Softball Camp Teaches Youngsters About the Game of Life

It’s not whether you win or lose it’s how you play the game.

The three dozen-plus girls who spent all this week batting, hitting and running bases at the Little League Field in the Softballstarz camp each got to walk away with that important lesson.

Heights' Leslie Korkgy-Valenti of the All Starz Clinic once again hosted Softballstarz camp for girls this week.

It’s the fifth year she’s hosted the 4-day camp which works with girls on all the fundamentals of the game giving them a chance to focus on things like hand-eye coordination for example that they don’t have a chance to do while they are playing the game regularly, says Korkgy-Valenti. 

Once again she brought in guest speakers to talk to the young players sharing their insight on the game. 

On Tuesday former pro-softball player Lisa Iancin talked to the girls about her career and how softball led her to many great opportunities in life from getting school scholarships to being able to play ball in Italy. She went on to play for the national Fast Pitch league and won two championships. She currently works as director of corporate sponsorship for the New York/New Jersey Comets team.

Iancin gave the girls a real pep talk about how important it is to learn from one’s mistakes and just keep going. 

“Every strike gets you one step closer to your next homerun,” said Iancin who told them to welcome every failure as the more one does the more one will learn from those mistakes. 

Iancin showed the girls she started out just like them playing softball for recreation team. In high school she played varsity and later it led to a full college scholarship and later to playing on a pro-ball league. Back when she was a youngster playing recreation softball she had no idea it would lead her to where she is today but she showed the girls that the game can lead one to opportunities like she was able to experience.

She told them to remember that “what you do can take you somewhere.”

Korkgy-Valenti opened All Starz clinic which is based in Lodi about four years ago and it serves girls from all over the surrounding area.

She holds this camp each summer for one week coaching the girls along with a staff of 14 others who take part in the camp.