Olympic Team to Help Tutor in Softball

Members of the first-ever U.S. Olympic softball team will demonstrate the finer points of pitching, batting, fielding and sliding Sunday in Simi Valley at a clinic for girls ages 5 to 17.

The $10 clinic will be held at Rancho Santa Susana Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to benefit Simi Valley Girls Softball, said league Vice President Larry Dill.

“You get to go out there and see somebody at the top of their game demonstrating how to play,” Dill said Tuesday. “And, in addition to that, they’re really great role models for younger girls.”

Women’s softball became a medal sport in the Olympics this year, status already accorded men’s baseball, he said.

The future Olympians will give softball lessons to clinic attendees alongside softball aces from All-American collegiate and national teams, local coaches and former UCLA head softball Coach Kirk Walker.

Clinic coaches will set up about a dozen stations, each devoted to a particular softball skill, and coach girls as they try each one, Dill said.

While the clinic is meant for girls, boys are also welcome, Dill said.

The Baseball Development Center, a full-time Canoga Park baseball coaching center run by former Los Angeles Dodgers Steve Garvey and Reggie Smith, will lend additional coaches. The center also will bring equipment--not just game gear, but also a videotape system to help analyze the girls’ skills.

Girls can register for the clinic as late as 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Dill said. There are 350 slots, more than 150 of which have already been taken, he said.

Registration forms also are available at Play It Again Sports or Lewis Sporting Goods in Simi Valley.

For more information, call 520-1763.