My daughter was a pitcher for the Woodgrove softball team in 2017. She never did travel softball even though coaches oftentimes invited her on their teams, and she never had a pitching coach or softball coaching of any kind. All of her friends did however which left her in what is now called “house ball” with a lot of girls who were entirely new to the sport all together and were in it simply to have fun and learn the sport. Once Livy hit high school she got accepted onto the Woodgrove softball team as pitcher. All of her friends who had years of travel ball and personal coaching under their belts were obviously better than her but her pitching skills were still strong. She pitched an entire game one night and won the game for Woodgrove. This was just weeks before she got diagnosed with the life long disease of Crohn’s. She got very thin and weak and ended up being hospitalized with an emergency surgery on her colon. I informed the team mom and her coach that night asking them to inform her teammates. We didn’t hear one word from anyone during her hospitalization or afterwards. Once returning to school her coach welcomed Elizabeth to support her team on the bench during practices and games which she did for as long as she could but she was severely sick. At the end of year softball banquet many of the parents asked me where Elizabeth had been and I was too shocked to explain. I was shocked at the lack of support towards Elizabeth and lack of communication between the coaches, team mom, and players/parents. It soured our experience with the Woodgrove softball team. Today, Livy is putting her time and energy in equestrian sports with her horse and although still struggling with her Disease on a daily basis while keeping a 4.0 average and successful horse competitions I commend her for her positive attitude and resilience during a time when not many people including myself could carry out. I thought the attached article in the link below was very well written and on point in today’s day and age of travel sports and the negative effects it has had on our community which is far different from when we were kids.