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Future Softball Stars Experience Top Level Talent This Summer

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A member of the Town of Greenwich’s U-10 softball program swings for the fences during a recent game. (photo courtesy of Graham Murray)

By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor

The town of Greenwich’s Parks and Recreation Department is watching a boom in youth softball, which is music to the ears of both Graham Murray and Patricia Troiano.

For Graham Murray, a lot of time goes in to being one of the coaches for a youth softball team that travels around the area. Coaching a 10-U squad requires a lot of work and some patience.

Murray’s love of the sport and passion for seeing players develop into stars, along with Parks and Rec’s Patricia Troiano’s passion to see softball grow in town, has turned a house league 10-U squad into something much more exciting.

“The goal is to get the kids to experience playing at a little higher level of softball,” Murray said. “While it’s a higher level, it’s controlled. Everybody has agreed to play a kind of hybrid game. There is stealing, but there is no dropped third strike and a limitation on steals per inning.”

During the season, the Parks and Recreation Department hosts an in-house softball league divided into four age groups.

Because there is no true travel program in town for softball, Troiano got the coaches of the town’s league together and asked if they wanted to form a travel softball team that would play at the state tournament level.

“Early on in the first meeting, Patricia asked if we wanted to take a team to States. We sent out some emails, but we weren’t able to get a lot of commitments,” said Murray.

Unfortunately, Murray wasn’t able to get his 10-U team to play in States. But that didn’t mean he gave up. That’s when Murray asked Troiano if his team could just extend the season and do a travel program.

“We are the only town girls’ softball program,” Troiano said. “As far as I know, there is no other travel competitive program for girls’ softball in Greenwich. We are the only organization that is providing this type of softball. We have a comprehensive recreation league, with the option for the girls to compete at a higher level as tournament teams.”

So, the season has been extended for the 10-U squad and the girls have come out in force. In total, the team has 15 members on the roster.

Greenwich’s 10-U team has teams from New Rochelle, Norwalk, New Canaan, Wilton, Trumbull and Rowayton on its schedule. Greenwich is the only town-run program, while everybody else they compete against is a Babe Ruth charter.

They play games Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays or Sundays in the morning. The team practices once a week, but if they play two games in a week, they don’t practice that week because the kids have other commitments.

The Greenwich U-10 softball team plays some of the top competition around the area duing the travel program portion of its season. (Graham Murray photo)

Also helping out are co-coaches Jennifer Lungren and Stephanie Nedoszytko, as well as getting help from the Brunswick School baseball team’s head coach Johnny Montanez.

Murray said that a lot of kids on his roster do independent practicing and training.

The team is comprised of Ava Blois, Bridget Day, Hannah Murray, Cameron Clark, Campbell Clark, Elizabeth Lundgren, Ella Matterazzo, Grace Popp, Hayley Dionis, Maeve Carey, Megan Geiger, Mia Gangi, Quinn Gavin, Ruby Montanez and Sophia Blois.

“All the kids are at different levels of play,” Murray said. “It’s great to see the four or five stronger kids working with the other kids, teaching them how to pitch or teaching them how to move their bat back. They coach each other in the field and position themselves. There has not been an ego that has tried to take over the team.”

And while winning is always nice, that’s far from the most important thing when the team travels. When they play other towns, they are playing against kids that are strong and talented. Murray thinks it’s critical that the kids are engaged and understand that softball is a team sport.

“The neat thing about teaching these girls is telling them that everybody needs to hustle and everybody needs to run, and that everybody needs to back each other up and support each other,” Murray said. “They aren’t going to win without everybody getting to the next level and having some success.”

And sometimes competing in the travel program poses a challenge or two. Take two weeks ago for an example, as Greenwich traveled to New Rochelle for a game that started Sunday at 9:15 a.m. and had very limited parking. 

Despite the occasional issues, Murray said that it’s amazing to see the team’s confidence level continue to grow week after week.

“They catch on fire and just feed off each other,” Murray said. “They face pitching that is not currently within our house league, so they are seeing kids that actually pitch at a high level. To watch them connect and really start to string two or three hits together and start to make plays in the field is great to watch. It’s great to see all the parents getting up and getting excited as well.”

And there are certainly other differences between the style of play during the in-house league and when the team travels.

In addition to wins and losses meaning something different in both programs, in the in-house league program, every child has to play both the infield and the outfield. In the travel program, that is not the case.

“But I would say a good amount of kids get some time in the infield, but also they get a couple of innings in the outfield,” Murray said. “In in-house league we don’t care about winning or losing, but in the travel program it’s a little more important. Their skills are getting there and they are paying attention. They are also having a fun time. They get excited when they get on base or make a catch.”

For Troiano, seeing this growth in softball and willingness for teams to play games as a travel program is music to the former softball player’s ears.

“Our enrollment over the past two years has really increased,” Troiano said. “Girls’ softball is really growing. We have three different divisions for the recreation piece. In addition to that, we have games for them with other towns in Fairfield County, to give them a little bit more of a mixture in terms of competition. From the house leagues, we create these tournament teams. Anybody that is interested is allowed to participate. We do not turn people away and deny them the ability to participate on these teams.”

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