Many coaches, parents and players involve themselves in recreations sports to experience the thrill of victory.

For the Grasshoppers of the Troy Darlings softball league, however, this softball season is all about fun.

“We just want to keep having fun, and hope nobody gets hurt,” said head coach Donna Copeland. “If we can just keep their focus and make sure they’re paying attention, we should be able to do that.”

One of the challenges for Copeland the rest of the Grasshoppers in ensuring a fun-filled, injury-free season is the age of the players.

The Darlings is traditionally a 7 and 8-yera old age division, but this year the league skews a bit younger.

“This is a 7 and 8-year-old league, but we’ve got some 6-year-olds out here too, so that adds some challenges to it,” Copeland said.

Since the girls are so young, the practices are often reduced to the most basic fundamentals, namely batting.

“We usually spend most of our time working on hitting,” Copeland said.

“Unfortunately, that usually takes up the whole hour just to get everybody a few pitches.”

Those hour-long practices have been enough for the Grasshoppers to play their way to a 2-2-1 record coming into Tuesday’s play.

“They’re a good group of girls,” Copeland said. “Compared with other teams in the league, I think we look pretty good.”

While the team is happy to have had the success it has had so far, Copeland was quick to point out that it isn’t all about winning.

“They’re young, but they’re having fun, and that’s all that really matters,” Copeland said.