05/26/2026
Congratulations to Tribe Softball 14u-Martina Elite on being CHAMPS of the Diamond Legacy Red White and Blue event! 🏆
From the Coach: Y’all already know I’m about to be wordy, so go ahead and settle in. Bear with me, because I have a whole lot of thoughts and even more emotions.
This weekend was truly unbelievable.
Not just because we won. Not just because we beat an incredible team. But because of everything stacked against these girls and the way they chose to respond.
Traveling to play is hard. The pressure is different. You’re away from home, on different turf, facing top teams from all over the country. Teams you don’t know. Pitchers you haven’t seen. Programs with big names and big reputations.
And still… these girls showed up as the ultimate competitors.
For the second year in a row, this team walked into that environment and played some of their best softball. But this year felt different.
They were locked in. They were mature. They made adjustments. They trusted each other. They believed.
And they fought like absolute dawgs.
What makes this one so special is knowing where this team started.
This wasn’t a team formed by collecting already-made superstars. Many years ago, we put together a squad of girls who had the things you can’t teach…heart, toughness, coachability, competitiveness, grit.
Then we went to work on everything you can teach.
And I mean we WORKED.
We worked on the swings. The throws. The footwork. The softball IQ. The mental toughness. The details. The standards. The hard conversations. The failures. The adjustments. The belief.
We have worked our tails off.
And this weekend, you saw it.
OK Athletics Pawnee kicked our teeth in. Not once, but twice. 12-0.
That kind of loss can break a team. It can make you doubt. It can make the moment feel too big.
But not this group.
We got a third shot at them in the championship, and before that game we huddled up. I told them: You are capable. You deserve to be here. We’re going to take it one pitch, one out, one inning at a time.
And they listened.
They didn’t flinch. They didn’t fold. They adjusted. They competed. They believed.
And then the next thing we knew, we were in the 5th and final inning.
Three outs away.
Up 2-0 against one of the best hitting teams I’ve ever seen at our age.
And guess what? If there weren’t already enough chips stacked on their side, they had the 4, 5, and 6 hitters coming up.
But just like they had done the entire game, our girls didn’t make the moment bigger than it was.
One pitch. One out. One inning.
They stayed locked in. They trusted each other. They competed with everything they had.
And they did it.
That is not luck. That is not a fluke. That is years of work, trust, toughness, and girls who refuse to quit.
Parents… listen up.
You don’t have to chase the biggest name. You don’t have to find the flashiest team. You need a place where your kid is loved, believed in, pushed, built up, and taught how to compete the right way.
We are proof.
This team is proof.
We’ve got something truly special here, and I could not be more proud to be a part of it.
As much as I’d love to shout out individual kids, because there were some incredible performances, this win belongs to all 12 of them. Every single girl had a moment where her team needed her, and every single one delivered.
It belongs to every parent, grandparent, brother, and sister who made the trip, cheered, supported, believed, and rode every high and low with us.
This one took the whole Tribe.
Proud doesn’t even touch it.
Blessed to have the best job ever.
And we’re just getting started.
