Coach Fiege is the head coach and manager of the Chesterfield Little League softball team. The team that he coached and managed, Chesterfield Little League, went to the playoffs and made it all the way to the Little League World Series. In order to make it to the Little League World Series the Chesterfield program fought hard and defeated many difficult teams, such as McClain, North Carolina, and Georgia. 

1. What was your focus towards strengthening your team for the World Series as a coach?

So this team had never played together before as a whole so it was thirteen players who most of them knew each other, but we never had all thirteen on the team at once. So I think from the beginning, building team chemistry, getting them to know each other better, getting them to trust each other, and kind of identifying the positions that they would play so that they could focus on those areas are the main aspects I focused on as a coach.

2. What was unique about your team that got them to the World Series?

Well little league is about community. They’re just from Chesterfield; we’re not able to pull players from all of Richmond; we’re not able to pull players from all of Virginia. Within our community, which is a fairly large community, we had a combination of outstanding pitchers, we have a group of outstanding defensive players. We were strong in our centerfield, left field, infield. We were strong in all the positions and we had some really good hitters. I think sometimes in Little League, top to bottom, you might not have all really strong players, and our top to bottom, one to thirteen, we had players that could hit, field, catch, throw, and run. And then they did it in the games and achieved success.

3. Out of this year’s playoffs, what memories will you cherish the most?

To me as a coach it’s more than just softball or whatever sport it is. It’s about the life lessons that they learned, it’s about preparing them for a career, preparing them for raising their own family. And so it’s about teamwork, working within groups, communication skills, and I think they learned that really well and that’s what helped them be successful. For me, personally, coaching a game on ESPN was pretty cool. It’s something I never imagined, never dreamed of. Certainly never told the girls I want to coach on ESPN, so you better win. That’s ridiculous! It just kind of happened. They just kept winning, and then we realized that the next set of games were going to be on ESPN and they did it. So that, for lack of better terminology, was really cool.

4. Was there ever a turning point where you realized that you and your team could make it to the World Series?

When you go back to the Virginia State Championships, McClain has always had a really strong program. And two years ago, when we were a ten under team, six of the girls played on that team where we won the state championship that year. We beat them in a very close game in the semifinals. Then, we played them in the semi finals this year, and won in a very close game. This year it was double elimination not single elimination, so we played them again in the final and beat them again in another very close game. That was probably, until we got to the end of the World Series, the best team we played. I mean, for the southeast region, North Carolina was really good. Georgia was also strong, but McClain was really good and they tested us. Our girls showed that they were resilient and wouldn’t give up. We, in the semifinal game, came from behind to win, so I knew they had the will to win. When we won that Virginia State Championship, I was like we got a real shot to get to the World Series if we keep playing the way we are. We went to the southeast regional and kept playing really well and found a way to pull that off.

As we reflect upon the Softball World Series many Chesterfield residents may be disappointed that our county lost. But it is clear that even through loss we are able to grow, strengthen and improve ourselves.