There’s all kinds of softball dads. Those who are at the ballpark hours before the first pitch, ensuring the fields are in playing shape. Those who loudly make their presence known. And those who quietly sit in a lawn chair, far up the baseline, by themselves.
Peg Squazzo of Rensselaer, president of the Capital District Softball Umpires Association for almost two decades, said as long as she’s been involved in umpiring and coaching, the dads of softball have had an uncanny dedication to the sport and especially to their daughters on the field.
“They are heavily involved, for sure,” Squazzo said. “The daddy-daughter relationships on the softball fields are close. They all want to coach their daughters, especially the dads of pitchers, because they think no one can coach them better.”
The fathers of pitchers are a special breed, probably the result of sitting on plastic buckets for hours at a time helping their daughters master their windmill deliveries.
I asked Olivia DeCitise, who just put an exclamation mark on a fabulous career as a star pitcher for Troy High School, how her relationship with her dad Chuck DeCitise evolved through the years. DeCitise led her team to two consecutive sectional championships and to the state finals this year.
She was named the Suburban Council 2023 Player of the Year. The Flying Horses lost in the state finals, but as the lone senior on the team, DeCitise made it back in time for prom after a 4-0 loss to Section IV powerhouse Maine-Endwell.
In a phone interview, she offered thanks to her support system: her dad and mom, Stephanie LaMora, and all her coaches. And with Father’s Day approaching, her focus was on dad.
“He played an extremely big part in my career,” she said. “From bringing me to tournaments that are four hours plus away, bringing me to my camps, buying new bats, buying new gloves….
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