The DeKalb Tigerettes softball team were on the field for a whole other purpose last week, helping teach young players the basics of the game. The team held a preseason Softball Clinic for the kids in the community, honing their skills for the future.

“During Spring Break there’s not a lot to do,” said Tigerettes Head Coach Danny Fish. “A lot of people don’t go out of town on trips, so we wanted to do a preseason clinic for our softball community. It’s something we’ve identified over the past year and a half that we need to do in multiple sports. Our expectations are for them to know certain things when they reach the high school level, and it’s our job to help facilitate that.”

The two-day clinic saw 40 kids participate, rain or shine. “Today [Thursday] we’re in the gym because it rained,” Coach Fish explained.  “We’re lucky enough to have this type of facility available to come indoors and still have the clinic.”

“We have kids Kindergarten through 8th grade,” Fish continued. “We have them split into three groups, and it is good to see most of the kids from the middle school team out here and that older group. We’ve got a lot of good players out here, and a lot of kids that love softball.”

The Tigerettes players served as coaches during the event, sharing their knowledge of the game with future players of tomorrow. “Our team is doing a really good job with them,” Fish said. “We have one coach to every two players. How you caught a ball in 1995 is still the same way you catch a ball in 2022, but we need to work repetitiously. That’s how good players are built, through repetition.”

“Hopefully we can strike a fire in these kids,” Coach Fish concluded. “If they want to be Tigerettes one day and they keep working at it, hopefully it will help them in the future.”