When most people think of an educator, the first thought is of a teacher. Not for me, though. When I think of an educator, it makes me think of my coach, who has been there for me for the past six years of my life. We’ve spent every summer day together and every weekend from February to April, and then again from June to August. I grew on him, I look up to them as inspiration, my role model, and a parent figure.

After waking up at 8am on a summer morning, I walk up a steep, rocky, dried out hill with a table at the very top. At the top of the hill there are 20 other girls standing there, it was a very uncomfortable situation. I’m a seventh grader. I don’t see a single familiar face. But standing next to the table is a middle-aged man with all white hair, just taller than the girls. He has the biggest smile on his face and he welcomes everyone. It makes me feel like I’m already part of the Lady Hawks softball team when tryouts haven’t started yet.

I go up and start talking to him, and I find out that his daughter is the catcher. The cliche coach is the one who speaks positively of his daughter and treats her the harshest, but with Coach Reeg he treats his daughter like the rest of us. If someone was standing and watching our practice, no one would know that that’s his daughter.

All the spectators can tell his interest of the game by the way he always offers to help, weather it’s telling you to change the position of your hand or to change the distance between your feet while bating. He’s so loud when he cheers, it’s like being front row at a rock concert.  Learning is a daily activity for my team. We have numerous areas for which we can improve in. With every new technique you learn, we play a game and put the new technique to work. It can be a new bunting game to see who can hit the most into a bucket or how many line drives you can hit in a row.

I still currently look forward to practice, the whole time that I’ve been part of the Lady Hawks program there has never been a time when I didn’t want to go. It’s a getaway from home, and I get to share it with my friends. Practice is where I have fun, laugh, and learn all within a two hour span.

For this being my first time at tryouts, he made it feel like home. Bill Reeg is not someone who I only go to for practice, but someone I can also go to for advice. There’s no one in my life who I could thank more for everything other than my parents.  Thanks coach for everything you do for me.