The Chaperone

In addition to her involvement as a coach, Deb has also had the opportunity to enjoy baseball from a different perspective – that of a chaperone. She has chaperoned youngsters during various baseball related trips for the past few years. One of her first experiences in this role occurred during the summer of 2002, when she watched over some of the younger members of Team WBL during one of the team’s tours. During this event, the team traveled to five different locations (Cooperstown, Cape Cod, New York City, Pawtucket, and Toronto) to run clinics and play in all-star games.

That same year, Deb traveled to Geelong, Australia with Team WBL to participate in the International Women’s Baseball Championships. The following summer, she went to Yamaguchi, Japan for the World Children’s Baseball Fair. For the past few years, she has also been chaperoning girls at the Girls-N-Sports camp in Orlando, Florida.

When asked about her which of her chaperoning experiences was her favorite, Deb replied that each memorable in its own way. She said:

“Japan was memorable simply because of the culture shock and being responsible for these young kids who I had just met prior to boarding the plane! It was amazing that children from so many different countries could come together like that with baseball as a common factor.

Australia was just amazing as a tourist! I can’t wait to be able to go back again. They have a strong women’s baseball program there. We were very well received. That was the first time I chaperoned teenagers – that was very enlightening!

The WBL tour was cool. We traveled by bus from Toronto to Cooperstown to Pawtucket to Boston to New York City. It was kind of cool to think that it was how the AAGPBL teams used to travel (except we had a nicer bus with a VCR!).

I’ve been taking groups down to Orlando for the last couple of years to do the Girls-N-Sports clinics with the Girl Scouts of Florida and AAU. That is a great event to give back to the community and show young girls what they can do someday.”