Return of The Ting
By Annie Kwok, Staff Writer
The 2010 Galileo softball team is a mix of old and new players and a returning coach who is just excited to be back on the field. After coaching softball at Galileo for 2 years, Coach Joe Ting took 2009 off due to a stroke. Although Coach Joe is returning to a team made up of mostly new players, he looks forward to leading them through the season.
Coach Joe has coached softball for thirty years, coaching women’s, men’s, and coed softball/baseball. But this year, he is excited about returning to coach softball for Galileo. “My incentive to get better was to get back to coaching,” he explains.
In Coach Joe’s absence during the 2009 softball season, Boy’s Varsity Basketball Coach, Jeremy Lee, took over coaching the team. Linda Lim, a junior who played on the team during that season feels that both coaches are great. “I’m happy that Coach Joe is returning, but at the same time I feel sad that Coach Lee left,” she says.
This year’s assistant coach, Wendy Auyoung, who was a four player who graduated last year, also enjoys working with both coaches. “It was a very stressful time for Coach Lee, but he committed a lot of time for softball and we were all very grateful because without him, we would not have had a coach,” she says. This year she is returning to assist Coach Joe because she wants to help out the team and improve the skill.
Because six of last year’s starters were seniors and graduated, this year’s team is almost a brand new one. The starting positions need to be refilled and each new player must go through training. Because of this, Coach Joe is excited to see all the players play. He feels that the girls this year have a lot of potential. “It helps that the girls are all motivated to play and learn,” he says.
The current team is made up of twenty-two players, of which six are freshmen. Besides the six new freshmen, there are thirteen other new players. While some of the new players have played on their middle school softball team, other players have no experience at all. The rest of the team is returning players, some who have played last year and some who have played for Coach Joe before his leave.Junior Stephanie Owyeong, a returning player from last year, is ready to help teach the new players. “Having a lot of new players is a good thing because we can teach them and give them more experience and in the future, they will be better,” she says.
Coach Joe’s goal for this year is to improve each player’s skill and teach them the mechanics of softball drills. Because teamwork is an important factor, it is also important that the team bonds. As the youngest team on the league, everybody is their key opponent and they are working hard and giving their best. “The girls are so young that they have no fear, which is good,” Coach Joe says.
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