Championships aren’t entirely won on the field. While that may be where the final product has to perform, the foundation for that product is built in practice.
Jerry Laird led the Hamilton (New Jersey) Hurricanes girls' softball team to the 2008 Babe Ruth 12-and-Under Softball World Series championship in Audubon, Pennsylvania, by sweeping a doubleheader from Plaquemine, Louisiana, on a humid late August afternoon.
But the plays the Hurricanes executed so well that day had been worked on in practices held in the much cooler days and evenings of April. Laird says there are three points to emphasize during youth softball practices: repetition, how to handle game situations and competition.