I believe in keeping promises. Eight years ago, when I was doing research for my Young Adult novel, Fast-Pitch Love, I sought help from Coach Jack Brandenburg of the Worthington Parks and Recreation Softball League. My wife told me that Coach Jack was the go-to guy for anything involving girls softball in Worthington. She was right. Not only did Jack give me some valuable insights to the game, he allowed me to talk with his players and watch them in both practice and competition. He even let me coach first base for an inning.

I used what I learned from Coach Jack and his players to create realistic softball sequences in my novel. Although teenage romance is at the center of the story, softball plays a key role in developing the characters and moving the plot along. The main character, Jace Waldron, is a high school boy who volunteers to help his mother coach a girls softball team, believing that “the girl of his dreams” will also be coaching the team. Needless to say, things don’t work out the way he planned.

I promised Coach Jack that if the book was ever published, I would give my first few royalty checks to the Worthington Rec Center with the stipulation that some of the money be used to support girls softball. Astraea Press (now Clean Reads) published Fast-Pitch Love as an ebook last November, and since then has sent me two royalty checks, totaling about $70. Not long after receiving the second check, I learned with great sadness that Coach Jack passed away last February. The news wasn’t a total surprise; I knew he had been in declining health. I also understood that his passing did not release me from my promise.

Before the end of August, I plan to give a check for $200 to the director of the Worthington Parks and Recreation Center – an amount that represents what I’ve earned so far from sales of Fast-Pitch Love and what I hope to earn over the next year or so. As for Coach Jack, I wish he were alive to see that I kept my promise to him. But it’s satisfying to know that I’m giving a helping hand to the sport that he loved so much and served so admirably.