The Perryville 10U and 14U softball programs completed their spring and summer seasons, both finding great success under coach Jim Simpson, each ending their year with tournament victories.
The 10U team went undefeated, averaging 15 runs a game while only giving up 3 runs per game on average. Simpson was impressed with some of the fundamental knowledge of the game his team showed at such a young age.
“They did some things that for a young team really impressed me,” he said.”We got the lead runner several times. Usually at that age level you field the ground ball and your first instinct is to throw to first base but we were throwing where we were supposed to be trying to get lead runners. So I’m really impressed with that age group.”
Simpson spends a lot of time teaching the younger players the fundamentals and basics, he also spends a lot of time teaching the importance of sportsmanship and respect at a young age, which he said he hopes will stick with his players throughout their athletic lives.
“We got to have respect for the equipment. Respect for the game, respect for each other,” he said. “After the game a structure that I really like is we make them shake our hands and make eye contact with us and say good game. Shaking hands and being able to make eye-contact with people, Communication has become a skill, with technology and everything everybody is so used to texting that we don’t know how to shake hands and make eye contact, those are the types of things we’re kind of doing right now.”
The 10U team was led on offense by Lauren Unterreiner, who had 21 hits on the season for an average of .875. Every batter on the team had an average of .600 or higher, with Josie Hotop going 5 for 5 for a perfect 1.000 average.
The 14U team finished with a team batting average of .517, a team on base percentage of .796, and a team slugging percentage of .707. Individually they were led on offense by Melody Triller, whose 10 hits in 11 games netted her a .717 batting average, she also led the team in RBIs with 8. Calie Cattoor hit the teams lone home run on the season.
Both teams have been playing in rec leagues in Cape Girardeau, but Simpson said that with the growth he has seen in the team, he expects them to start expanding soon into the lower levels of travel tournaments. He said that with his coaching experience in other travel leagues, he has seen how things progress and wants to model the Perryville teams after the STARS program, which also started small and grew quickly.
“I think we are headed in the right direction,” he said. “As long as we don’t lose our focus on the girls having fun and developing them, I think it’s just gonna grow bigger and bigger. I was a member of the STARS organization, the travel team here when it got its legs going and we were begging and pleading for players the first couple of years. You know, if you’ve got enough to have a team, you were excited, and probably by our eighth, ninth year involved with the program, we were having almost 200 girls try out from the area. So I’ve been a part of that travel program and understand how it’s built. And that’s what we’re trying to copy over at Perryville as well.”
Simpson said he hopes the success of both his 10U and 14U teams will also lead to more success for the Perryville High School team that he coaches, with talent from the younger rosters moving up to the high school level already with years of experience.
“These girls are all Perry County District 32 kids and plan on going to Perryville High School,” he said. “And our goal down there at the middle school level and the younger levels especially is two goals. One, we want them to have fun, and two, we want to learn. Winning those games is nice, but that’s not our goal down there. I mean, it just shows that what we’re doing is working. But the main thing is we keep them having fun and learning so that they will stay when they come to high school. That’s the big goal.”
