Spring Sports Preview: J.E.B. Stuart Softball

The First Pitch — After repeatedly starting from scratch with rookie players every softball season, the Stuart Radiers are reaching out to sow the seeds of the sport with the local youth. With luck, they will reap the benefits, as the program did with sophomore Keera Batista.

By Darien Bates

When most coaches start working with a new team, they are concerned with implementing a new style of play, teaching new strategies or promoting teamwork. But when Kristi Palmer took over the J.E.B. Stuart High School softball team last year, she had to make sure that all her players simply understood the rules.

Of course most high school coaches aren’t trying to teach a sport to players who have never played before, a problem, yes, but also an opportunity for the young coach.
Palmer knew coming in that coaching Stuart’s softball team was going to be a challenge, prior to her arrival the team hadn’t won a game in four years. While other schools were pulling from a strong talent pool of players in Northern Virginia, the area around J.E.B. Stuart had a dearth of experienced players.

Still Palmer was undaunted. She started last season teaching the sport, starting with the basics. First the rules, then throwing and batting techniques, and later, strategies of the game.

From the beginning it was apparent there would be a long road ahead. Despite having over 50 people tryout, the team fielded only two players who had played prior to high school, both freshmen, Keera Batiste and Christina Tep. Everyone else was picking up from the beginning.

“We always start behind the other schools,” Palmer said.

During the early games against other teams, it seemed doubtful whether they should have even been on the same field, especially after a 27-0 loss to George Mason High School.
Though the season ended without Stuart overcoming the five year losing streak, Palmer said that the level of play had increased dramatically throughout the season, and that they actually came close to winning in the last couple of weeks.

More importantly though, was the spirit with which the players played, despite the rising number of losses. Palmer said that opposing coaches would come to her after games and tell her Stuart didn’t seem like a team that hadn’t won in five years.

“[My girls] never play like they’re losing,” Palmer said.
This season things are already looking better for Stuart, they are returning most of their players from last season, and as a sophomore Batiste has stepped into the role of both star player and team leader.

From a young age, the diamond has been home for Batiste. She played baseball with her older brother for years, the only girl on the team, before finally switching to softball. As a freshman entering Stuart, the same school where her brother played baseball prior to graduating, Batiste was immediately successful on the field. She anchored the shortstop position when she wasn’t pitching, and batted .400.

While she hopes to continue her own improvement this season, she has already noticed an improvement in her teammates. Their first scrimmage this year against George Mason provided early hope that the losing streak could end in 2005. While they still didn’t come away with a win, that 27 run deficit was cut to three, as the Raiders lost just 8-5.
Crucial to the development of the team is the consistency in coaching. In just her second year, Palmer has already become a veteran in Stuart Softball terms, with most of the previous coaches leaving after one or two years.

But Palmer said she is interested in being with the team for the long haul. As part of proving this, Palmer has started running clinics and weekend camps to promote softball among younger girls in the area, hoping that the work will eventually translate to more experience for incoming freshmen.

“I want to build a program, not just a team,” she said.

On a Tuesday morning during a camp Palmer organized over spring break at Parklawn Elementary, middle school girls gather with coaches and Stuart players to learn about the game. Most of the girls are picking up the game for the first time.

Nevada Watson, an eighth-grader, who will attend Stuart next year, is one of the few with a depth of experience. Watson moved to Virginia just last year, after playing middle school softball in Landover, Maryland.

A softball player since third grade, she continues to play with the Northern Virginia Softball Association, but said she doesn’t know anyone else who will be coming to Stuart next year with knowledge of the sport.

Still, she said that the clinics, like the one at Parklawn are an enormous help and she has friends who are eager to join the softball team, working hard to get ready.
“They teach you good things as soon as you get in,” she said.

It’s a good sign to Palmer that her commitment to developing interest among young girls could already be paying off.

For Palmer, creating a softball culture does feel, at times, like runnin against the wind. Even with the growing interest, the school doesn’t have facilities for the team. Right now, the girls don’t have a practice field, and instead have to work out in a park across the street, without a backstop and with constant interruptions from other park users. Taking batting practice requires they lug the equipment into the wrestling room and set up a batting cage, a process that takes half an hour out of their practice time.

Palmer is presently lobbying for the construction of a backstop on the field so the girls can at least take batting practice outside.

Despite the difficulty, Palmer said it’s worth the trouble. Behind the work of teaching softball, Palmer sees a more basic function; teaching character.

It’s not just about teaching them to be softball players, you’re making them better people,” she said.

And that’s something that can’t be defined by a win-loss record.