First of all, it was nice to have a reason to root for the Orioles in October. That doesn't happen too often. I remember being at Camden Yards the last time the Orioles were in the postseason, over ten years ago. This year they got to play spoiler, a role that I feel like they've kind of been playing off and on for a number of years, particularly when they play against the Red Sox. Kind of wish I had been home to watch that last game. It'd be nice if Robert Andino stuck around for a little while.
On to real business. The PC-coached Azerbaijan Softball League season kicked off last weekend with a tournament right here in Ismayilli. Planning came right down to the wire, as I received what I thought was permission to host the tournament at our Olympic Complex, but was called a couple nights beforehand and told that the complex now had a contract with some soccer club that was paying to host the tournament there. A scramble for a new site revealed the possibility of having it at Ismayilli's village school, which is basically part of the town at this point. But wait! They're filming some movie there, and there are tanks on the field! At least that's what a teacher at school said. As I started to walk home, disappointed that we'd be stuck using my school's slanted, overgrown field, I realized we hadn't actually called the school to check in on this, and even if they were making a movie there, it'd be pretty darn cool to see a tank. I walked across town, and wouldn't you know it, there was no tank. The field was empty. A brief meeting with the school director later, and we were in.
Another potential setback, up until the beginning of that week, we'd only had two kids showing up for softball practice. Suddenly, with school and my announcements about practice getting around, attendance spiked! Six kids came the practice before the tournament. We were almost at a full team!
Tournament day rolled around, and the weather looked great. Nine boys showed up, giving us a real team, even though three had never played before. Two teams were coming, one of which, Bilasuvar, had to leave town at 5:30 am to make it in time. The other, Oguz, was coming from a good bit shorter, and arrived in time to have a small instructional scrimmage against my boys to help them finetune their skills and understanding of the game. This was the first time they'd really played a game, but everyone was impressed with how fast they picked up on the game. It's helped that one of the boys attended ABLE, where we played a couple games.
The main match was between Oguz and Bilasuvar, who have both been playing longer than our team, but the Ismayilli Tigers did play a couple games against Oguz's village players. They almost won, too. At the end of the first game, the score was 11-10. We lost a few kids after that, so our second game we had some substitutes from Oguz.
Since the tournament, attendance has continued to rise at practices, despite a couple days of bad weather, and the shortening of the day. I'm very hopeful for the tournament in Kurdamir we are scheduled to participate in on October 9th, and in Baku at the end of the month.
Huge thank you's and shout outs go to Oguz's PCVs, Kevin, Drew, Colin, and Lilly, who all came and helped run the tournament, and were great teachers for the Ismayilli boys, as well as to Bilasuvar's James and Gio, for making the long trek out here from the south.
Go Ismayilli Tigers! Ismayilli Pelengler!
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