By Wayne witkowski
Staff Writer
When Brick Memorial’s softball team beat undefeated Manchester for its first Ocean County Tournament championship in May, Debbie Graham had a great feeling of satisfaction.
Graham for over 20 years has been the driving force directing the Brick girls softball program that three years ago was incorporated with the township’s recreation department.
"Eighty percent of those girls came through this program," said Graham recently after her league season came to another successful ending, with three age group division champions crowned.
Despite the soggy spring that Graham said was the worst weather she had ever seen with the league, no team lost more than one game off its schedule.
It is that brand of organization and determination that has made the girls softball program a vibrant part of the community. The league has grown from the 10 teams that played at Arrowhead Park in the early years to 48 teams this spring that served 700 girls. And a high school division was added this year that drew more than 50 girls who did not play on pre-set teams but were chosen for opposing sides, schoolyard-style.
"It was not as structured. I don’t know if it will take off," said Graham. "We tried it in the past but the interest was not always there. At that age, the kids are starting to work with a bigger social calendar."
The T-ball league for girls in kindergarten through second grade started 10 years ago. There were 200 girls on 14 teams this spring. Eleven teams played in the third- and fourth-grade division that saw the Silver Bullets (11-1) win in the playoffs under coach Vic Gleason. Eleven teams competed in the fifth- and sixth-grade division won by coach Linda Panter’s M&Ms (10-1).
Twelve teams were organized in the seventh- and eighth-grade bracket, where Doug Kinney’s Silver Bullets (10-0-1) went unbeaten and won the playoffs. The Fly Girls won an in-league tournament for the seventh- and eighth-graders.
Although Graham overall was satisfied with the teaching of fundamentals from the coaches, she said the league has to concentrate more on developing pitchers. Another of those coaches is Graham’s daughter — Nicole Grennie, who Graham coached in the league years ago. Grennie and Stan Karr, a longtime coach in the league, directed the Lady Thunder to a second-place 10-2 record in the third- and fourth-grade division.
"I’d like to see some improvement on the pitching end of it," said Graham. "I’d like to see us develop better form and style of pitching. We don’t have many windmillers.
"And I’d like to see us get more into traveling teams. It’s hard. The program is so huge you need Saturdays as well as weeknights and a lot of tournaments are played on weekends. I’d like to see a pitching clinic. More kids are interested in pitching these days."
Brick recently organizied three all-star teams — 10 and under, 12 and under and 13 and under — in a Wall Tournament on Aug. 8 and a Lacey Township Tournament on Aug. 16.
"Now there are more fields, so we have an opportunity to expand," said Graham.
Certainly, it’s a much better time for girls to play than when Graham, 53, was a student at North Bergen High School, where there was no softball program. The school started its program right after Graham graduated, and it consistently has been one of the better high school programs in the northeast section of the state.
Instead, Graham’s only exposure to anything resembling softball was to practice with the boys playing Little League baseball at the time.
As she got older, she was able to play on a softball team in a women’s league, showing the athletic ability to play nearly every position.
For that reason, Graham is committed to helping girls enjoy softball in ways that she never could. Ask any coach anything about the league, and that coach likely will recommend a call to Graham.
"She knows everything about the league" is the standard remark. Graham goes to many games and knows a lot about what happened in many other games.
"Sometimes I feel that I’ve been doing this so long that maybe I’ll do it for another year or two and that’s it, but I just don’t see anybody who can take this over," said Graham.
Certainly, a look at the many smiling, enthused faces of the young players makes the extraordinary commitment rewarding to Graham.