There will be coaching

The only thing that tells me that I can coach baseball is that my son can hit a ball and doesn't make the scared face when I throw it at him. As a kid, I wasn't all that good, never even having a chance at making my high school team. By the time college rolled around, I hit my stride with intramural softball, hitting over .600 one year. But since then, not much, a few casual softball games and outings to the batting cages.

Luckily, the Piedmont Baseball Foundation organizes coaching clinics for us volunteers. This is probably going to be a lot more helpful than the copy of Science of Hitting I picked up.

There are three clinics:

• "Get up and Go" (now called All Pro Baseball Group). This clinic is run by Erik Johnson, Joe Millette and Ron Wotus, all former professional players while Ron Wotus is the bench coach for the World Champion San Francisco Giants.
• Shetland Coach training session with Ben Mangan (an excellent local baseball trainer)at his facility. This session looks like it might be more hands on given the presence of a batting cage. More on Future Star Baseball.
• Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) clinic, required for all Coaches. This session is about how to work with kids and parents in a positive manner. I did something like this just to be a soccer parent and learned about "compliment sandwiches", truly a seminal moment in my adulthood.

These sessions are for ALL of the coaching volunteers of the Red Sox. So even if you are only thinking about volunteering, let me know and we'll sign you up for them.