Tue, Nov 24 2009
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A Bob Ettinger column: How they played the game Teams won, lost with class in tournament BOB ETTINGERStar Beacon Earlier in the afternoon, during what amounted to a two-hour rain delay, I saw kids, coaches, parents and casual fans from most every team pick up rakes, shovels, buckets and even stryrofoam cups and bowls, to rid the JAGS Complex of water.
At one point, it was thought, the tournament would have to be decided by coin flips. The fields were thought to be unplayable. But the efforts and teamwork of the masses changed that decision. Hundreds of people were working together just so the girls on those 50 teams could play out the weekend. Many of the people helping, like local high school boys Bryan Easton, Kyle Gilchrist and C.J. and Zak Gaf, had no real vested interest in the outcome. They just wanted their friends to be able to play. They just wanted to see some softball. One coach, Brian Ogrodowczyk of the 18-and-under Erie Frost, touched his players in a way I rarely see. After his girls lost a tough game to the Hurricanes that would have put them in a semifinal, Ogrodowczyk took the time to say a few kind words and a thank you to each girl on his team. Many of those kids, in tears with the loss, turned those frowns into smiles. Others became even more emotional. It was an act of kindness from a coach to his players. An act that, in the grand scheme of things, will mean more to those girls than any tournament championship. It's no surprise that Ogrodowczyk's team was one of the first, alongside the 18-and-under Jaguars, to start working on a field. Ogrodowczyk claimed that when his team was just starting out, they played at the Jaguars' tournament. He said Francis, the tournament director, showed them respect and treated them well. Ogrodowczyk said that his team comes back to Jefferson every year. The least he could have done, he felt, was help Francis and his girls and their parents keep the tournament running. Think those girls haven't learned from a good example? High school coaches have a lot to gain from their players playing travel softball every summer. Their success can hinge upon the work the girls put in with their summer coaches. Shelley Monas and Andy Gray at Edgewood and Pymatuning Valley understand that, the same as every other coach. Both Monas and Gray, as well as Monas' sister Sharon, Edgewood assistant Ashley Barker, Lakeside assistant Dan Juhola and Jefferson assistant Gerald Martin were in attendance in Jefferson. But they weren't coaching. They were rooting their players on. Not because success meant a win here or there next Spring. That means very little. They wanted to see their girls have success. They wanted their girls to know they were supported. 
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