Youth programs within any sport are often extremely vital to the future health and growth of any program. There are many benefits that come from such youth programs from developing physical skill to developing mental skill but the benefits run even further than that.

With summer sports such as softball there comes the unique and never ending battle for student-athletes with summer vacation and time off vs. putting in the time for softball. For ACGC head softball coach Tim O’Brien that’s where one of the big benefits lye with youth programs, helping to ease the decision into summer sports.

Coach O’Brien spoke with Raccoon Valley Radio on the effect youth programs have on the decision to play softball vs time off and how much of an important tool they are.

“Oh I think it’s vital. I think if you need good youth programs where the kids have fun and get to be around their new classmates especially our junior high. We started our junior high softball program this summer and Dan Baker ran that and did a great job with that and Carrie, my wife, was his assistant coach. I did all of our meetings with the parents and one parent stated to me that she did not look forward to junior high softball because it was ten in the morning that they played the games and we played more teams than we ever had. They weren’t looking forward to it when the schedule came out but by the time the season had finished she said that she really enjoyed it because it was a whole different level of ball than they’ve seen in the past,” stated coach O’Brien.

Coach O’Brien went further on to explain how it shows the ways of what the varsity level will be like to plant the seed for the future

“It’s true softball, it’s the true pitching from 43 feet and your teaching them the game at an earlier age and what the high school rules will be,” explained coach O’Brien.