Long time no see… Boy! Do I have a DOOZY!

Yesterday Ambush 03 & 06 had the pleasure of finally meeting up  & practicing with Police Athletic League (PAL) Panther players. The meeting was in the works for a couple of weeks and FINALLY, yesterday was GO time!

The PAL is an KC police initiative to bridge relationships between civilians and police officers. I encourage you to view more information by clicking here.

We arranged for KC Ambush to meet PAL the Panthers at their new state of the art indoor practice facility for a joint practice with our 12’s & 14’s teams. More information about the KC Urban Youth Academy can be found by clicking here.

At first, it was the normal/ awkward meet the PAL coach and players  as we only had a practice plan  after a couple of weeks of back and forth emailing. As time went on it grew into something MUCH bigger than I had envisioned.

We were doing our normal drills and it took a little nudging on my behalf for our girls to start helping as much as they could. Before I knew it, they “took it and ran with it!”  They were encouraging, high-fiving, and volunteering help any way possible throughout practice.

After the combined practice, the look on the Panther players was priceless! There’s a REAL JOY in seeing people that are able to push themselves into believing they can do what they previously thought they couldn’t.

There was a couple of drills where you could tell they thought they would be overwhelmed but they freakin BROUGHT IT & made it look good while doing it for their first time. Before long, they were asking me to go again and again and… It was AWESOME!

I was able to push Ambush players and PAL players with the workout which was an added bonus.

The icing on the cake was the Panther players themselves actually asked us to join them for ALL of their practices.

It was VERY flattering but they have NO idea how much fun we (mostly I) actually had working with them.  I know in theory it’s supposed to be one sided and they’re supposed to thank and appreciate me for coming and working with them BUT I even more so appreciated them for allowing me TO WORK WITH them.

Selfish confession: I’ve been looking for years on ways I can give back through my passion (coaching softball) to anyone that would listen. This opportunity is PERFECT! It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. The welcoming smiles on the Panther players faces was freaking AWESOME! I slept lightly all night thinking about how we could do more.

Coach Courtney, I know yo may not read this blog but THANKS AGAIN for the opportunity. You have no idea how much this meant to me as I started playing organized baseball right across the street from the current PAL building off of 18th & White.

#KCAmbush #PALPanthersSoftball