– KC Ambush 2024 Tryout Schedule –

7100 NW Lee’s Summit Rd, KCMO 64133
All tryouts (and practices) are held at Lakewood ball fields.

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KC Ambush 2013 – 12uC/B – Roger Garrett (816)914.8280

Sunday July 14th 9-11am
Thursday July 18th 6-8pm
Saturday July 20th 9-11am

• New team – Highly experienced coaches – No kids on team
• Looking for: athletic, dedicated & coachable players: Speed is a plus
• Pitchers and Catchers will be expected to put in work outside of practice

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KC Ambush 2011 – 12uC/B – Erick Shireman (816)812.7133

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KC Ambush 2012 – 12uC/B – Tommy Diibon (816)786.0603

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Please contact the appropriate coach for any questions for your age group. Can’t make a date for your age group? You can join other age groups tryout as well to ensure your daughter has been seen.

08 strapped up their laces, sharpened their bayonets and loaded up on the face paints to  match their ghillie suits at the Marucci Goliath tournament in Shawnee, KS over the weekend.  This was the girls first true 10uB tournament as they’ve entered & placed in open tournaments before so this was a bit different. The competition is usually better and more consistent.

08 started the fall 10uC with hopes of with hard work and dedication becoming B over the winter.  They DID THAT!

The moxie of the team – lead by coach Kurt Calton – is a mixture of athletic, hard working and dedicated girls with all families on the same page with the coaches. What’s better is, collectively, they’re more like “neighbors” instead of softball sisters.

They have all done everything that’s been asked of them with enthusiasm and it’s shown over the course of the winter. I really think they could compete in A-ball if we had the pitching. Last fall we started with 1 1st year pitcher on the team and picked up another player who decidedto give it a go at pitcher. Pitcher Cameron Hoehns has worked her tail off over the winter to consistently own the circle for our team.

Pitcher Aryana Roberts is also hard at work and it’s a matter of when, not if, she’ll find her consistent form.  Where Ary currently lacks in pitching experience at the moment, she more than makes up for it at the plate. After an off-season of switching to the left side of the plate she’s worked her tail off to become our true speedy leadoff hitter. Very exciting times for sure.

As typical with Ambush teams, we PLAY DEFENSE! Others have taken notice as this is what I’ve received from coach Kurt (via text) from his overall observation of the weekend. There were multiple outstanding defensive plays being made the entire weekend. Everything he said->

As far as offense, these guys have been hitting the off-season hard at that as well. Being aggressive at the plate with timely hits have allowed us to enjoy being on the winning side more often than not.

For this group, I figure them to start pushing the A barrier sooner rather than later. It’s not all about A/B/C level at this point as it’s ultimately more about their development (in and outside of softball). I must say, they’re developing quite nicely.

#MasterPlan #KCAmbush #AmbushStrong

I usually write up something about the weekend in a story telling format. This may eventually get to that but I’m going to try something new today.  A list of observations from this weekend.  There’s just too much random stuff in my head to try to make a story.

