Randy Fyler has collected a lot of trophies in his 33 years of coaching girls' softball.

Some of Randy Fyler’s softball trophies sit in his basement, collecting cobwebs and dust. His garage contains countless other mementos, but he can’t recall which ones are where.

So it’s easy to believe that the awards that have accumulated over 33 years of coaching girls softball don’t mean much to him.

“To some, it’s pretty cutthroat,” Fyler said. “It’s all wins and losses and blood and guts, and it’s not that way with us. We’ve still been pretty successful just doing it the way we’re doing it.”

The way Fyler and those who work with him do it is by stressing fundamentals and fun.

Fyler is the coach for one of the 18-and-under teams for the Lawrence Phenix, the oldest fast-pitch softball organization in Lawrence. He volunteers his time to the club, working part-time jobs to pay the bills.

And with most of his free time, Fyler focuses on all aspects of youth softball. He schedules it. He watches it. And, most importantly, he teaches it.

The Phenix has softball teams ranging in age from 8-and-unders to Fyler’s 18-and-unders. Barry Johnson, president of the Phenix, said the organization’s low fees and classy attitude help attract players.

“We don’t try to show up the game,” Johnson said. “We’re not bigger than the game. We just like to go out and teach girls the right way to play, and have a good time and have fun while they’re doing it.”

Despite competing in multiple tournaments each season, the club tries to keep costs low by having fundraisers.

Fyler said he can’t remember ever charging more than $250 per player per season. He understands that means his teams may not have matching bags or shoes like other club softball teams.

“We’ll go out there and play in our bathing suits,” Fyler said. “As long as they match.”

Fyler also tries to keep costs low on road trips. En route to a tournament in Wichita a couple of years ago, Fyler found the hotels close to the softball facility much too expensive for his liking.

On a friend’s recommendation, Fyler took the team to an RV park halfway between Wichita and Hutchinson that had cabins out back for $35 a night. He said the girls didn’t mind the odd accommodations and they even fished nearby.

The parents of the players on Fyler’s teams have a lot of control over which tournaments the teams play. To help facilitate a meeting of the parents in early April, Fyler marked up a large desk calendar sheet with bright highlighters, denoting the dates of tournaments this summer from varied associations.

He asked the girls and their parents how many tournaments they wanted to play.

“It’s a democracy,” Fyler said.

Fyler’s 18-and-under team will graduate a lot of players after this summer, so Fyler doesn’t know how long he’ll continue to coach. He said he knows that the nucleus of returning girls will want to keep playing for him, though.

“I think it probably means that we must be doing something right,” Fyler said. “And people must be getting something out of it.”