Three championship teams from the Hamilton Girls Softball Association gathered for a photo. Pictured are: (front) Isabella Bonacci, Martina Fedor, Carley Lederman, Adriana Salzano, Rylee Michalak, Simone Pintinalli, Ava Estrada, Sophia Pintinalli, Angelina Chianese, Kamryn Wylie, Cassidy Budge, Alexis Heineman, (middle) Natalie Kozemchak, Haley Lestician, Grace Gaskill, Gabbie Fonollosa, Alex Haley, Lizzie Kelly, Avery Kontura, Mia Land, Bella Truelove, Johnna Filipponi, (back) Danielle DeLisa, Olivia Owens, Julia Martine, Iliana Nyktas, Jess Hallam, Heather Clevenger, Nicole Cerasi, Megan Brugnoli, Jess Pirozzi, Kaylee Whittaker and Caitlin Sharkey. Missing are Becca Bocock and Victoria Comfort. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Coaching a successful youth softball program is more than just teaching a girl how to catch, throw and swing a bat.
It’s walking a fine line between getting youngsters to learn how to play a game, and yet still have time to be girls.
The managers of the Hamilton Township Girls Softball Association seem to have learned the trick. And they are getting pretty good results to boot.
In mid-July, the Hamilton 12U and 10U Blue teams and the 8U Hurricanes were all gearing up for the Babe Ruth Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament after getting through District One and Southern New Jersey State play.
It’s all part of keeping the tradition alive.
“You have a lot of expectations to live up to,” 12U manager Joe Cerasi said. “It’s probably why we work our girls as hard as we do.”
But not hard enough to break them, which is equally important.
“It’s tough to get that fine line,” Cerasi said. “You set the expectations ahead of time with the parents. We have a meeting in April. We start it up in early spring and tell everyone the expectations. That’s why the team gets along.
Cerasi said everyone knows they are not guaranteed playing time, that it has to be earned, but that everyone has a role on the team. Because they get along so well, it makes it fun for them, he said.
Pete Lestician, the HGSA president and manager of the 10U squad, feels it’s a case of making it a positive experience no matter what happens.
“With my 10 year olds, especially one particular girl, I’ll say ‘Show me your teeth,’ meaning give me a big smile,” Lestician said.
Before they say one thing negative about something the players may have done wrong, they’ll say two things positive, he said.
“If a kid throws a ball away, we tell them ‘First, you got to the ball, second you caught the ball, which are good things,” Lestician said. “But you let your elbow drop when you made the throw.’”
Ryan Lederman has one of the toughest jobs as he is getting the youngest All Stars at the 8U level. He wants to keep it fun, but also feels he has to somewhat toughen the girls up in order get them ready for competition from other leagues.
“We set the tone on Day One of this being a serious thing,” he said. “We’re going into it telling them they are going to have fun, however this is an All-Star team and not rec ball, so they have to take it more seriously. The teams we play take it way too seriously, so if we don’t take it seriously, we’ll go out and someone will get hurt.
“These girls enjoy it. No one has missed a practice or a hitting lesson. They want to be here. That’s why the program is so successful from 10U up. They get a taste of the commitment at this level.”
The Hurricane 8U squad carried a 14-6 record into regional play. It finished second in districts and third in states, but advanced when the second-place team in the states, Millville, dropped out.
“The team that dropped out, we beat pretty conveniently the night before,” Lederman said. “And we only lost by one run to the champion so we believe we belonged in the regionals.”
The fact the 8Us got so far is a tribute to what the league offers. Lederman’s team was extremely young compared to the outfit that won regionals last year. That team had a number of 9-year-olds (who were still 8 at the Dec. 31 cutoff) and several girls who turned 8 during the season.
“It was an ‘old’ 8-year-old team,” Lederman said. “This year we have two 6-year-olds who are still 6, and five 7-year-olds that are 7. Only two girls are 9.”
Thus, there is close to a three-year age difference in a number of players from this year to last, and yet Hamilton has managed to push on.
“Our expectations were to go out and be competitive,” Lederman said. “To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to advance from districts. I don’t want to be that negative, but we were so young and inexperienced. At the start of the year, half the girls couldn’t catch the ball. (Entering regionals) they’re all catching the ball, playing to their ability.”
The team consists of Isabella Bonacci, Cassidy Budge, Angelina Chianese, Ava Estrada, Martina Fedor, Alexis Heineman, Carley Lederman, Rylee Michalak, Simone Pintinalli, Sophia Pintinalli, Adriana Salzano and Kamryn Wylie.
