Softball

Around the Diamond with Jennifer Stowe

Diamond Nation softball instructor Jennifer Stowe played DI softball at Seton Hall University and was featured in "Faces in the Crowd" in Sports Illustrated in 1997.

My Favorite Little Pinkies, Class of 2023

Watch out West Coast! HealthQuest Park and Diamond Nation are on a mission. Keep your eye out for the class of 2023. They are currently being trained right here at HealthQuest Park in Flemington, NJ. There is no longer a need to have your daughter play T-Ball with the boys; by the time they are five years old, they will be too talented for it! HealthQuest has put together a little pinkies program that meets every Tuesday morning at the Jack Cust Baseball Academy.  Girls from the ages of three to five have been taught the proper throwing, catching, fielding, and hitting mechanics and they love every minute of it.  

The Jennie Finch softball instructors are being blessed with the opportunity to watch little girls grow, sometimes literally, right before our eyes.  My daughter has been part of the program since December and every Tuesday morning, she is pulling me out the door. The joy I personally feel when a little girl catches the ball for the first time or hits the ball to the back of the cage is unsurpassed. When I was a child, we did not have these opportunities and I know that Diamond Nation takes great pride in enabling young girls to begin carving their niche as a young softball player. 

With open registration throughout the year everyone is included in what always turns out to be an amazing hour of the day.  It is a very rewarding experience to see your daughter have the confidence to put on a glove, field a ground ball and make the perfect throw to complete the play. 

On behalf of the Jennie Finch Softball Academy staff, I would like to say thank you to all the parents who have entrusted their precious angels to us. We truly enjoy every minute.

Summer Stretch

We are heading into the stretch! The summer days existing of early mornings and hopefully late Sunday evenings are coming upon us quickly and while the excitement of our daughters triumphs are something to treasure, we need to remember the most important thing to teach them this summer is character.

We must practice what we have preached to our children since preschool. Be kind to others, treat others as you would like to be treated, understand that mistakes are a part of life. When the umpire misses a call or a teammate makes an error, remember our children are looking to us. They long for approval and will mimic our reactions, teach them how to respect those around them regardless of how wronged they may feel.  Admirable traits take more practice than batting, pitching, and fielding ever will. So when they look to the sidelines let's make sure our best traits are on display, make sure we are practicing those very important life lessons our parents began teaching us when we were young.

As parents we need to remind our daughters that win or lose, succeed or fail, we will forever love them, even more so when they strike out. After our softball days of running from park to park, sunscreen, fast food, and a lot of coffee are behind us, we are still going to need to have taught them how to become young ladies who are not afraid to take a risk and will do so with the utmost class and character.

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least" -- Goethe

Olympic Profile