A Preview of the Coconuts Softball Program
An introductory story about the Elite Softball Training program launching alongside baseball, what it will offer, who it is for, and why a dedicated girls and women’s softball program matters in this community.
When the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club laid out its athletic blueprint, the word “softball” was never an afterthought tucked into the fine print. It was in the name from day one.
And, for Lerma Moore — the club’s general manager, a sitting Kagawad on the Cambanac Barangay Council, and one of the driving forces behind everything the Coconuts are building — that was a deliberate statement about who this program is for. Not just the boys. Not just the future MLB prospect. The girls, too, get the diamond.
The Coconuts are now in the process of building out a full Elite Softball Training program to run in parallel with the club’s baseball operations. Six competitive age levels. A professional coaching search already underway.
It’s a vision that stretches from four-year-old beginners taking their first swings in the Rookie League all the way to high school seniors being prepared for college recruitment pathways.
In Barangay Cambanac, on a tropical island in the Philippines where organized female athletics have historically lacked institutional support, that scope is extraordinary.
“Cambanac Kagawad Lerma Moore is committed to providing more educational and sports opportunities for local girls. This program is her commitment made real on the diamond.”
Filipino Female Athletes Are Already Among Asia’s Best. They Just Need the Field.
There is a foundational truth that anchors everything the Coconuts are doing on the softball side of the program: the talent is already here. Philippine national teams in women’s softball have consistently performed at a high level on the international stage.
Filipino female athletes have the athleticism, the competitive instinct, and the cultural drive to compete with anyone. What they have often lacked are the local infrastructure, professional instruction, and organized pathways to develop that talent from a young age.
That is exactly the gap the Coconuts softball program is designed to close. By establishing structured youth levels in Cambanac — starting as young as age four — and by actively recruiting a credentialed elite fastpitch pitching coach to lead the program, the club is planting the kind of institutional roots that last for generations.
“The talent, the drive, and the passion are already here in the Philippines. We just need the right leader on the mound to unlock what these girls can become.”
Six Levels. One Pipeline. A Path From First Swing to College Recruitment.
The youth softball program follows the same age-group progression model as the club’s baseball operation — a deliberate choice that treats girls’ athletics with the same structural seriousness.
Each level is designed to deliver age-appropriate instruction while building toward the next stage, rather than repeating the same content year after year.
The goal is a clear, uninterrupted pipeline: a girl who enters the Coconuts program at four years old should, if she develops and stays engaged, reach the Seniors level as a genuinely prepared competitive player.
All six youth softball levels carry a seasonal registration fee of just ₱100 — one of the most affordable entry points in organized youth athletics anywhere in the Philippines.
Registration includes uniform use, equipment access, and professional coaching. Scholarship programs, payment plans, and family discounts are also available.
“We are building a program that empowers young athletes through teamwork — giving every girl, regardless of her family’s income, the chance to compete at the highest level she can reach.”
The Club Is Searching for the Right Coach. The Right Coach Will Change Everything.
The most urgent operational priority for the softball program right now is securing its lead instructor. The Coconuts are actively recruiting a former collegiate female fastpitch pitcher — ideally someone aged 22 or older — willing to commit to a six-to-twelve-month assignment beginning in July 2026.
The posting is specific about the mission. This person will not simply run practice drills. They will build the pitching program from scratch, develop the club’s catchers and hitters alongside it, and most critically, train local Filipino female coach trainees to carry the program forward independently once the volunteer’s assignment concludes.
That last piece is what separates this from a standard volunteer coaching role. The Coconuts are not looking for a temporary fix. They are looking for someone whose teaching becomes embedded in the fabric of the community — passed from one generation of coaches to the next, right there in Cambanac.
“If we can develop an abundance of elite pitchers, we can develop elite hitters and have an elite program.” — Sports Director/Head Baseball Coach Merv Moore
Full Immersion. Full Support. A Real-Life Adventure.
The Coconuts are not asking a prospective coach to arrive on Bohol Island with nothing but a glove and a prayer. The club provides full room and board, ground transportation, high-speed internet, official club uniforms, and guided tours of the island.
The flexible practice and training schedule is also designed to leave large blocks of time open for personal pursuits — making this an ideal setup for a digital nomad, a content creator, or anyone who wants to build something of their own while also building something for a community halfway around the world.
The club is candid that this is not a standard assignment. Bohol is a breathtaking island, but it is also a raw tropical environment — one where pythons, spitting cobras, and the King Cobra share the jungle with the people who live there.
The posting describes it as a real-life “Survivor” setting, and the Coconuts say they want exactly the kind of coach who finds that prospect energizing rather than alarming. The adventure is part of the deal.
“This assignment is for the bold, the adaptable, and the adventurous. If that excites you rather than scares you, you are exactly the kind of coach we want leading our girls.”
More Than a Season. A Legacy Built on the Dirt in Cambanac.
It would be easy to look at the Coconuts softball program as an add-on to the headline baseball mission — the part of the press release that mentions inclusion without deeply meaning it. But the structure of what the club is building makes that reading impossible to sustain.
The six-level progression, the ₱100 registration fee, the active global search for an elite pitching coach, the explicit commitment to training local Filipino women to eventually run the program themselves — these are not symbolic gestures. They are organizational investments.
Lerma Moore’s dual identity as club GM and elected barangay official is again the through-line. She is not building a softball program for optics.
The Boholano native is building it because she is responsible for the girls of Cambanac in two distinct official capacities simultaneously. What happens on that diamond will reflect back on everything she has promised the community from both of those chairs.
“We aren’t just building players. We are building a legacy — directly training local Filipino female coach trainees to carry the torch long after the program is established.”
The Bohol Coconuts have always said their mission is to develop the first native-born Filipino Major League Baseball superstar. But the longer you look at what they are actually constructing in Cambanac — the soup kitchen, the gardens, the livestock program, the six-level softball pipeline — the clearer it becomes that the superstar is almost a symbol for something larger.
The club is building a community that believes in itself through sport. And for the girls of this barangay who have never had a diamond of their own, that belief is arriving right on schedule.
