Editor’s note:  Clinton High School principal Jerry Wayne recently received the following letter.

Dear Mr. Wayne,

Our West Central Cougars Softball team played against your girls on Saturday in Springfield. I just wanted to take a moment and compliment you on your coaches and players.  

My daughter went to catch a ball in center field and hit the fence and was down for quite some time.  Once the ball was called dead, I went out to see how bad she was hurt.  Long story short, we had to clean up the blood and patch her up before she could get up and walk back to the dugout.  

While this was going on, your coaches and players took a knee and stayed that way until she got up and walked off the field.  What an amazing show of sportsmanship!

I have coached a lot of ball from summer leagues, little league, travel and school ball.  It is rare to find a team that shows that kind of respect and I am very proud to say we got to play such a classy group of girls.

After the game, I was talking to the coach, and one of the players made sure to come up and ask me how my girl was doing.  You have a great program with a great group of girls and coaches.  To be honest, I could have visited with them for a long time.

Kudos to your girls, coaches, parents and staff.  These girls are going to be so much more than “just softball players” one day.  I’ll be proud to say this one time when we played them.

 Sincerely,

Kandice Kunkel

WCC Head Softball Coach