The Lady Tigers’ Series is my way to continue coaching long after I’m too old to get on the field. Part of being a coach is helping kids learn these lessons. There is learning to lose and learning to win gracefully learning to pick each other up when mistakes are made and not letting your mistakes get the better of you and learning the importance of competition and fun, each in their own right. There really is a lot more to team sports than the athletics. The girls have made great friends, as have my husband and I. As softball is a year-round sport in the south, we have spent more weekends at ball fields than in our own home, but I wouldn’t trade it. They both played for the Williamsburg Starz travel league. Softball is in my blood, and I passed it on to my daughters. I’ve been involved with fastpitch as a player, coach, umpire, or scorekeeper since I was nine years old.

When she is found out, as will always happen with lies, her punishment affects not only her, but her whole team when they are forced to play a tournament one player short. Trish lies to her parents and her coach in order to play on the much coveted travel fastpitch softball team, the Lady Tigers. Trish’s Team is the first in the series and focuses on the theme of consequences. In the meantime, the Lady Tigers will continue their trek through their tween years, learning what it means to be part of a team. Someday, I’m hoping my oldest finishes the story she started so we can publish it in her name. Thankfully my 13-year old is helping me proof and work out kinks in my storylines. As a teenager, she quickly lost interest in her mother and has gone on to other things. She and I mapped out the themes for ten books. I was so impressed and excited about her writing that I wanted to do a whole series. A few years ago, my oldest daughter (now 15) came to me with the beginning of a story she had written.

Softball Scoresheet by Dawn Brotherton