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Letter to the editor

Growing pains

By DAWN REISS
Published May 8, 2005

There is a lively banter coming from the Seven Rivers Christian dugout. It's the third inning, and the Warriors trail.

"Is my hair long enough yet, coach?" jokes student manager Trae Brant. "I'm trying to get on the softball team."

The girls look over to Brant sitting on the dugout bench. "You wish," they collectively joke back.

Then a high-pitched squeal of "GOOD-EYE-EEEE-AHH" pierces the warm afternoon air, as the group chants in, echoing back and forth.

"I just love that cheer," senior catcher Danielle Toms said.

She is just grateful not to be pitching for a few minutes. Short staffed, the Warriors threw Toms in the rotation after their lone pitcher, senior Alice Zeiss, broke her left leg while sliding into home plate. It was only three games into the season.

Zeiss' early exit left Seven Rivers with nine players. If someone was injured, the Warriors wouldn't have been able to field a team.

"We were dazed from the whole thing," shortstop Katie Amesbury said. "We'd lost our leader."

But the players stuck together to complete the young program's fifth season, even though they were uncertain at times whether they'd have enough members to field a team. And they had some fun along the way, despite a 3-16 finish.

One winning record

Seven Rivers Christian wasn't sure if it would have a team this year.

The program began in 2000 with a junior varsity record of 1-9. Since then, the Warriors have had one winning season - 9-7 in 2001 when they lost to Jacksonville Arlington Country Day 24-1 in the first round of the playoffs under Tom Evans.

Paul Kalfa took over the squad in 2002, and it went 2-11. The following year, a Bonnie Zeiss-coached team posted one win, then Seven Rivers had another 2-11 mark in 2004.

Three years ago, the school's baseball team was in the same position. When only a few athletes, then-coach Jamie Richard decided to have a squad but didn't play in the state series. That decision, which Richard now regrets, left the Warriors out of the playoffs two straight seasons before they were eligible again this year.

"I thought it was the best decision, but the next year there was a different coach, new players and they couldn't play in the state series because of the judgment call I made the year before," said Richard, Seven Rivers' athletic director.

"I realized later that you never know from year to year who is going to play at a small school," he said.

Richard approached boys basketball coach Jim Irvin, who never had coached girls, and asked him to think about softball.

"When I took the job, I realized what I was getting into," Irvin said of this season. "I knew they were inexperienced and very young.

"But as a varsity coach, it is frustrating to come in when other teams are working at the next level and you're at the junior high level. But they did get fundamentally sound, and we stayed positive the whole season."

Eleven girls were listed on a preseason sign-up sheet. Yet, by the first day of practice, there was only eight players. "We were going to have a team, even if I was going to have to shackle someone," joked Richard.

Irvin wandered the hallways and convinced more students to come out for the squad. It included first-time players Renee Bellavance, Jessica Baierlein and Rachel Dumas and 4-foot-6 sixth-grader Alex Iwaniec, who barely reached the shoulders of her teammates.

"We kept wondering if we could field a team for the season," Irvin said. "But some how we did."

Extra help

Irvin focused on the basics, showing batters during games proper hand placement and stance.

"I almost didn't play," said Dumas, a seventh-grader who received hitting instructions. "I wasn't sure if I could, but then I heard they needed people.

"My first time at bat," she said of a game, "Coach Irvin told me to not swing at the first pitch so I could get the feel of it."

Scared, Dumas decided to wait for the right pitch. "I was so glad to get my first walk," she said. "I was so proud to be on the team. The hardest thing was trying to figure out if it was a ball or a strike."

The first few weeks, there were a lot of bruised knees and elbows from outfielders and infielders bumping into each other while going for a play.

"It was painful," Dumas said. "We had to learn how to call a ball."

Despite being the youngest on the team, Iwaniec helped some members learn how to play.

"It was a little different being with the older girls," Iwaniec said. "I had to adjust to the faster pitches."

With Zeiss out for the season and a cast on her leg, she began tutoring Erica DeLoach and Amesbury on how to pitch.

"There was a lot of humility," Amesbury said. "In the past, we just relied on Alice. But we learned, and we tried to keep it fun."

Some good times

There always was something to help the Seven Rivers bunch have fun on the field.

When Toms pitched, Amesbury went to catcher. After games, Toms would carry Iwaniec piggyback to shake hands with opponents.

"She's tough," Toms said about Iwaniec. "She's really hyper and brought a lot of life to our games."

It didn't seem to matter to the Warriors where they played, just as long as they played.

"We knew we weren't going to win many games, but we were just happy to be out there," Dumas said.

Baierlein fractured her ankle in April, leaving the Warriors with eight players. In came junior Megan Olive despite not knowing much about softball. A few weeks later, Baierlein returned - and Irvin was happy.

"We have increased our team number back to 10 - something we haven't had for a very long time," the coach said.

Facing adversity

The Warriors continued to push through. Each game, they came closer to winning.

"We were just goofy at the beginning of the season," Chelsea Ebert said. "But as we began to believe, we became more serious - but never too serious."

By the time the Class A, District 5 Tournament arrived, Seven Rivers had gone 0-6 in regular-season district play and 3-15 overall. It faced top-seeded Hernando Christian Academy in the tourney.

"Our whole team knew we were the team that was expected to lose, but we just enjoyed being out there," Toms said. "And every time we were getting down, we started cheering because even if we ended up losing, we wanted to play the best we could."

"Even though 3-16 isn't much success in many peoples eyes," Irvin said, "state records don't always reflect successful seasons."

SC: CITRUS TIMES;

PG: 5; 5

CR: PHOTO, STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON; PHOTO, TED McLAREN, (3)

CU: Seven Rivers teammates Carol Ann Dumas and Erica DeLoach go for a pop-fly.

CU: Catcher Danielle Toms on the field.; Erica DeLoach pitching.

CU: Head coach Jim Irvin

[Last modified May 13, 2005, 00:56:15]