Josh Miller and Lisa Smith got involved in coaching softball for the same reason: It was for their children. 

“Softball is my daughter’s favorite sport,” explained Miller. 

So, last year when his daughter Blythe’s coach stepped down, Miller decided to take over despite his lack of experience. “I haven’t played baseball since I was in middle school. Pretty sure I got cut from the team in seventh grade,” he recalled, laughing. “So, I just sort of hit the ground running.”

Miller oversees Boothbay’s Major League team. Softball is split into two divisions: Minor League (typically ages 5-11), and Major (ages 9-12), although due to a lack of numbers, some girls play for both teams. 

Smith started coaching due to her twins, Izzy, and Abby LockeSmith’s, involvement in the sport. She began as an assistant coach for Boothbay, but switched to Wiscasset due to its lack of a coach, and currently oversees a combo Boothbay/Wiscasset Minor team. 

“I didn't want the girls to not have the same opportunity (as Boothbay),” said Smith. “Town does not matter to me. What matters to me is just getting these girls out there and having fun.”

The girls have so much fun, they often don’t realize they’ve won – and Smith’s team is currently undefeated. “They're not playing it just to win, they're playing it because they're enjoying it. And that's what I love to see. I just love to see the love of the sport and see these kids doing something besides being stuck on phones, or tablets.”

Both coaches have found ways to keep kids engaged and off their phones. Smith has even integrated her players’ tech-saviness into her coaching style, encouraging them to watch videos on their off days to help them with techniques they may be struggling with.

This goes back to Smith’s and Miller’s shared goal of getting more kids involved and seeing the program flourish. 

Boothbay Region High School (BRHS) hasn’t had a school-run softball team for almost a decade. According to Miller, the softball field is also an issue. It has not been maintained. A few years ago, the dirt infield was filled in with grass to accommodate the field hockey program. There has been some thought to potentially sharing the baseball field, but Miller isn’t sure this would work due to the logistical differences between each sport’s field set-ups. Meanwhile, according to Smith, Wiscasset’s varsity team was recently recategorized as JV due to decreased players. 

But Miller is optimistic about the numbers to create an official middle school team in Boothbay, and eventually a high school team. If not, daughter Blythe only has one more year before she’s potentially done with her favorite sport. 

For Smith, the long-term solution to the numbers problem is combining teams. “Watching my girls' sports struggle because there's not enough of them to keep it going is really sad. It's sad to watch these programs just kind of disappear.” 

In the meantime, players from both Miller’s and Smith’s teams are trying out for spots on the all-star teams. A summer of state tournaments may be ahead.