/Westchester JV titles and two Preston Varsity Softball titles. Preston’s
2009 season for example, which ended with an undefeated 12-0 Bronx/Westchester title, was the best one ever. Two of the biggest
honors for me consequently were being named Coach of the Year by the Bronx Times Reporter in 2008 and receiving an honorable
mention for Coach of the Year this year by the NY Daily News.
I work to impart not only what knowledge
I can bring onto your children, but the League’s coaches as well. I try to be involved as much as possible. I’ve
also brought in pitching experts to teach our girls proper pitching techniques. Although good pitching requires patience and
steady practice, our girls eventually learn to pitch like the great players on TV. With the hard work our pitchers put in
our league is just getting better and better and now we actually have players coming from boroughs and counties to play in
our league. With great pitching we can really built a good reputation as a league. We make our pitching program
available to all ages but they must commit the time and effort that needs to become a great pitcher.
For the League’s more experienced players, we created successful travel teams in an effort
to expose our girls to better competition. Some of our travel teams have enter some very competitive tournaments and have
done well. The Throggs Neck Nukes 16u Tournament team made it all the way to national competition and played in North
Carolina, Our 12u Little League team were district champs and had an undefeated spring season. Our 12u Travel
team came in third in the Bronx/Westchester WPBA League and our 10u Travel Team came in first in the WPBA and were the runner
up at their very first PONY tournament on Long Island.
We have some wonderful people
helping us this year. I appreciate everyone's great sacrifice. Without our volunteers for example, there would not be a Throggs
Neck Girls Softball League. So here's to the up-coming 2012 season. Please join me in making it the best one yet.
Play ball!
Rachel
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