To the editor:

I am writing to acknowledge the accomplishments of the Rockport Bandits A level girls softball team.

We just concluded the season on June 18, and we were fortunate enough to come away as champions of the Cape Ann Girls Fast Pitch Softball League. For many of these girls, this was their first taste of a league level championship, something I know they are all thrilled with. However, this year-end accomplishment is not the focus of this letter.

Matt Muniz and I have coached girls oftball together for five years now. This past year we missed our other coach, Tony Andrews, who was taking a year off while his daughter Katie focused on honing her already significant soccer skills.

Each year begins with a "draft." God, I hate the draft. Anyone who has coached a team and has experienced a draft knows what I am talking about. They are just not pleasant.

Be that as it may, each coach tries to assemble a solid team, a team that they hope will win more games than they lose. I would be kidding the readers if I did not admit to the fact that Matt and I love to win as much as the next set of coaches. However, we do not make this the priority in any softball season.

This past year Matt and I coached a team that was the youngest in the league. We had nine seventh-graders and two sixth-graders in a league made up of seventh- and eighth-graders. We knew that we would have our work cut out for us with the youth we were blessed with coupled with the fact that we had four girls returning after taking one or more years off from playing the game. In the playoffs, we played teams made up of almost entirely of eighth-graders and we certainly held our own.

Our goals each year are very simple: have fun, play hard, learn the game and most importantly, show good sportsmanship, win or lose. We never for a moment lost sight of those goals and in spite of being tested on many occasions to compromise those goals, our ladies persevered and displayed class and poise that defied the dates on their birth certificates.

Did this surprise Matt or I? Not for a minute.

One merely had to look into the stands to see the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends who came to support us. The young ladies were a reflection of the families represented at the games.

It is not easy to raise children today. It is even harder to try to get to everything, to support all that our kids get involved in.

Our players, and the families of our players, showed a dedication for the team that was instrumental in allowing us to come together at the right time. Every single player contributed during the year. Conversely, every player had times during the year when they felt like they did not perform as well as they would have liked. It was how they handled those difficult situations that allowed them to grow as players and to find that balance that is so important.

Matt and I hope that our players will look back on this season of softball with fond memories. More importantly, we hope that somewhere along the line, they learned something that will benefit them in their lives. When it is all said and done, it is all about giving back. It is all about paying it forward.

To our Bandits — Madeleine Downs, Julia Endicott, Brianna Hemeon, Heather MacArthur, Gabrielle Muniz, Alexandra Paradis, Kayla Parisi, Hannah Rowe, Sarah Rowen, Mollie Watson, Aiden Wright — great job ladies, we're all very proud of you.!

Tom Paradis

Mary Helen Way, Rockport