The Team Tampa U12 travel ball softball team has been around for less than a year. And, while they’re still getting used to playing together as a team in Florida, they’re now planning to compete on a national stage in California.
They are heading to Sacramento at the end of July to compete in the Amateur Softball Association’s national championship tournament for that age group.
(Courtesy of Laura Kiester)
The Rebels qualified by winning a tournament over Memorial Day weekend. Only a handful of Florida teams will punch their ticket to Sacramento at the end of July, and around a dozen local players will now take the trip of a lifetime.
Coach Autum Hernandez is impressed with both reaching the national tournament and how quickly the team reached it.
“It’s definitely a huge accomplishment, because it takes teams sometimes two or three years to gel together,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez knows about building team chemistry. She’s been the softball coach at Freedom High School for seven years, and has been a softball coach for 12 years. The challenge in travel ball, according to Hernandez, is that players might move or switch teams from year to year, making it harder to build a consistent identity or benefit from the experience of working together. But Team Tampa didn’t need much time to find a winning rhythm. While some members played together with other teams such as the Lutz Lightning, many didn’t know each other when they formed last September.
The coach, who came on board a couple months later, saw a group of girls with intangibles that made them special.
“The girls work really hard. It’s a good group of young kids who want to learn,” she said. “And they never quit, and that’s one thing that you can’t coach.”
So Hernandez focused on the things she could coach, which is showing players how to use their talent and tenacity to maximize their effectiveness as a team. Good hitters don’t always have to hit home runs, and strong fundamentals and good defense can win close games even if the team isn’t firing on all cylinders.
The coach doesn’t go easy on them in practice, and it’s paying off.
Players, like Lutz resident Lilly Kiester, are happy with the results, even if it means challenging days on the practice field.
“We run, stretch and throw. Some days we’ll do fielding, and some days we’ll do hitting,” Kiester said. “She holds us accountable.”
While Hernandez is quick to spot a mistake and explain how to fix it, Kiester said, she’s also the first one to cheer and offer praise when players get things right.
This team has been getting lots of things right, especially in close contests.
In the Memorial Day weekend tournament, Team Tampa had to come back at the end of games to win, and came out on top in a tiebreaker situation, too. At that level, if nobody has won within a certain time period, the rules put runners in scoring position and give both teams chances to score. In one instance they broke a tie with five runs to seal another victory.
In the championship game against a team from Jacksonville, the Rebels were down 3-1 heading into the final inning and put together four runs to earn their national tournament berth.
While she’s proud of her team, there are things the longtime coach wants to tighten up before they get on a plane this summer.
For instance, she’d like the Rebels to start the games a little hotter, and take less time to get a feel for the opposing pitcher.
There are also two positions that need to be on the same page at all times.
“I’m a former catcher,” Hernandez explained. “I want my pitcher and catcher communication to be a little bit better. That’s really important.”
If they can sharpen their communication skills and stay focused, the coach thinks the trip will be more than a sightseeing adventure. Team Tampa has a chance to do well at the national level, and is bringing the confidence to make that a reality.
Kiester agrees.
“I think if our confidence is high and we keep fighting and have a good attitude, we’ll go far,” she said.
Team Tampa is still in the process of funding the trip, which will cost thousands in travel expenses alone.
The team has set up a GoFundMe page, a crowd-sourcing Internet opportunity where people can make donations to causes in various dollar amounts. For more information and to donate, visit GoFundMe.com/ug28qc.
Published June 3, 2015