Lederman credits the HGSA in general as a reason why such an inexperienced group was able to do so well.
“It says a lot in the sense that they allow us the facilities, number one, to train these girls,” he said. “It allows us the resources to go play in tournaments, and they’re very supportive in what we want to do as coaches. They were very supportive, giving us a batting cage or field to use. The girls had the potential, they just needed to practice and get that experience.”
Lestician also felt that a new rule during the recreation league season paid quick dividends.
“We thought it would benefit them next year, but it benefitted them right away,” the president said. “In our youngest division, we changed it from batting seven girls in an inning (no matter who made outs) to playing three outs in an inning. If they swung and missed off a coach instead of hitting off a tee, they were out. We let the 5 and 6-year olds use the tees, but the 7 or 8 were out if they swung and missed. That raised the bar and it showed immediate results.
“The other thing is, there are earlier workouts for the 8U team. They’ve been working out since October instead of March, and that plays a big role in the progress.”
The 10Us progress was helped by getting knocked around a little early in the season.
“We played a brutal schedule,” Lestician said. “We got 10-run ruled by travel teams in the fall. We were swept in doubleheaders. But all that stuff in the fall helped us in the spring.”
The 10Us were 45-10-3 entering the regionals, finishing second in District One and wining the state title. Lestician had to tinker with his squad, which had an ace pitcher in his daughter Haley, but also has three other quality hurlers in Becca Bocock, Johnna Filipponi and Natalie Kozemchak.
“We have the right combination,” Lestician said. “I have the hammer in Haley, who I can always use when I need her. But because we played so many games I used four or five pitchers. In one tournament we played five games, I used four different pitchers and we had three shutouts. Most teams have two pitchers.”
Through state play, Haley Lestician was 15-0 with an ERA under 1.00 and a three-to-one strikeout to walk ratio.
“She took her lumps last year when Kaylee Whittaker moved up to the 12-year-olds,” her dad said. “She was forced to be the ace last year and she wasn’t ready, but it got her ready for this year because she paid her dues.”
The remaining 10U roster included Ciara Donaldson, Gabbie Fonollosa, Gracie Gaskill, Alex Haley (who excelled after being converted to catcher this year), Lizzie Kelly, Avery Kontura, Mia Land, and Bella Truelove.
“We have six 9-year-olds who won regionals last year,” Lestician said. “My girls who are 10 didn’t win one trophy last year. But the two groups combining was [perfect]. You had the hunger from the group that didn’t win plus the nines coming off a regional championship with all that confidence.”
Confidence is something the 12Us weren’t getting much of early in the season – for the same reason as the 10Us. They were going through their own brand of growing pains by playing incredibly tough competition that toughened them up for the spring.
“That didn’t hurt the situation,” Cerasi said. “We got good competition, and the girls just kind of bonded. We had some changes in the make-up of our team during the season for different reasons, but we added a couple pieces and it went very well. The girls came together as a team. We talk about it all the time…whether you are the number 12 player or number one, everybody has a role and they accepted that.”
The Hurricanes, which won both districts and states without one girl having 12U Babe Ruth tournament experience, are paced by two pitchers, Kaylee Whittaker and Heather Clevenger.
“To say we have a number one is not true, they both had the role of number one throughout season,” Cerasi said. “Milt (Whittaker, Kaylee’s dad) handles the pitchers and catchers.
“They’re very different so they complement each other very well. Kaylee throws harder, Heather has more pitches and keeps the batters off balance.”
The 12Us are the only team of the three that are able to go beyond regionals, and were hoping for a trip to the World Series. The remaining team members are Megan Brugnoli, Nicole Cerasi, Victoria Comfort, Danielle DeLisa, Jess Hallam, Julia Martine, Iliana Nyktas, Olivia Owens, Jess Pirozzi and Caitlin Sharkey.
“This is a pretty unique bunch of girls,” Cerasi said. “Four of them were with me last year when I was an assistant with Pete on the 10U Blue team. The bulk of the other girls played on the 12U White (B) team. None of them had Babe Ruth experience last year, so it was an entirely new cast of characters on the 12U level.
“But we’re a well balanced team. We play good defense, our pitching is excellent, and we run the bases well. When the top of our lineup gets on with Megan and Nicole at one and two, usually good things happen. But there have been games where the bottom of our lineup has also carried us.”
It’s a team effort, from a league that thrives on such things.
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