Photo Credit: Courtesy of NAYS
Several years ago Mike Buchanan, the superintendent for the city of Manhattan (Kan.) Parks and Recreation Department, was tending to some business at the park on a warm Saturday morning in July.
A softball team in the department’s 4^(th)-grade league had begun practice, and Buchanan watched the girls complete some basic warm-up drills rather lethargically due to the heat. Then practice took an interesting turn. An assistant coach placed a bucket of water balloons between home plate and the pitching rubber while the head coach assumed the catcher’s position. The assistant coach tossed a balloon, about the size of a softball, and the batter swung—soaking the head coach as the balloon burst on contact. The director watched each girl bat, laughing right along with them every time the coach took a soaking.
“I spoke to the coach afterward and asked what had prompted him to come up with this idea,” Buchanan says. “Aside from the fact that he wanted his girls to learn to swing the bat hard, he knew that they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed a regular practice because it was so hot. Those girls may not have learned a great deal about softball that day, but for the hour that they were there, they had a terrific time with their friends, enthusiastically encouraging one another, completely engaged in the task at hand, and laughing the entire time. I am sure each one of them went home and told their parents all about it and couldn’t wait to come to the next practice. That is why we do what we do.”