Have you ever experienced something so amazing just because of one person? Well I have, and it was all because of my softball coach, I also call him my dad. He has dedicated a lot of his time in the summer to helping my softball teams. When really he could be doing something for himself.

This summer of 2008 my dad decided to start a travel softball team, called The Rockford Krush. When we first started practice we were all nervous. But very ready to go. We all stretched out, listened to my dad give us a lecture about if your not dedicated to this sport you shouldn't even be on this team. When he was done with that we did some basic drills and hit. We started to become a lot better.

After a lot of practices came our very first tournament. It was the weekend after the last week of school in tri-county. We absolutely murdered the first team. Same with the next two games to come. We ended up winning that whole tournament. Our next tournament was the state tournament. When we got to Mount Pleasant for the tournament it was awesome weather for softball. The temperature was in the 80's and it was sunny with just a little breeze. This was perfect. We had lots of games, and only lost one. In the end we ended up beating the team that beat us for the championship game. We won the state tournament. It was a great experience.

After winning states we got an invitation to a national tournament in Missouri. So to get ready for that we started having double the practices and double the drills. Before we went to Missouri we got into a tournament in Lowell. We didn't end up winning that one, but we did get 3rd or 4th place. When that tournament was done we were now ready to head to Missouri.

We had about three weeks to get ready for Missouri. So we did lots of can drives and food markets to earn money. When those three weeks were up, we were on are way. It took us a really long time to drive there. Pretty much the whole day. When we arrived it was sunny and 101 degrees, we were not used to this weather and knew at that moment this would be a challenge for us. But my dad, Coach Scott as we call him, came up to all of us girls and gave us another lecture. He told us how even if we didn't do so great in this national tournament, he would still be so proud of us no matter what because of how far we had gotten. At the end of that lecture we huddled up and said 'team!' When we headed to our first game, it was not as sunny as before, it had gotten a little cloudy and a bit cooler. Now we were ready to play. This game didn't go so well, we ended up loosing. The next game wasn't much better. But we did end up winning a couple games. Out of 30 teams we got 20th place. Not as good as we hoped but better then we thought. We were all just really happy we had this chance to have such an amazing experience. I will never forget it.

In this whole story my dad, coach, was helping us and cheering us on. He wasn't like those mean coaches who just yell and tell you everything bad you did. He actually helped us and gave us constructive help. I would rather have him as a coach then have the world. He matters so much to me, and I'm sure to the rest of his team also.