My Journey as a Softball Player
My story begins on a Monday afternoon. I ran off the bus after a fun first day of Kindergarten. I greet my Nanny with nothing but joy and happiness; little did I know. I would look forward to this for the rest of my childhood. My Nanny and I would play any and every sport until my mom got home from work. We would play basketball, whiffle ball, kick ball, or even just toss the football around a while. My favorite game to play with her was Wiffle ball. It was so fun getting to crush the ball and run until she got me out, or I got a home run. This is where my love for softball began. My story continues through elementary school. I started playing recreational softball for Enon. I met my first softball coach, Steve Howard.
He has taught me so much in my career, I remember it rained one afternoon and everyone thought we wouldn‘t have practice. but we did. We learned how to slide in mud puddles My teammates and I had so much fun. but our parents were not happy about how dirty we were. Coach Steve took us all home in the bed of his truck. I made lifelong friends that day. Coach Steve really pushed me to want to get better and to take my skills beyond recreational softball. Eventually, I did just that. I had a tryout for the Richmond Ruckus when I was 10 years old. I made the 12u team! I was the youngest and most inexperienced player on the team. I had to work very hard to earn a starting spot. I, unfortunately, didn’t achieve that goal, so my parents and I decided to leave the team and let me play at my age joined the Rampage and learned a lot and my skills progressed a ton.
It was a good choice to make the move and play with age for a while because I ended up getting picked by a team that was more experienced and led to better opportunities than the team I was on. My new team was called the Virginia Edge, one of the best teams in Virginia at the time All my teammates were significantly better than I was, but I worked extremely hard. I eventually earned my starting spot on the team. My fielding skills had improved tremendously and I owe it all to one man, Coach Corey. My hitting skills were still really behind everyone else’s. So I got a batting coach, Todd Morgan. He worked with my hitting and began to improve. Everything was going really well, I was a starter and got plenty of playing time Until tryouts the next year, we picked up a new pitcher who also played my position. She had nowhere near the talent I had in the field but her hitting was more consistent than mine.
My play time started to decline more and more. At this time we had changed our name to Starz Gold and our coach was just getting a little to big for his britches, bringing on more players than needed and just constantly trying to replace people with talent he thought was better than what he had. I then decided to jump ship again and tryout for more teams. I decided that I should join a team that was at the same caliber or higher than my previous team. So, I decided to join my previous teams biggest rival, The Richmond Diamonds. The young, dumb inexperienced player that I was, I decided that I should show off my huge arm I had at the timer I ended up getting hurt, which put me out for awhile. I was diagnosed with deltoid tendinitis.
I couldn‘t throw which meant I could not play That gave my other teammates a chance to take my position. My coaches never gave me the chance to prove myself once I was healthy again, so it was time to move teams once again. At this point, I was getting very discouraged like maybe I am not as good as I thought I was. I did not know what my next move was going to be. One day my mom got a call from one of her friends letting her know that her daughter’s team was looking to fill my position. So, I decided I would tryout for the Sarasota Heal. I was so nervous that my arm would not work or be good enough for this team. Turns out it was, and l was officially a pan of Sarasota Heat 16u— Pope, I was super stoked about being on this team because the girls were very welcoming and Coach Tommy created a much more relaxed atmosphere than all my previous teams.
I began to become the all-round player I needed to become to be recruited to play softball in college. Coach Tommy and Coach Alexis introduced me to my dream school. The crazy thing was that at the time I did not realize it was my dream school at the time. I kept improving my bat and my arm strength, things began to look up for me and my future career in softball. I committed to Christopher Newport University in January my Sophomore year. In my junior year moved up to our 18u Sarasota Heat team and had one of the best seasons of my life. I hit a total of six home runs, from Thomas Dale softball and my travel team. That brings me to the current date of my last season of travel softball. My first tournament didn‘t go as well as last season ended but I‘m excited to get after it and make my last season very memorable. I‘m excited about what my future softball career holds for me.
