Published: June 20, 2008 01:15 am            

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL: Home for the summer

Becky Shafer almost calls it a gift.

The Jeffersonville High School softball coach loves the fact that her team gets an opportunity to continue playing games well into the summer months.

The fact that the Red Devils get to play so close to home makes the whole endeavor that much better.

Jeff is one of 10 local schools that take part in a local high-school summer league that rotates contests between Jeff, New Albany and Clarksville.

“It’s great not having to travel to play,” said Shafer. “You couldn’t want any more than to be able to play games against good teams, and play games on your home field during summer months. It’s something we need, and it’s something we are lucky that we’re able to do.”

Jeff, New Albany, Clarksville, Providence, Silver Creek and Henryville are the most local of the squads that comprise the league, which Shafer estimates is in at least its 10th year of existence. Other schools include Scottsburg, North Harrison, Bedford and Pekin Eastern.

“Every year we look for schools during the course of the regular season that may have interest,” said New Albany coach Steve Belden. “During the year, I’ll ask around or call other schools and gauge interest. We’ve had more teams in the past, but to get 10 is quite a good number.”

Games are played on Monday and Thursday nights at of the three locations. Thursday’s night contests were scheduled at New Albany and Clarksville, and on Monday teams played at either New Albany or Jeff.

“The way it is divided this year, the home teams will play at least nine games on their own field,” Shafer said. “With what it costs to take teams places right now, you can’t find anything better than that.”

The main target of the teams involved is just finding a way to play competitive games during a time of year that historically has been tough to fill in the schedule.

“Being a spring sport, we’re in a position where our offseason is also a time of the year that we have to take advantage of because there are not going to be opportunities to continue playing outside during the winter,” Belden said. “That’s where the whole idea for this got started. We have to get as much time as we can on the field because we don’t get the opportunity to play year round.”

Coaches in the league call it informal but at the same time very competitive. No final score is kept for any contest and there is no final league tournament to crown a winner. However, Shafer notes that no coach will hesitate throwing out his or her best pitcher in any situation.

“You can go any night there and see Amanda (Embry) at Henryville or Faith (Griffaw) from New Albany,” Shafer stated. “We use Megan (Stirn) just about every game. The product on field is basically what you will see during the season. We play with all the same rules the IHSAA puts out for us, it’s just perhaps a little more informal in summer.”

While participation in the games is far from considered mandatory, each coach says they like to see their players show up more times than they miss.

“I like having all my girls at every game,” Belden said. “But at the same time, it is summer — I don’t want to take that away from the girls. We’re lucky in that we have a pool of about 15 of 16 kids that play for us, so if we have one or two who can’t play we’re still going to be okay.”

Shafer agrees.

“We always seem to average at least 11 or 12 kids a game,” Shafer said. “It doesn’t always have to be the same girls either, actually in some ways it helps that we can rotate kids in and get game experience this way.”

        

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