Kids say the darndest things. Sometimes, adults can channel that to their advantage.
Youth softball coach Ryan Lynch not only put it to good use, he got 12 girls on his Mission Viejo 14U All-Stars softball team to keep a secret for two weeks.
The plan was to include the team in his marriage proposal to longtime girlfriend Jennifer Waters, whose daughter, Tannin is on the team. It went off without a hitch Wednesday after an All-Stars Western National tournament game in La Habra.
Lynch, 39, gathered the girls for a postgame chat after the 9-7 win over Santa Paula. Waters was with other parents on the third-base side when, suddenly, the girls turned toward the fence and shouted “Jennifer Waters, will you marry Coach Ryan?” before raising their bats and forming a tunnel for Lynch to greet Waters at the chain link fence.
“I’m close to all the girls on the team, so I just thought they needed me for something,” Waters said in an interview Friday. “I was frozen…I completely had no idea and they totally threw me off.”
Waters, 36, could barely say yes as she nodded. Through the fence, Lynch put the ring on her finger.
It was fitting for the Mission Viejo couple, who have been together for nearly five years and have spent most of the past two years on softball fields coaching Tannin, an outfielder.
Pulling something without Waters knowing was a feat in itself, Lynch said.
“She catches us with everything,” he said, “but the whole team kept quiet, and everyone else knew. That was the first time we got her.”
To have Lynch and her daughter join forces made the moment that much more special, Waters said.
“For the two of them to have done this and then having all the girls and the parents here, I am overwhelmed with joy,” Waters said.
Lynch and Waters went to high school together in Germantown, Tenn., but didn’t know each other well because of the age difference, Waters said. The two reconnected in California, and Lynch immediately assumed a fatherly role for Tannin, introducing her to the sport by taking her to a batting cage.
“Ryan has stepped in as her stepdad without making it official,” Waters said. “The girl had never picked up a bat or glove in her life. Ryan worked with her nonstop to make her into a great player.”
After the team finished seventh at state, which qualified it for the Western National tournament, Lynch got the idea to propose during the National tournament.
There was only one thing that could keep that from happening.
“I was getting worried at the end of that game because I didn’t want to do it if we lost,” he said. “It was the perfect moment and having Tannin behind me was huge. It couldn’t have been any more perfect.”
The Mission Viejo 14U All-Stars continue the Western National tournament this weekend. After their win Friday, the girls are 3-0 in the tournament.
“They’ve been playing well as a team,” Waters said, “but I think it’s really made them connect and gel a little more.”
Ryan Lynch and Jennifer Waters proposal from Ryan Lynch on Vimeo.