• On the rebound: Our pitching is coming around. The beginning of the season we struggled a little bit coming out the gate. But we’ve had 2 weekends of consistency out of pitching.  With that, we’re a way more balanced team.
• Our defense is AWESOME! I’ll put our defense up against anyone. We make the routine plays as well as make the almost impossible plays look routine. Of course there’s still a lot left we can improve on but I love our chances in any situation. Having said that, every game /situation is still a learning experience.
• Interesting things commented on: We played up 18A last weekend and the team was confident they were going to beat “a bunch of 7th graders”. However in the midst of their 5-0 defeat the coach took it out of his way to compliment our pitcher Kaylee Diggs who was mowing down his hitters one by one. This weekend she had the best game pitching I’ve ever been able to witness. Pitching a 0-0 tie, 7 innings pitched, 14K, 4H, 1BB. She hit every spot consistently and couldn’t miss no matter the location.
• More interesting thing – asked of me this time. We had a particular umpire that umpired 3-4 of our games this weekend. He came up to me before game 3 of our 5 game bracket day, “I’m wondering how do you guys continue to do all this winning with no true power hitter(s)?”  Best I could describe it for him was, think of the 2015 World Champions Royals. We keep the train moving. I’ve been really lucky to inherit selfless girls that take care of their business outside of Ambush by bettering their games outside of my time with them.
• It’s all in their body motion – We were playing a team we had a few words with over them trying to overun/dictate our corner of our small warmup area before a game. Our girls were chomping at the bit trying to play them. We had to wait to finish our game and then another game before we’d finally meet up with them. That game ended up 2-2 (which we should’ve won).  Anyways, we met up again with them in bracket when it matters most. It was a 0-0 tie for the first 3 innings. There was one play in particular that set the tone of the tournament in my opinion. 2 outs, top of 3, runner on 1st and 2nd and there’s a single up the middle and coach sends the runner home. MaKenzie Moore threw a ROPE to catcher Camille Davidson for the out at the plate. Of course we were pumped and stoked but in the midst of it all, I managed to pay really close attention to THEM between innings. They came out of their dugout SO slow and each and every one of them WALKED onto the field. Not one person even slightly trotted to their position. Right then and there I knew we had them. the next half inning, the floodgates opened and we scored 8 runs as they simply gave up.
• Did I mention how awesome our defense is: We simply won a game on lack basic techniques on defense by the other team. The entire time when the other team makes a defensive mistake I’m pointing out that’s why we do things this way or that way. The simplest things we do (I’m not telling the mistakes they made) literally allowed us to score 6 runs just because their players weren’t taught or told to do things correctly.
• Goals! For a 1st year team, our goal is to always be at least .500. This year, I challenged our girls to think, “#WhyNotUs?”. With the tougher schedule and opponents this year, we’re comfortably above .500. More closer to .600 I think. Second year goals are always .750 or better. I’ll push that envelope when we get there.
• Did I also mention how dedicated the girls are?: Most of my girls are multi-sport athletes. They work out on their own and train year round and are constantly striving to get better. I look at other teams players through the years and see how their players have matured and although my girls have gotten more mature they’ve all taken great care of their bodies as they’re growing  and reaming in great shape.
• Our defense is awesome: One team we were playing had a ball hit to their SS close to second base and the SS tagged the base and threw to 1st for the double play. Their crowd went CRAZY like either it was their first ever double play or the SS made a SC top 10 play. I was completely baffled by this. This tournament alone we made 2, 6-4-3 double plays (2 in one game) and 1, 4-6-3 double play. That’s not including other types of double plays.

I know. I know… Not a lot about the actual tournament in this segment but these were just my observations over the tournament. However, I’m totally biased and a total homer.

At the end of the day, I feel (and many will agree with me) that we’re one of those teams you don’t want to face in bracket. Rightfully so. Watch us get our asses handed to us in this weekend’s upcoming bracket.

 

#Why not us – Right?

 

 

The scenario – We got beat up pretty bad in the bottom half of the first inning and found ourselves down 7-1 before we could blink. After a scoreless 2nd inning by both teams something happened! Something HAPPENED happened!

There are moments throughout a coaches tenure we’ve all been in where we marvel at other teams and wonder, “why we aren’t doing THAT?” That’s the moment I had in the first inning. Their team was hitting hard shot after hard shot all over the field. I wondered why we weren’t able to stroke the ball with hard line drives like that? After that first inning, we collectively thought that the game was practically over and hopefully we could finish competitively.

NOT THESE GIRLS! Before the 3rd inning these girls must’ve drank a Fortnite “Chug Jug” or something.

Down 7-1 in the top of the 3rd, it started with a single by our #9 hitter, Riley McGovern (Toro). Our leadoff hitter, Khaliana Garrett struck out looking because she wasn’t granted a timeout right before the pitch. Lesson learned – 1 out. Omara Love follows with another single. Katelyn Ravasini (Rav) singles to load the bases. Up comes Camillie Davidson (Millie) with a bases clearing triple. It was a SHOT! Now I’m like, now THOSE are the types of hits I’m seeing from other teams. But I’m still skeptical.

