Bruce Richardson led his So Cal Athletics 18U team to a third place tie at PGF Nationals which would be cause for a ticker-tape parade for most teams, but it was the first time in five years the A’s hadn’t won the National Championship so, not surprisingly, he wasn’t thrilled with the outcome.

Still, the organization won PGF titles at 16U Premier and 12U and the A’s array of nearly two dozen teams looks as strong, if not stronger from top to bottom, than it has ever been.

Richardson’s first foray into softball began 28 years ago when he began coaching his daughter, Shannon, when she was eight years old. She ended up going to Seton Hall and Bruce continued coaching long after she left.

Today, the coach has four grandchildren that keep him busy: three from Shannon (Peterson) who are 15, five and four and a baby girl who’s 6 ½ months via his son, Brad, who’s now 32. Both live locally in Southern Calif. allowing Grandpa Bruce ample time to play.

I spoke with the enormously successfully head coach as he was driving to have dinner at the Lazy Dog restaurant in Anaheim with a half dozen other A’s coaches—something he does every Tuesday night and has done for nearly a decade.

Here are some of the topics we covered…

 

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FullCountSoftball.com: Looking back on the summer, the 18U team tied for 3^rd at PGF Nations but A’s teams won 16U Premier and 12U and came in second at 14U Premier… your assessment?
Bruce Richardson: I think as a whole the organizational did great. I don’t think there has ever been an organization finish like that and we are very proud of including having a 14U team finish first at ASA in San Diego the following weekend after PGF Nationals with another taking third as a first-year 14U team.

FCS.com: How about your 18U team, happy to finish Top 3 or disappointed you didn’t “five-peat?”
BR: If you would have told me we’d have come in third at PGF after how we played at Boulder I’d have laughed. We just didn’t pitch very well for most of the summer, but I’m still not thrilled with the fact we didn’t win it all, that’s why you play. Still, I am satisfied for the kids because their summer hadn’t gone how we’d hoped, but the final run was good for the kids and we have seven of the starters coming back so it’s a positive way to carry momentum into next year.

FCS.com: You had an organizational meeting on Sunday with all 21 So Cal A’s teams… how did that go?
BR: It went very well, we have a very enthusiastic and good group of people with a mix of young coaches and those who’ve been doing this for several years. And they asked a lot of questions which I liked. I had a pretty long agenda to cover at the meeting, a lot of odds and ends, and one of my topics that is becoming more and more important for the sports is team financing. How, especially at the younger ages, people are under-financing teams and how the costs have gone up, entry fees have increased and some of the younger divisions at the recruitable 14U and 16U ages are not used to that. That was the main topic—everybody trying to save costs, but you have to be smart for your team. With the higher entry fees we’re getting into, at tournaments where you used to pay $300 or $400 you’re know paying $1,500. If you’re not aware or ready for that, you leave your team exposed financially and have to go back to your players’ parents so we talked about getting good budgets up front to prevent that.

FCS.com: To what do you attribute the great success the A’s organization has had from top to bottom?
BR: I think a lot of it is luck, just simply having the right teams involved. I have the mindset that I don’t just take any team or coach, I’m pretty selective on teams that we take in the organization. This (running the A’s) is not a full time job for me so I have to balance both jobs and the more people involved, the more conscious I have to be of overseeing all the teams, coaches and players. We could have had 15-20 more teams but didn’t want that. the people we’ve added we have known the coaches and the people, for example, the have a younger daughter played on another team and we bring them in. It’s not that we just took strangers.

FCS.com: So you’re saying you’ll cap the number of teams and won’t be big and national in coverage like the OC Batbusters, Firecrackers or Beverly Bandits have done?
BR: I don’t mind those that do it bigger, that’s fine with me, and I don’t have any ill will towards those people who can do it on a big scale. Maybe when I retire that will be for me, but right now I have a pretty high-profile job in a good-sized company, I’m VP of Construction in a large commercial concrete and masonry company (GBC), and I have to make sure there’s balance in my work and softball lives.

FCS.com: Is there one overall riding philosophy you have that all your coaches follow or believe in?
BR: We believe in doing things with class and the right way, treating people how we want to be treated. I was talking in our meeting about how the quickest way to be passed and get left behind in an organization is to treat umpires, other coaches, and event producers in a bad way. For the most part, we have done a pretty good at it although we had a high profile, sad situation a year ago at this time (a coach was dismissed for inappropriate texts with a player) and the team came out stronger. The guy was guilty of a horrible thing and we did our best to make it right and move forward. I think we did that.

FCS.com: What do you think about the state of softball right now, are you happy with how it’s going or concerned about the sport’s future?
BR: Overall, I’m happy. The recruiting end is getting more and more confusing and a lot tougher. The higher end caliber of player is fine, but the middle and lower end of the spectrum of players are having a tougher time than they used to. Still, I firmly believe that if everyone works hard, it will work out in the end. There’s a place for everyone in the sport, I firmly believe that. Overall, it’s not where it should be or needs to be, in party because there are so many teams that it’s making hard for girls to get noticed. Another issue is the high school situation where they play year-round—this isn’t a good thing for these kids. I was always sensitive to the time they placed in high school and club and made sure to not overwork them in spring practice, but now high schools are diving into our territory and I think there are negatives there including overuse injuries.

FCS.com: Off the field, and when you have spare time, what do you like to do?
BR: I’m not sure what that is anymore! I used to play golf a lot, now I hang out with my grandkids. I’m with my wife, Elizabeth, more now too. Twice a year we get out of the country, but that’s part business as well. We just got back from a trip to Canada. In the winter time we go to the Caribbean, but other than that my spare time is taken up with softball, especially the weekend.

FCS.com: A question I love to ask players, I’ll ask you: what’s one thing unusual or different about you that most people don’t know?
BR: I’d have to say it’s that I have been with the same lady for 41 years, we just had our 39^th anniversary and I just turned 59. Elizabeth was 17 when we got married –she was 15 when we met – which is younger than many of the kids I coach now which is wild to think about!To get married we had to get written permission from her mom and dad. That’s something you don’t see much anymore!