How many different uniforms?

And so softball begins.

As a freshman, Alyssa is finally old enough for high school softball. There is no softball program for our Junior High girls, which becomes apparent at tryouts when you see a marked difference between the skills of girls who have been playing travel ball, and the girls who have not.

Alyssa made the JV team this year, and she (and we) were very disappointed that she did not make varsity. Of course, there is the athletics rule that all seniors must be on the varsity team, which limits the space for the underclassmen, especially young freshmen. Next year, there will be more spaces available because of departing seniors.

Having never played sports in school, I am new to the whole concept, and learning as I go. Apparently the coaches have the option of moving a girl or girls "up" or "down" temporarily as they see fit. There were 3 teams formed this year: Varsity, JV, and the "C" team. As a pitcher especially, Alyssa has more opportunities to actually play, since she is being pulled up or pulled down to one of the other teams.

Since the "C" team has no pitchers, each time they play, two pitchers (out of 5) are pulled down from JV to pitch for them, and sometimes another girl to be the catcher. These photos are from the "C" team's game that Alyssa was "pulled down" to pitch. (She didn't really want to do it because the games can be so very frustrating, but we told her to consider it pitching practice. With live batters.) The school colors are purple & gold, and their uniforms are gold shirts, with the purple stripe down the gray pants' leg.

This is her at bat, when she hit a solid, stand-up triple.
She pitched the first game of the double-header, and played third base for the second game. Third base is where she usually is when not pitching.

Receiving the ball back from the catcher.

Her own JV team uniform looks just like this, except the jersey is purple, and they wear gold socks. I haven't snapped any new photos of her in the JV uniform, but rest assured, they'll be coming!


The flip side of being a JV pitcher, is that she can also be "pulled up" to Varsity. So the exciting part about that is that this weekend, the Varsity team is traveling to Boise for a tournament, and Alyssa is being pulled up to go with them!! We are SO psyched!!


Oh, by the way..... this means yet ANOTHER uniform. The style is closer to her travel team's shirt style -- photos to follow after this weekend. Oh, and no purple stripe on the pant legs. Bonus...... she was also able to get her favorite number for the varsity uniform, unlike her JV & "C" team uniforms,... so she was excited about that. GO #17!!


And if that weren't enough, the Varsity team ALSO has a spare jersey in white, in case there is any game where the girls meet an opposing team that also wears purple. We're now up to 4 uniforms for high school ball. And get the socks colors straight, too -- purple, gold, purple, purple.


We're hoping she'll get a good chance to pitch, and if the varsity coach sees good things, perhaps she will be pulled up for more. However, many of the upcoming games happen with a Varsity & JV game going on at the same time (think about it... the traveling team has to secure a bus, so to conserve on time & gas, the games coincide). There is not a lot that happens on different days, so we'll just have to see what happens.


The other bonus for this upcoming tournament, is we've decided to pull Cameron and Darcie from school on Friday, we'll go down & watch Alyssa play in Boise, then drive on to Pocatello to visit with my mom, which we are overdue to see her. It will be a short getaway, and we'll make the most of it. On to packing & arranging for absences from school.....