RBI Austin Spotlight: 12U Softball Mariners
You know what time it is!
Meet this week’s spotlights: Sydney, Grant, and Lynn from the 12U Softball Mariners!
Sydney Floyd
12 yrs old
12U Softball Mariners
1st Year with RBI Austin
Q: How long have you been playing with RBI Austin?
Sydney: This is my first year with RBI. It is my third year playing softball though.
Q: How did you hear about RBI?
Sydney: We were looking for a sports program, so we looked one up and found RBI.
Q: What do you hope to learn this year?
Sydney: Fielding the ball better and hitting better. That’s what I’m working on right now, along with making new friends.
Q: What position do you like the most and why?
Sydney: I played outfield my first two years, but I like first base and catcher the most. I guess I like them because you get the ball more and you are more involved in the game.
Q: Who is one person that’s influenced your life the most?
Sydney: I don’t know, probably my parents. They just say to go for what you want and to do your best no matter what.
Q: Why do you think its important to be on a team sport and have teammates?
Sydney: So you can get to know people better and just make more friends.
Grant Herring
12U Softball Mariners Coach
2nd year with RBI Austin
Q: How long have you been coaching for RBI?
Grant: This is my second year coaching.
Q: What made you decide to coach last year?
Grant: Nothing really. I saw it online and wanted to get involved. I liked the mission once I saw the mission and it appealed to me really well. I had a lot of free time and a lot of knowledge about the sport, so that had something to do with it.
Q: What made you coach again this year?
Grant: A lot of my girls’ parents reached out to me and asked if I was coaching again because they wanted to be playing with me again, so I recruited a couple of my friends and we decided to team up and go at it.
Q: What is one thing that your girls that you’re coaching this year will learn?
Grant: I’d say teamwork and hustle. Eve when you’re older, you still need to understand to work as a team, you can’t do everything by yourself.
Q: Who is one of the biggest influences in your life?
Grant: I’d say my parents for sure. They raised me to be the man that I am and to treat everybody with respect.
Q: What is one way that you think RBI’s mission through softball better the player beyond the field?
Grant: Teamwork and hustle. That’s a lot of it for playing baseball and going into the workforce. It teaches the players life skills.
Lynn Floyd
Father of Sydney Floyd
12U Softball Mariners
1st year with RBI Austin
Q: How did you hear about RBI?
Lynn: We have some friends at the church we attend whose kids have participated and have told us about it. So we did some research online and found that we loved the mission of RBI baseball and its intentions.
Q: What is one thing you hope that Sydney will learn this season?
Lynn: I think with anything whether it’s baseball or some other activity, just whatever do have fun, but do things with excellence. Like if it’s a team sport, you know, do the best you can because it’s not just about you, but your team. You want to play well personally but you also want to play well to help your team.
Q: How has your experience with RBI been so far?
Lynn: Although it’s still early in the season, I am impressed with the way things are run. There’s intentionality in the coaching, very positive, and everybody gets a chance to play and gets their turn. The values of the organization are very much expressed through everything that’s done out here from the umpires to the coaches to the parents, so it definitely has impressed us.
Q: What is one of the biggest influences on your life?
Lynn: As a person of faith, God is the biggest influencer on my life. Apart from him, I can do nothing. Apart from him, I can’t be an effective parent. There’s been a lot of people throughout my life, my grandfather made a huge impact, youth leaders growing up in my life, were thankfully able to intersect my life with theirs at just the right time. Definitely people in my family and then also youth leaders, you know people in my teenage years that allowed me to get to know them at an important time in my life.
Q: What is one reason why you think it is important to play a team sport?
Lynn: Well, obviously it helps build a person’s character. You’re not only looking to your own interests but to the interests of others, I think a team is not just about a sport here but it’s also about preparing for other things in life. The things that kids learn here can be taken out into the real world.