Coach gave baseball team best gift of all

[Guest guest]

http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/SPORTS03/80101023/1013/SPORTS10

Coach gave baseball team best gift of all

By TOM KUYPER GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Since this is the season for giving, what would be the perfect gift that a coach could give his baseball team?

New gloves for everyone? New uniforms? Discounted team shoes? A Christmas party at his home with lots of festive nights and burgers on the grill? Or even springing for arcade tokens at a pizza place?OK, we all know there are more important gifts than what can be bought, like: The league championship, or free private lessons for a guaranteed improvement in your batting average … Whoops! This is youth sports, where none of those things should be a priority. So let's stick with this gift list:*** Learn better sportsmanship.*** Learn how to play as a team.*** Learn to honor and respect officials.Here's the coach with the best gift. His gift was West. A girl on a boys' baseball team? That isn't even the half of it. How about a girl with Down syndrome? What coach would let a girl with Down syndrome play on the boys' team? There goes the state title!Who cares? That is the beauty of this story. These boys, this community in Lakeville, Minn., didn't care. They would pick Sam over a silly trophy any day.Sam got to play on her younger brother's team. Matt West is 8 years old and loves his sister. He was not embarrassed by her. No one was. He was proud to be her teammate.Sam played in the outfield. She didn't have a great attention span, so her coach felt safest with her in right field. Sam loved to chase butterflies, to pick grass and throw it in the air, to dream about the postgame snow cone, instead of focusing on the batter and the pitch count.But she loved to play. At the beginning of the season she couldn't hit the ball -- and she even learned how to hit a coach-pitched ball."At the end of the season she was hitting the ball from the kid pitchers just like all the other kids,'' said her grandmother, Connie West. "It was so great to watch how all the coaches, players and parents accepted her.''These 8- and 9-year-old boys learned the value of love and acceptance over winning. They learned how to give and help. They learned the importance of relationship.You would think most kids with a handicap would not want to draw attention to themselves. Not Sam. She was the only one on the team to wear a pink helmet and a pink glove.The highlight of the season came in the last game of the season. With just a few innings left in the final game, the coach put Sam in at second base. The batter tried to stretch a single into a double. No way, not with Sam playing second base. She caught the throw and made the tag."Out!''What a season, what a gift! Way to go, Sam. And thank you, coach.

[Guest guest]

What a fantastic story. That coach and team got it right.

KathyR

From:

Down Syndrome Treatment

[mailto:Down Syndrome Treatment ] On Behalf Of Qadoshyah

Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 3:54 PM

Down Syndrome Treatment

Subject: Coach gave baseball team best gift

of all

http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/SPORTS03/80101023/1013/SPORTS10

Coach

gave baseball team best gift of all

By TOM KUYPER

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Since this is the season for giving, what would be the perfect gift that a

coach could give his baseball team?

New gloves for everyone? New uniforms? Discounted team shoes? A Christmas

party at his home with lots of festive nights and burgers on the grill? Or even

springing for arcade tokens at a pizza place?

OK, we all know there are more important gifts than what can be bought, like:

The league championship, or free private lessons for a guaranteed improvement

in your batting average … Whoops! This is youth sports, where none of those

things should be a priority. So let's stick with this gift list:

*** Learn better sportsmanship.

*** Learn how to play as a team.

*** Learn to honor and respect officials.

Here's the coach with the best gift. His gift was West. A girl on a

boys' baseball team? That isn't even the half of it. How about a girl with Down

syndrome? What coach would let a girl with Down syndrome play on the boys'

team? There goes the state title!

Who cares? That is the beauty of this story. These boys, this community in

Lakeville, Minn., didn't care. They would pick Sam over a silly trophy any day.

Sam got to play on her younger brother's team. Matt West is 8 years old and

loves his sister. He was not embarrassed by her. No one was. He was proud to be

her teammate.

Sam played in the outfield. She didn't have a great attention span, so her

coach felt safest with her in right field. Sam loved to chase butterflies, to

pick grass and throw it in the air, to dream about the postgame snow cone,

instead of focusing on the batter and the pitch count.

But she loved to play. At the beginning of the season she couldn't hit the ball

-- and she even learned how to hit a coach-pitched ball.

" At the end of the season she was hitting the ball from the kid pitchers

just like all the other kids,'' said her grandmother, Connie West. " It was

so great to watch how all the coaches, players and parents accepted her.''

These 8- and 9-year-old boys learned the value of love and acceptance over

winning. They learned how to give and help. They learned the importance of

relationship.

You would think most kids with a handicap would not want to draw attention to

themselves. Not Sam. She was the only one on the team to wear a pink helmet and

a pink glove.

The highlight of the season came in the last game of the season. With just a

few innings left in the final game, the coach put Sam in at second base. The

batter tried to stretch a single into a double. No way, not with Sam playing

second base. She caught the throw and made the tag.

" Out!''

What a season, what a gift! Way to go, Sam. And thank you, coach.