MOSES LAKE — The Central Washington Sixers have announced tryout dates for their new start-up program for select softball for 10U, 12U and 14U. The 10U tryouts will be 5-7 p.m. July 31, and the tryouts for 12U and 14U will be Aug. 4 at the Six Athletic Training Facility.

“It’s going to be an opportunity for these girls to just come out and show us what (they’ve) got,” said Emma McKay, Central Washington Sixers General Manager of Softball.

McKay said the overall structure for the Sixers is based around developing athletes physically, mentally and emotionally. With the success of the baseball players over the years, the Sixers decided it was time to do the same for softball.

“If you’ve ever seen the teams play, I highly recommend it,” she said. “They’re a lot of fun to go out and watch because you see so much of these disciplines show up on the field. Seeing that happen on the baseball side (made us realize) that we really want to start something similar ... on the softball side.”

Being based in a rural area means that statistically the athletes have a high potential to go to school and then come back into the community, said McKay. With the number of talented softball players in the area, the Sixers thought it would be beneficial to provide those players with the opportunity to learn from the Sixers programs.

“As we start thinking about what we want fed back into our community, we want a lot of these characteristics and disciplines that can be learned while having a lot of fun being good at a sport,” she said.

McKay said the tryouts will be operated like a large group practice where each player will be evaluated on their abilities to run, throw, hit and their understanding of the basics of the game. Another part of the tryouts will be observing how players interact and communicate with those around them.

One aspect that the Sixers want to instill in their players is remembering that while it should be taken seriously, it is also a sport, and they should have fun while playing, she said.

“If you’re not having fun doing it then we’re probably doing something wrong,” said McKay.

Players who make it onto the teams will have local tournaments and will also spend a lot of weekends travelling to tournaments outside of the area, she said. Because of this, the program is weekend-based as opposed to having games throughout the week.

McKay said the main thing that players can expect throughout the season will be consistency. Coaches, directors and McKay herself will all provide consistent expectations and opportunities to develop.

“They’re going to have a lot of opportunities to develop not only physically, but in the mental aspect as well,” said McKay. “Softball is an incredibly emotional sport, like, you get out one minute and then you hit a home run the next. That is something that we want to prepare our athletes for.”

The game of softball, like baseball, is based on the idea that most of the time, even the best players aren’t perfect, which is something that she said is important to instill into the players as they train for their sport.

“Even statistically, a hall of famer in baseball hitting over .300, he’s striking out or not getting on seven out of 10 times,” said McKay. “That’s our sport, we’re playing a sport of failure so how do we approach that?”

For anyone interested in trying out, McKay said to register on their website, thesixtrainingfacility.com, check out the Central Washington Sixers Facebook page or contact the Sixers at 509-761-4910.