‘It’s not just coaches coaching’: Penn-Trafford youth softball team secures nearly undefeated summer season, sets sights on WPIAL

It only took one loss this summer to light a fire under Penn-Trafford’s 12u All-Star softball team.

The team — made up of a dozen girls ages 11 and 12 — won its remaining 14 games across three tournaments from July to mid-August, said coach Jim Drenning.

“The girls came off the field and said ‘You know what, we know we can play better than that,’” he said.

Drenning and his wife, Bree Drenning, both of Penn Township, have coached the girls for four years. The group has played together and against each other through travel and in-house softball teams since they were 9 years old.

“Because of the fact that they’ve been playing together since they’ve been in 9u and 10u, they’ve formed such a great bond,” Bree Drenning said.

But after suffering the early-season loss this summer, the girls adopted a new level of leadership and accountability, Jim Drenning said.

“Before games, as coaches we have our meetings with the girls…but the girls every game, they have their own meeting where they meet in the dugout with just themselves,” he said.

“They talk about blocking out the noise and just focusing on the game. They talk about if they make a mistake, they just pick each other up,” he said. “That coming from 12 year olds, doing that on their own, is pretty exceptional.”

Although the team could have secured an undefeated season, Bree Drenning said she would not trade the loss.

“Looking back on it, I’m glad they lost, because had they won, I don’t think they would have realized you don’t get everything handed to you,” she said. “They realized ‘Don’t come in with confidence like that.’ Come in with ‘Every inning is a new inning.’”

The team is packed with multi-talented athletes, Jim Drenning said. Six of the girls are pitchers and three are catchers. One competes in wrestling in the offseason.

They have even started to coach themselves, Bree Drenning said. Veteran players show the newcomers the ropes, and each athlete has learned how to call plays.

“It’s just so powerful to see the girls cheer each other on when one girl makes a play and pick each other up when someone makes a mistake,” she said. “It’s truly so wonderful, because now, they’re working together, and it’s not just coaches coaching.”

The girls are now geared up for the in-house softball season, but Jim Drenning has his sights for the team — including his daughter, Talia — on high school competition.

He believes they can follow in the footsteps of Penn-Trafford’s 2019 team, which claimed the school’s first state softball title.

“As good as they are now,” he said, “I can’t wait to see how these girls are when they get to high school.”