Revolution Fastpitch was awarded a grant from the Minnesota Twins Community Fund Youth Coaching Grant Program for the summer 2022 season.  The Youth Coaching Grant Program is open to nonprofit organizations  to assist youth baseball and softball organizations in recruiting coaches for the youth teams in their leagues. The grants help organizations augment their programs by providing a stipend to high school and college students to serve as coaches for youth teams. The program is intended to get high school and college students interested in coaching youth baseball and softball while supplying them with a summer job.

Revolution's board of directors have made it a priority to help encourage young adults to get into coaching.  Programs like the Youth Coaching Grant allow non-profit organizations like ours be able to offer young coaches an opportunity to try out coaching as their summer job.

Through the funds provided by the Youth Coaching Grant Program, Revolution was able to hire Amanda Shipley and Ellie Sather as assistant coaches for the 16U Blue team for the summer 2022 season.  Both are former  Revolution players, both are Rockford High School graduates and both continued their softball careers in college. 

Amanda and Ellie brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with our 16U Blue players.  It was a great experience for the players on the team to be able to learn from other young, female athletes that love the game of softball. In addition, Amanda and Ellie were able to give back to a sport that has been a big part of their lives.

I’ve had the pleasure being a part of the Revolution program two years as a coach. A little bit about myself, I am a college junior who enjoys being outside, and of course playing softball. I have been playing softball for the majority of my life, with Rockford Athletics, Crow River Revolution and UW-Stout. I had decided to walk away from the game last summer and it was a difficult decision, but I have been given another chance by being a coach. 

Coaching has been the highlight of my last 2 years. I enjoy working with the girls and seeing them push each other to be better, while still having a great time. I also try to maintain a healthy, balanced environment for these players to do their best. I feel that a coach should be a safe, approachable role model, which I hope I have achieved.

Thank you Twins Community Fund and Revolution Fastpitch. - Amanda Shipley

I would first like to thank The Twins Community Fund for their generosity in supporting us as coaches. I am a Rockford High School graduate and currently play softball at Colorado Christian University. I grew up playing basketball, softball and ran cross country. Looking back, I have always been so appreciative of all that past and current coaches do for the teams and programs that I have been a part of. 

I am super grateful for the opportunity I had to coach the Revolution this summer. The team culture and environment has been so great to be a part of.  Coaching this team has been an overall positive and enjoyable experience. I am so glad that I was able to coach girls in my community or surrounding communities! - Ellie Sather

A big thank you to the Minnesota Twins Community Fund for creating programs like the Youth Coaching Grant, for selecting Revolution Fastpitch as a recipient, and to Amanda and Ellie for all their time and energy given to the players on the 16U Blue team and the Revolution program!