It takes more than Arlington High School coach Janelle Lorsch's coaching staff to put on the annual Youth Softball Camp at RVR Bank Sports Complex.
It takes Eagles like Britt Nielsen and Savannah Lang, too.
“I learned how difficult it is to teach a bunch of 8U players how to field a ground ball,” Nielsen said of her first-day-of-camp experience.
Altogether, Coach Lorsch, Lisa Stork, Alex Dobson and several AHS standouts put on Tuesday's first session before the camp continued Wednesday and Thursday.
“I think it's really fun to teach young people what we do most of our years in high school, and just see them get excited about it,” Lang said. “It's just makes all of us more excited.”
Nielsen said the players even have a little more influence when it comes to instructing the kiddos.
“You have a coach tell them something and they don't do it, like their dad or something,” she explained. “But once we tell them how to do it, they're super excited to learn how.”
It becomes quite enjoyable, Nielsen continued.
“It's just fun to see the little faces,” she said. “And, when school starts back up, they always wave and point at you in the hallway.”
Tuesday was just the start of camp, though. The kids opened with field work, using different kinds of gloves to work on their two-hand technique and fly ball skills.
Lorsch said bat work was to come Wednesday, but Lang knew that wasn't all that lay ahead in the days to come.
“I'm, personally, most excited about all of the fun games we do, especially the water balloons,” she said. “That's always fun.”
