- May 5, 2024
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16U Port Orange Lady Panthers head coach Mike Belus is proud of his team.
Belus likes to keep things loose and teach his players to play to win, as long as the winning is a byproduct of fun.
With a 12-0 win against the 16U Clermont All-Stars, his team qualified for the Babe Ruth World Series in Jensen Beach from July 19-28.
"We talk a lot about how you define victory,” Belus said. “It’s not on the field, it’s making student female athletes better people. That’s the most important thing to me is that they’re better people than when they started.”
We talk a lot about how you define victory. It’s not on the field. It’s making student female athletes better people.
-Mike Belus, 16U Lady Panthers head coach
The city of Port Orange has pledged $13,000 to the team to help them with hotel stays and other expenses. The Lady Panthers are grateful and overwhelmed with their accomplishments to this point.
Coach Belus says they didn’t expect it. This is a fun, competitive team with girls from all over the area from different high schools that come together to do one thing — play softball.
“This team is more about having fun than it is hardcore,” pitcher Payton Bryan said. “We just try to have fun when we play.”
Bryan goes to Atlantic High School, and the team's catcher Kathleen Clifton goes to nearby Spruce Creek High School.
It doesn’t keep them from having a good connection on the field.
“You know in the moment when great moments are happening,” Clifton said. “And we’ve had so many of them that it’s hard to keep track.”
Coach Belus doesn’t have a daughter on the team. His daughter played for one year, but now she’s a ballerina and he couldn’t be prouder.
It has allowed him to keep an objective view of the girls he coaches, and teach them in a way that’s casual and fair.
“I’ve coached all the way up with this team and the main difference is the subject matter they discuss. We’re going from ice cream cones to boyfriends to which kind of cars they want,” Belus said.
The girls play for various high schools around the area and for them, it’s nice to have a team to have fun with.
For the Lady Panthers, this is that team.
“I couldn’t imagine spending my weekends doing anything else than being out at the ball field,” Clifton said.