Down 7-4 with Millie on 3rd, Kaylee Diggs singles to drive Millie home. Now it’s 7-5 with 1 out and Diggs is on 1st. Mckenna Lester hits a ROPE double to left center field to plate Diggs. She reaches 3rd on the throw home. 7-6 with still only 1 out. Payton Meyers hard linedrives out for out #2. Pitching change.

Our next batter Holly Stewart is walked on 4 straight pitches. The inning starter “Toro” is walked to load the bases. Khaliana hits a single to center field to score Mckenna and Holly. We’re up 8-7 & I’m still skeptical with the way our bats are going.

So Omara hits a single to move Toro to 3rd and Khali to 2nd basically loading the bases. This brings Rav to the plate with the bases loaded.

Timeout for a backstory – For the 2018 season, Katie was rounding out the bottom of our order while top 3 in leading the team in strikeouts. We started hitting together during the last fall season with a goal of cutting down on strikeouts for upcoming season. We completely changed her swing and after the first lesson she would later admit that she actually cried because it was difficult. However, she bought in. With her being so cerebral, she started to catch on quickly and the muscle memory was coming along exponentially faster than normal students.

She would look really good in lessons so much to the point that I couldn’t wait to see her on the field. Our very first tournament, she went 11/16, 0 strikeouts and quickly moved from 7-8 hitter to anchor the 3 spot. But I was still a little skeptical because anyone can have a great tournament. I’m the type of coach that wants technique right 100% of the time instead of being satisfied with that 10% technically wrong awesome play you made. So we wait and see…

Time back in from backstory – Bases loaded and Rav is up to the plate after already having her 2nd solid tournament at the plate (1 strikeout by this point).

I’m yelling, “STAY HOT #8!” I then turn around to head back to my 3rd base coaches box. Toro asks me the kind of question you call timeout, walk to the circle and occasionally ask a pitcher to take their mind off of their current situation – “If you could have a super power what would it be?” Who asks that?

Anyhow, my response, “I’d will Rav to hit this ball over the fence to score these 3 runs!” She goes, “Really? That’s not a superpower!” I said, “Rav’s about to swing out of her shoes as she loves this moment”.

Toro replied, “Really?”

“Yes!”

I could just tell. She had that look and she lives to be the hero.

I turn around and get ready for the pitch… All of a sudden I get a sudden case of whiplash as I knew it was a goner as soon as it came off the bat. It cleared about 10 feet beyond the 200 fence close to the left field foul pole. 12-7!

Millie ended the inning with another hard liner to RF.

After the game, I asked Rav, was she trying to hit it out? She didn’t want to give me the honest answer knowing I’m a 100% all the time techniques guy but she reluctantly stuck to her guns, “yes!”

I had to explain to her that I told Toro that I knew she’d swing for the fences and it’s ok within reason. I found her trying to do the same thing a game or 2 later and had to reel her back in to stick to technique.

Overall, Rav is 2nd on the team in BA (Omara Love) with a .611 BA, .889 Slugging percentage, 3 strikeouts, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 1 HR & 24 RBI’s through 14 games .

We win the game and eventually fight our way to the championship game by game 4 for the day. We ended up taking second but I couldn’t be more proud of the girls. They realize there’s more specific work we need to do this week at practice and that’s the good part. This is going to be fun.

Be like Rav!

KC Ambush 08, finished the season with a strong weekend outing and on the way to gaining some additional hardware.  I’m REALLY excited about this group as they’re really fundamentally sound offensively and defensively across the board.  They really have fun while making it all look good and seamless.  Of course, what 10 year old team doesn’t have more things they need to work on?  But THIS group right HERE!!!  They’re well on their way to becoming a household name sooner rather than later.

