Unicorns Must Muster Mental Muscularity, Face Former Foes in Fall

Coach Greg Weaver prepares for the fall
season mentally by getting really close
to a live polar bear at the San Diego Zoo.
Only glass separated him from the 
man-and-carrot-eating beast.

            With less than a week away from the first game, officials finally released the Virginia Beach Coed Duffer League Softball schedule for the fall.

            The Unicorns will be facing seven different teams in doubleheaders this season as opposed to the spring, in which they faced five different teams three times.   “Makes the game different,” says coach Greg Weaver, “Instead of being able to get a feel for a team the first time with a doubleheader and having a month or more to plan a little for your next bout, you have to learn to get that feel in the first game.  If we lose our first game, our only chance at revenge is in the second; if we win our first game… well, we’ll take that win.”

            The game is indeed different.  In this league, the teams of VBC Softball have seen two types of schedules.  The first is the small-division type, where the team will face a different opponent each week until they have played everyone in the division.  Following that, the team rematches every team for one more game each.  That type was what the schedule was in the spring.  The second schedule type is adjusted for larger divisions, which is what the Unicorns face this fall.  The team will play each opponent in its division twice, both of the games falling in the same evening.

             The difference in the types calls for a different style of mental play.  Whereas the Unicorns may have thought that they would improve over the course of the season to win one later, they are barred from that way of thinking now.  Improving over the course of the season and locking in your team’s dominance over another team at the end is not an option.  Now, one may say that the second game—the last game each night—now determines who is the better team for the whole season.

            Weaver has to get his team prepared to make a mental switch.  Instead of focusing on beating rival teams, the Unicorns have to focus on winning the division.  “That’s not an easy change to make, especially when you look at the history of VBC in general.  When you’re telling members of a franchise that has yet to win over three games in a season that you have to go for the division and not just team dominance, it makes winning seem a little further away.  We have to think about clenching our spot in the division in the last few games, not just being number one out of two team-by-team.”

            One interesting thing about the fall season is that the Unicorns’ division is comprised of a good number of teams that VBC Softball franchises have faced in the past.  In fact, their first game of the season will be against former opponent That’s What She Said.  The Unicorns recently went .443/.473/.571 against them over the course of a season.  Other teams that VBC Softball has played before include P.F. Chang’s and Carroll Truckers, though records of past VBC players’ performances against them are not available.

Fall 2011 Opponents (in order of play):

1. That’s What She Said – We have said enough about that which she said.
2. P.F. Chang’s Warriors – If this is the same team that VBC Softball played in the past, then the Unicorns definitely have a shot at winning.  Last season the P.F. Chang’s team (called only “P.F. Chang’s”—guess they thought it would be a good idea to spruce up their name to something a little more fierce rather than keep one that reminded their opponents of lettuce wraps) played in Coed Duffer Division 21 and went 0-14.
3. REWIRE – Information unknown.  Name is in caps, so intensity is presumed.
4. EVW Highwaymen – Played last season in Coed Duffer Division 35 and went 11-5, which was second in their division.  Might be the team to beat this fall (aside from the Unicorns, of course).
5. Renegades – Played last season in Coed C Division 19 and went 1-14.
6. LC Stars – If the first hit on Google is correct in whom it is that the Unicorns are playing, then things are looking up.
7. Carroll Truckers – Weaver reported that he remembers feeling initially intimidated by the team being comprised of truckers, but then thinks that they were not as intimidating on the field as their name might suggest.

All games will be held on Princess Anne Athletic Complex fields Red #2 or Red #3.  The season opener will be at 6:45pm on Red #3.

YAH!  Giddyap, Unicorns!!