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The TGFPSP (Typical Girls FastPitch Softball Player) takes pride in how much dirt she can collect every weekend. Go to dinner on a night that she is not playing and it takes an hour of primping to get ready, and she still feels self-conscious. Go after a game and she'll walk right into a restaurant with a
streak of dirt across her forehead, ratted hair, stained shirt and brown/white socks or brown toes with sandals! LET'S EAT!
The TGFPSP is ready and willing to play at the drop of a hat! If she can get away with it, she will play on two teams (on the same day no less). She has a huge wardrobe: plenty of tournament shirts and shorts from all the teams she
has played on. Her parents do her school shopping every weekend at the tournament T-shirt booth. When you say, "wear something nice", she thinks it means a tournament shirt without dirt stains.
The TGFPSP needs to get an athletic scholarship. Her parents have spent $100,000 on camps, private instruction, batting cages, gloves, bats, equipment, uniforms, player fees, concession stands, travel and lodging. THEY'RE BROKE!!!
The TGFPSP is a fierce competitor, willing to stand in against a fast pitcher at close distance that even Pro baseball players would have trouble hitting!
And she might be 5' 2" and 100 lbs. Soaking wet. She might play first or third at 20 feet from home plate, saying I dare you to bunt … drive one down my
throat!!!
The TGFPSP has more spirit then maybe any other team sport. At least it sounds that way. Softball is the only sport where a girls ability to cheer sometimes effects roster decisions. She can't bunt or hit, she is a liability
in the field … but she cheers constantly!
The TGFPSP is playing the game for all the right reasons! SHE LOVES IT! She could hang out at the mall, stay home and watch TV, or spend her summers at the pool. Instead she has a tight schedule with limited free time, hangs out at the
practice field with a coach in her face, and spends her summer getting baked on a 95 degree field with no shade. Maybe we should get some of our kids checked for IQ?
The TGFPSP has her priorities in order. Tournaments, league games, team practices, school work, individual practice and batting cage, family, private softball instruction, church, conditioning, softball camps, boys (maybe church
comes before batting cage, at least on Sunday).
The TGFPSP is diligent and hardworking. She knows you get out of something what you put into it. She is
not the type of kid to take the easy way out! She is competitive, not willing to give up. She learns many valuable lessons during the course of her softball career, like:
You can stay at Holiday Inn for $12 bucks a night if you go four to a room.
Hotels don't monitor pool usage, and you can go swimming any time, whether you
are a registered guest or not. Continental breakfast means 3 bowls of cereal, bagel, 2 donuts and 4 glasses of OJ.
Unlike the geographically challenged, softball girls know how to get from home to every field in a 25 mile radius.
The TGFPSP has a lot of fun every summer, enough to make her come back next year regardless of all the sacrifices, the money, the drinking water that people put their hands in, etc.
The TGFPSP is first and foremost somebody's little girl.