When we began the fall season, we only had one inexperienced pitcher on the roster and we picked up one in hopes of developing her potential to be game ready by next year.  In the mean time, these girls put their heads down and went to work on the practice field.

The first tournament they entered, you could tell they were getting the cobwebs out and it was more of a, “let’s see what we got” mood from coaches on down to players.  This time around we knew what we had and was trying to go to ludicrous speed.

We fell just short of the top bracket (because of a tie) while going undefeated the entire weekend. However, we felt that winning the entire thing was definitely in our realm.

The best compliment we could ever receive… We were in the middle of our semi-final game and afterwards a couple of our fans came over to us and said, “we have to tell you what we just over-heard.  Basically, the coaches (we’d eventually face) were talking while they were looking at our game.  They discussed it’d probably be KC Ambush who we’d play.  They then said, awww man! They don’t make any mistakes and are a good bunting  and aggressive team.”

Talk about motivation! We’re ALWAYS the smallest team on the field EVERY time we play. Their girls were HUGE compared to ours. I pulled the girls over to us close so the other team wouldn’t hear what I was going to say to them before the game.

“Hey girls! Come here!… You see that team over there? They’re HUGE aren’t they?” The girls yelled “YES!”

“Shhhhh! Indoor voices.” So the other team wouldn’t hear.

“That team is scared of you guys, They were overheard saying how good you guys are and that you don’t make any mistakes in the field and how good and aggressive you guys are. Now go SHOW OUT!”

Show out they did indeed. No errors the entire game and a key bunt to pull ahead to a 1-0 lead. Another Double that turned into a home-run when the other team threw the ball around. Eventually, we came away with a 6-0 championship victory.  Excellent weekend the entire weekend with PLENTY to be excited about heading towards next season.

Soon as we ended the championship ceremonies and handed out tournament MVP trophies, the winds and rains pushed us off the field. Perfect timing!

Congratulations girls! You’ve earned everything you’ve gotten.

#KCAmbush #TrustTheProcess #BleedMaroon

 

KC Ambush 07 entered the Olathe Medical Center Fall Invitational over the weekend.

We went in with the expectation of doing well, but we really just wanted to use this tournament to gauge what we needed to work on in our quest for world softball domination.

I don’t know what it is, but Ambush seems to not play to their full potential during pool play.  We won all pool play games but they weren’t won decisively.  I always wonder if it’s us coaches attitudes/demeanor portraying onto them by not demanding enough of them during pool play.  Or if the girls just don’t feel the sense of urgency because they know the pool play games are virtually meaningless.

Whatever the case, the girls tend to “turn it on” in bracket play.  During bracket play, these girls were highly focused.  More so than I’ve ever seen them in the past.  They played some really stellar defense to the point, other teams parents were coming up and bragging on how good they played in the field.

All in all, we came away holding our heads high with the 2nd place finish as we ran across a pitcher that had NO business playing “C” ball.  Despite that, it was an AWESOME experience for the girls that’ll probably motivate them to work harder as I’ll more than likely tell them they’ll face that type of pitching all the time when we move to B going forward.  However, the truth is, they won’t!  The pitcher we faced was a top of the line A pitcher.  Rumor has it she was brought in from out of town for that C tournament.  I hope it’s just a rumor.

Either way, KC Ambush girls played their hearts out and I’m actually glad we got to face that awesome pitcher.  We now know where we stand and what we need to work on.  Things are trending up for ALL Ambush teams.  I’m loving it!

#KCAmbush #TrustTheProcess

One of my favorite KC Ambush 03 players I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching finally got the chance to brag about no-longer having “warning track power”.  During their high school game,  she launched a 2 run opposite field “SHOT!” (from what I hear).

Back story: Kaylee Diggs (P,  CI, OF, 2021) is a consistent power hitter leading our team with 24 extra base hits and is on the fast track to certain stardom.  She has consistently hit the ball close to the fence all year long.  Every time she ends up on 2nd or 3rd, I’d jokingly yell to her, ” you should’ve used a different bat!” or “you only have warning track power!”

