Norview coach eager to get going in Florida league
Norview High softball coach Rick Thomas is still trying to come to grips with missing out on the entire spring sports season.
“Right up to the end, we were doing Zoom chats and workouts,” he said. “Then March 16 they told us we were on a delay. Then March 30 they told us we weren’t going to have a season.”
But Thomas will get another opportunity to coach as he will serve as an assistant coach in the Florida Gulf Coast League in Sarasota, Florida.
Despite concerns about the coronavirus, the softball league will bring together some of the nation’s top college players in its inaugural season, which begins later this month.
Thomas compared the league to the Cape Cod Baseball League, where many of the nation’s top collegiate players go to Massachusetts to play each summer. That league has canceled its summer season.
Thomas is excited about coaching again.
“To see fresh-cut grass and the smell of clay again, it’s going to be awesome,” Thomas said. “It’s going to be great to be back on the field.”
Thomas was invited to serve as pitching coach by Fast Pitch U head coach Pete Berrios. The two met when Berrios held softball clinics in Hampton Roads. Berrios also has family in the area and previously served as an assistant baseball coach at Bryant & Stratton College in Virginia Beach.
Berrios, now an assistant softball coach at Furman, said he and Thomas built a special bond. When he was named the head coach of the Fast Pitch U team in the FGCL, he asked Thomas to help.
“What really makes him a special coach is he can be detailed but he makes it easy enough for players to understand the process,” Berrios said. “In the softball business, his ability to teach pitching — in my view — is he’s as good as anybody in the country.”
Berrios said the league has taken many precautions to ensure safety.
“They had to go through a lot of parameters,” said Berrios, who also had to go through compliance to be cleared to coach. “We still don’t know where the NCAA is going to be with the college football season. But this has all been approved by the NCAA. There will be parameters built in for health. We’ll be able to check everyone’s health throughout the day and monitor it as well. Everyone is on board. It’s going to be real exciting.”
Thomas said he’s not concerned about health risks.
“It’s been crazy, but things are getting better,” he said. “I’m just pleased and proud that I’m able to do this. It’s a great opportunity for me.”
Players report to minicamp next week, and the season begins the following week.
Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@ pilotonline.com