Women softball players benefit from U.S. Olympian at weekend clinic

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Dorothy ‘Dot’ Richardson—one of the most recognizable names in Unites States women’s softball—conducted a three day clinic that began at the Greenland Field on Friday and ended on Sunday morning at the Old Recreation Grounds in Road Town. The clinic was conducted by the US Olympian and her husband Bob.

The architect of the clinic was Lady Braves manager Wallace ‘Bonds’ Leonard. Leonard saw his 2002 women’s championship team falter during the BVI Softball Association league championships series against the Crushers in August.

“During the playoffs we fell short because of pitching. We had only one pitcher and we had the lead late in the game but she got tired because we played three games within one week,” recalled Leonard who had been following USA Softball’s Robinson and her work and made the contact that led to a three day clinic. “After that, I decided we’re going to need that extra pitching help and train some of the other girls to do some pitching, that’s basically how the clinic came about.” Leonard said the clinic which also attracted other players went very well. “The girls got a lot of good fundamentals, a lot of good hitting, fielding and batting tips,” he said. “It’s all up to them now go ahead and continue the training they got.”

Richardson conducted the clinic along with her husband Bob Pinto—who coached NCAA Division I Softball for 23 years—and said her number one goal was to inspire the individuals they were able to touch and to teach the fundamentals of the sport. “Pitching was done with my husband Bob who gave his expertise,” explained Richardson who has been named Commissioner for the Ladies Fast Pitch Professional Tour. “For me, it was to share the fielding, hitting and the throwing and be able to work with what I saw with them, and inspire them to keep working because there’s no way you can master the fundamentals of this sport in three days.”

Richardson said she observed that the players had a burning desire to improve and be better—a quality in their lives that got them to the level where they are she said. “They are sharing it with younger boys and girls over the course of the clinic who are going to be fantastic baseball players,” Richardson said. “The fundamentals for baseball and softball are not that much different and it was really nice to see them working together and teaching each other through example, so, it was good to be here to guide that.”

The biggest challenge Richardson said, was changing habits of older players but, she was impressed with the changes they made, although it takes longer than when they were younger. “What we did was to really go through phases one, two and three of hitting and, the three steps of throwing and fielding,” Richardson noted. “They have really come a long way in a very short time.”