8/27/2018 @ 8:51 pm, I received the best text I’ve received in a while…

“I hit a homer! No more warning track power!”

I could sense the excitement in her text as she assured me that’s the very first thing she thought of.  Later in the conversation she admitted she almost caught a “seasonal allergy” at the very moment the ball cleared the fence.

Congratulations Kid! Keep doing YOU! Looking forward to many more (FOR AMBUSH THOUGH)!

Note from dad… “Kaylee is always putting in the extra work with little complaint no matter the day or time.  I don’t know many kids her age with her work ethic.  I’m glad to see it paying off!  YOU earned it kid!”

PGF Midwest Regional Championship – Runner up – out of 66 teams. We were one of 2 teams to receive these shirts.  This has turned out to be one of the best weekends I can recall in a VERY long time.  It validates my thoughts completely that we’re becoming a powerhouse team.  The journey has been AWESOME!

I went into the season wanting to play half 16uA & the tougher tournaments at the 14uA level.  Our season ending total in the win loss column amounts to: 54-25-4 (.683 winning percentage).  I wanted to be .750 at the 14uA level and above .500 at the 16uA level. We’ve surpassed both goals.  I can throw out a bunch of “wow” stats but the proof is in the pudding.  This weekend, before we ended up losing the championship game to a very good Nebraska Gold team, we had only given up 3 total runs in our first 6 bracket games.

Words cannot describe how proud I am of these girls. They’ve consistently put it all together from the start this year.  Not only that… the parental support for these girls has been AMAZING. This is, by far, the best season I’ve had as a coach.  We’re getting to the point, where all I have to do now is fine tune things and not feel so overwhelmed about having to do everything.

These girls make it all worth it!  I know it’s cliche but I really couldn’t ask for a better group of girls (unless another one of them pitched).  Win or lose, we’re doing it TOGETHER and they’re so loyal to each other, they wouldn’t have it any other way. Perfect mixture of great families (not just kids).   The entire week, the parents were getting stopped and complimented about how awesome these girls were.

I wish I could give them more as they deserved every compliment the received.

The best part…

The girls are all huddled up with tears down their faces while trying to make the best of losing the championship game.  I’m giving our season ending speech telling the girls they’ve “done a good job”, they “have absolutely nothing to be upset about as they tried their best”  and “I’m absolutely thrilled about where we are at that moment”. I’m running out of things to say and one player interrupts with, “are you proud of us Roger?”  I wanted to group hug at that point as it made my mindset completely shift from consoling to assurance that I couldn’t be more happier for them.

That question shows that in the midst of their disappointing loss, all they’re worried about is if they made me proud.  The true definition of selfless.  I LOVE MY TEAM!

#kcambush

There you have it… The results of a perfect 8-0 weekend.  These girls played an almost flawless weekend in scoring 53 runs while only giving up 8 in the process.  This is our second complete 14A tournament of the year as we’ve been playing 16A the rest of the time. The other scheduled 14A tournaments have been rained out. The first 14A tournament we played in, we brought home the silver (2nd).

The weekend was a pretty good experience, but what was even more impressive was the fact that the girls stated they never wanted to play 14’s again.  They want to play 16A from here on out because the competition is so much harder & better.

We quickly found out over the weekend that at the 14A level, we look like superstars.  At 16A we’re a smidget above .500 for the season.  Which is about where I expected us to be.

Not only that, but due to our great tournament run for the weekend I was happy to see this beauty on our USSSA team page.

We’re ranked the #1 team in the state at the 14A level and #17 nationally.

It’s a great acknowledgement to own but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a ranking.

We have more 16A things to accomplish before we consider anything a success.  We have a great opportunity to do it in this weekends 16A College Showcase in St. Louis.  That should be a fun/competitive weekend.  Hopefully it won’t be too hot.

For now… Congrats girls!

#kcambush