I and softball

-If I was asked when my bright page of my life was, I would surely answer, "It's when I was a junior high school student. Playing softball is my precious memory...-


I played softball when I was a junior high school student. In my school, we had to join any clubs. I joined a softball club because my best friend joined. very simple,eh?(laugh)When I was a freshman, softball club was a prison to me. Our seniors were severe and scary. When a senior carried a box of balls, other senior told us, "Hey! You carry! Why you let a senior carry balls!" After practticing, maintaing the ground is our job. When we had a game on Sunday and the time of gathering was at 7am, freshmans had to gather at 5:30am to clean balls and bats. Oh men, I didn't want to do that anymore...


When 3rd seniors retired in August, there were only 6seniors, so we had a chance to take part in a game. And I did as a shortstop! But I was not good at batting, so I practiced very hard. I swang 50 times, do push-up, back and abdominal muscle 50 times each every day. However, my batting was worse in sports meeting on October and we lost two rounds. After sports meeting, my position changed to a catcher. I was short and thin, so nobody thought I could be. At first, I was scared of a ball. I was always hit balls on my face, arms and knees... I was hate this position at first. I was always full of bruises. The job of catcher is cathing balls, ordering members where they should throw balls, and heaping up on a game. So cather has to be smart and have loud voice so that the outfiled players can hear. I couldn't have loud voice so I was always scolded by coach like that.


coach: Can't hear your voice!!
me:Yes.
coach:Still can't hear!!
me:Yes!
coach:More!!
me:Ye-s!!(with crying)
coach:more!!!
(to be continued...)

The coach was very strict and practicing was hard, I thought I wanted to quit many times. However, because I had nice teammates, I was able to do my best. And I got to be proud of my position. I used to think, "This is my position. I never let anyone do this position." My dream of these days was to be a prefessional softball player.


When my seniors retired, I became a vice-captain. We had a sports meeting on October, we won the championship! I was satisfied with this result. We practiced harder and harder. Thenks to hard practices, my batting was improved and my turn of batting was 4. Plus, I was able to get a MVP prise in prefecture. (Oh I have to tell, not only me, but also dozen of players got.)


Last sports meeting on July, we couldn't be a champion. Some players were hurt and we might be careless because we once became a champion. These were reasons we lost. We were the 3rd place. We all cried, and our softball had finished...


Now I don't play softball. It is sad we don't have a softball circle in Aoyama. But I'll never forget about that time. I still like softball very much.