Imagine, it’s the eighth inning, the score is nine to five your team is losing, you have a runner on second, there are two outs and the umpire calls the game because of daylight. On Tuesday, March third, the varsity girls’ softball team were playing their hearts out against Carmel, when the umpire called the game to an end making it a tie. The girls’ varsity softball team was not happy about this, they knew they could come back in the end. Instead of focusing on the unfortunate ending of the game I asked some of the girls questions to draw their mind away from the pitiful ending.
Isabella Reynolds, a freshman playing varsity in just her first year at the high school, told me this when I asked what the most interesting thing about playing varsity softball as a freshman was, “the most interesting thing about varsity softball is learning more about the game. All the coaches have so much knowledge about the game and hearing them pass it on to us on the field is just super cool and makes me think more.” Also when asked, what one thing her team does when preparing for games and what she was most excited about this season, she gave me two great responses. “One thing that we do preparing for a game is starting warm-ups not totally focused and that’s good because as we go further into our warm-ups we start to dial in and we are all ready to take the field and we are not thinking about a event that happened during the school day because we have already talked about it.” “I am most excited for the future. Our team is super strong and we have a lot of good athletes and coming into the season playing tougher teams is only gonna make us better and learn more. And as we head into the league season it makes me excited to think that we are a threatening team.” Isabella seems to be having a fun time playing with all the older girls on her team, especially when it comes to being able to learn not just from the coaches but also the girls around her.
I also asked Karla Struthers and Margaret Poston, both juniors playing for the Varsity team for their first time, similar questions. Because they are not freshmen and have worked their way through JV and now play on varsity, I asked, what the most interesting thing about playing Varsity softball compared to JV? What was one thing their team does when preparing for games? And, what are they most excited about this season? Both girls gave me great answers. Karla told me, “The most interesting thing about playing on varsity is the intense level of playing and support from the team.” “One thing we do when preparing for games is to focus on picking ourselves and others up.” “I am most excited to grow as a player and make connections with my teammates!”, and Margaret told me, “The most interesting thing about playing on varsity compared to JV is the level of the competition.” “Before our game we like to pump each other up and encourage everyone.” “I am very excited to get to know everyone really well.”
As the season is just getting started for the competitive and hard-working girls let’s make sure to send them all our support in future games by coming and wish them the best of luck on the rest of their season.
By Gia Cusimano
The Claw 