The Boys of Winter

THE BOYS OF WINTER

            I wrote more than a year ago about Peace Corps’ long association with softball in Botswana. I also described my own effort to continue that heritage by helping to coach boys and girls softball at my school. Here is an update.

            As you may recall, softball takes place during “ball sports” season, roughly from April into July. June and July are winter, the coldest time of the year here. Practices take place late in the afternoon at the end of a long day: classes run from 7:40 to 1:30, then lunch break lasts from 1:30 to 2:30 followed by study time from 2:30 to 4:00. The students quickly change from their school uniforms into sports attire and hit the adjacent ball fields. They finish practice around 5:30. Then they head home. Some walk 10 km or more, and so arrive after dark.

Our girls warming up at an after school practice. Note the girl in pink with the pink trimmed glove sent from Manchester.

            Organizing games requires much more effort than in the United States. Because buses are difficult to commandeer, minimizing transport to games is a priority. Teams from several schools assemble at one school late on a Friday. Everyone stays over for the whole weekend, playing three or more games in round robin fashion. After a couple of these weekend tournaments, the best boys and girls teams from a cluster of schools meet in a weekend sub-zonal elimination tournament. The best teams from that tournament go on to one of four zonal tournaments. The top two teams from each of the four zones then advance to the national tournament, from which Botswana’s top boys and girls softball teams are crowned. The same gauntlet applies to the other ball sports: football (soccer), volleyball, netball, basketball (in some schools), table tennis and badminton.

            Our softballers love going to tournaments. They spend the weekend with their friends from all of the other ball sports. They don’t have to perform their typical weekend chores: washing laundry, preparing meals, cleaning house and tending livestock. Instead, they sleep together in classrooms (boys in one, girls in another) at the host school. The classrooms are not heated, and it can get below freezing at night. So several students might share a foam mattress and sleep under shared warm blankets. There is even more to like: they don’t have to wear their school uniform and they bring along music to play.

 

Our boys pick up their classroom bedding before dawn at the beginning of a tournament day.

            Where do I fit into all of this? I come to the tournaments. Sometimes I (along with other coaches) sleep in the classroom with the boys. I assemble a bed from six desks, and then put a yoga pad and sleeping bag on top. It isn’t the best night’s sleep, since the boys can’t help but chatter long after bedtime. Other nights we coaches find a spare empty classroom and camp out there, in relative quiet.

            Food is also a big attraction at tournaments. Our school cooks come along for the weekend. They bring food, kettles, a propane tank and portable gas kitchen burners. They set up their kitchen in a classroom, the same classroom where our girls sleep. All weekend long, the cooks are busy preparing and cooking fresh acorn squash, paleche (white maize meal), stewed beef and gravy. The athletes love the rich food: there are never leftovers.

            In 2013, our school’s girls team made it to the zonals for the first time ever. This year, the girls did not make it to zonals, but the boys did, after a tournament drought of many years. Once there, things did not go so well. We had a strong pitching staff (two players), and they could get the ball into the strike zone most of the time (and this is fast pitch). Our first baseman snagged almost every ball coming his way and made more than his share of outs. The rest of our squad consisted of good hitters, but less than ideal fielders. Remember that these boys never played Little League. They likely never experienced softball before they got to 8^th grade.

 

Our short stop and third base players moving infield to get ready for the next play at a tournament.

            The bottom line: our boys team did not advance beyond the zonals. As they say, there’s always next year. We have some good returning players, and there are good coaches. Unfortunately I won’t be around then. When this is all over, as odd as it sounds, coaching softball at my school may be one of the things I will miss most about my Peace Corps experience.

 

The Boys of Winter (with me). South Zonal Tournament, Lobatse.

            A special thanks to friends from Manchester who responded to my call to send softball gloves. Because of them, we had enough gloves for the boys and girls starting lineups this year.