FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
Baseball league honors longtime coach, ump LaToss Carpenter
BY SUZANNE LOUDAMY Staff writer

LaToss Carpenter

It's a wonderful thing when your passion is fun and it helps someone else along the way. That has been true in the life of LaToss Carpenter.

She was honored Saturday for that dedication to her passion: the game of baseball. Friends, family, current and former players and coaches as well as community were on hand as Glen Graves, Whitehouse Baseball League board member, revealed the sign renaming field number three. The diamond bears a new name: LaToss Carpenter Field.

"LaToss has given so much of herself to the kids of Whitehouse," Graves said. "She's taught them pride, honor and dignity."

Carpenter coached girls' softball from 1986 to 1996. She was instrumental in starting girls' fast pitch in Whitehouse. During her 10 years of coaching, her teams from 1988 to 1991 were state champs with the 1994 team being runner up. All of her teams, except that very first year, made the playoffs.

"I grew up on the softball field," Carpenter said. "My mom was a tremendous softball player."

Carpenter's coaching went well beyond the dugout. When Kristi Jack came along and Carpenter began the task of teaching her to pitch, it was evident that Kristi had a true talent that just needed some honing. Carpenter would drive her to Dallas to a pitching coach. She soon convinced that pitching coach that he should drive to Whitehouse and teach here a couple of days a week. And he did.

All those years in the dugout brought Carpenter home. To home plate that is. She has been umpiring for 10 years. She has served as umpire-in-chief for eight years. Even with this job, she still teaches. She trains high school students to be umpires.

"This is a great summer job for these kids and they learn so much," Carpenter said. "It teaches them responsibility and the importance of being fair."

Carpenter's years of teaching are not just on the baseball diamond. Twenty-plus years of teaching have been in the classrooms of Whitehouse ISD. She taught reading at Whitehouse Middle/Jr. High for 20 years before retiring and then returned to teach part time.

"LaToss loves kids and that is why she has done so much for the Whitehouse Baseball League over the years," Jon Sheppard, baseball coach and friend, said. "Her job as head of umpires is pretty much a thankless job with a lot of complaints, but she knows how to handle and deal with people and that is why she is so good at it. No one deserves to have a field dedicated to them more than LaToss. I was so happy for her because it meant so much to her."