The Hamilton Girls Softball Association has long been known for producing outstanding talent and, as of late, is starting to cultivate promising coaching futures as well.
This year, several former HGSA players have helped out the league in as either a coach or mentor, including Lyndsey Buckley, Kim Murl, Michelle and Amanda Dice, Jillian Capers and Emily Suto. Their reasons for coming “home” to coach are varied.
“I missed playing at HGSA and just being able to play softball for fun at all my rec games, where there was no pressure to excel, and I could simply just play,” said Buckley, a Nottingham High grad who plays for Mercer County Community College. “When I got the opportunity to coach with little T-ballers, how could I say no?”
“After graduating college, I was informed that the league was in need of more coaches,” said Michelle Dice, another Nottingham product along with sister Amanda. “I was asked to apply to coach, so I excitedly jumped on the opportunity. I do feel like I have a natural ability to coach, and I enjoy coaching at HGSA because I get to share with the young ladies in the league, the same or similar experiences I have had at HGSA in the past.”
For Amanda Dice, it filled a void after she played outfield at East Stroudsburg University for four years.
“After graduating college and no longer having softball take up a large amount of my time, I missed it,” she said. “I was asked to volunteer to coach a t-ball team. I thought it would be a lot of fun to pass on some of the knowledge that I had acquired over the years and start these young players off on the right foot with the skills to play softball for years to come.”
In addition to her HGSA coaching, Amanda also served as a Florence High assistant this year under head coach Alyssa Laird, a former Steinert standout. That cut into her time with HGSA but she still tried to help out as much as possible.
For Murl, who is coaching in the HGSA Senior Division, it falls right in with her future hopes and dreams now that she has graduated from West Chester after leading the team to the Division II World Series this past spring.
“When I mentored the minor league I realized that I wanted to have the chance to coach kids and instill in them the desire to want to play and to teach them to have fun like I did when I played at HGSA,” said Murl, one of the top all-around players in Nottingham history. “I definitely want to coach in the future. I actually minored in coaching in college.
“This is my first year that I’m not coaching at the travel level due to the team folding. I did coach under Jean Ruppert for the Jersey Nightmare team after I graduated from the same team. I will also be an assistant coach with Jean Ruppert next year at Steinert.”
In essence, the girls are not only enjoying themselves, but giving back to an organization they felt did so much to further their careers.
“I enjoyed playing softball and learning so much that even with playing for the rec and travel teams, I also went to clinics at HGSA,” said Amanda Dice, who was in the league from ages 7 through 18. “The coaches that I had throughout the time at HGSA helped me increase my skill level while continuing to grow my love of the game.”
“I played at HGSA my entire softball career on top of playing in middle school and high school,” Michelle Dice said. “What I really enjoyed about playing at the league, was being able to play with my friends who attended other Hamilton schools, as well as schools outside the Hamilton school district.
“I looked forward to the fun competition at rec ball. Coaches at HGSA taught me many of the skills and knowledge I have of the game of softball, as well as being responsible for some of the friendships that I still have today.”
For Buckley, it’s almost like continuing a lifelong love affair.
“HGSA is where I fell in love with the sport,” she said. “Starting around age 8 HGSA taught me all the basics to where I quickly began to find myself wanting to play every day. HGSA also provided me that chance to play more at a more competitive level, the Hamilton Hurricanes, where I played for every year following my first year there.
“HGSA was like a second home and family for me. I loved going to the fields and sharing the love for the sport with everybody there who had a passion for the same thing I did.”
Murl’s passion for the game burns as brightly as anyone, thanks in part to a huge supporter. Her aunt, Tara Lavin, is a first vice-president in the league and also the president of the Kim Murl fan club.
“Without her guidance and support I wouldn’t have been the player I was,” Murl said. “But seeing her dedication to all the girls in the league and her commitment in making the league what it is today, makes me want to be part of HGSA.”
By returning to their roots, the coaches are not only providing a service for the league, but one for themselves as well.
“Coaching at both the t-ball and senior division levels at HGSA is very rewarding for me,” Amanda Dice said. “With the younger girls it’s always enjoyable to see them go from knowing almost nothing about the game to being able to hit a coach-pitched ball and run to first base, or make a play at first base.
“At the senior level, watching something click for a player because you described how to do it a different way than they had heard it before is always a great feeling.”
Buckley is actually helping out her former head coach at Nottingham, Mike Walsh, who asked her to come aboard to help guide his daughter Bianca’s team.
“I love teaching 5, 6 and 7-year olds the game and watching them get excited to step out on that field…granted if it’s just to catch a butterfly,” she said, but adding that there are mixed emotions. “It gives me both a feeling of happiness along with sadness. It tears me apart not being that little and being back to my little days where I had no care in the world.
“But what I love about teaching them and being a part of their softball experience is that I see a little bit of me in some of them. I know the little things I am teaching them now, will help them in their bright futures for years and years whether it is softball related or not.”
Michelle Dice almost feels like a trailblazer as one of the newer breed of female coaches.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with the girls in the league at HGSA,” she said. “Not only am I a former player returning to coach but I am also a female coach in the league. I remember when I played at HGSA there were not many female coaches.
“I feel like the girls open up more to me, being a former player and female coach. Coaching at HGSA definitely is a rewarding experience, because I like feeling like I did something to help these girls grow as athletes and individuals.”
In the end, there are two major reasons why current HGSA players are getting the knowledge of their alumni sisters—the coaches love the game of softball and love the league from which they came.
“The families and the coaches are really what makes HGSA feel like a second home,” Buckley said. “Just having all the families come together at this facility watching all their little girls play the sport they love is really why HGSA is so special to many of us.
“If it weren’t for the dedication of the families, coaches and girls, HGSA wouldn’t be such a special place. It would simply just be two fields of dirt.”
Michelle Dice, Jillian Capers and Amanda Dice are three of the former Hamilton Girls’ Softball Association players who have returned to coach.,
