Why am I this passionate about softball?

In general, sports has always been a part of my life. I started with soccer, like almost everyone else, and then played other sports also. This sport, in particular, has been in my life for a number of years. I started playing when I was 8 years old and I have loved it ever since. I played slow-pitch for three years before moving onto fast-pitch in sixth grade. When I started playing fast-pitch is when I realized how much the game meant to me. I've always been a competitive person and this type of competition really caught my eye. There were a lot of tournament games that I played in, most of them within the tri-state area.



I attended Anderson High School all four years. When you get to high school, there are two options, you either make the junior varsity or the varsity team. I was fortunate enough to make the varsity team as a freshman and I actually got to pitch in games as well. The most memorable game that I remember from that year is when I was given the opportunity to pitch against our arch rivals Turpin High School. I remember being really nervous, knowing that this is one of the games that everyone would remember forever. It was league game, I was put on the spot to lead my team to a victory, and play well against our biggest rival. Long story short, I pitched one of the best games of my freshman year that day. My mom always kept count of my pitches, balls to strikes, and how many per inning. She told me after the game that I only threw 68 pitches for the entire seven innings of the game. If you sit down and think about it, thats roughly 9 pitches per inning. I'm not trying to brag at all, I'm just saying this something that I am proud of.



After my sophomore season, our head coach hired a new assistant coach. She played college softball for four years at the College of Mount St Joseph. She was a great coach. She knew more about the game than anyone. She even knew more than the head coach knew, which wasn't saying much, considering she never played the game in her life. That's besides the point but everyone on the team liked her as a coach. She was the type of coach who would stay after and hit extra ground balls, work on different pitches, throwing drills, etc. She should have been the head coach from the beginning.

After high school, I was recruited by the assistant softball coach to play softball at the College of Mount St. Joseph. I played first base my freshman year and pitched a little bit too. During my sophomore year, myself and another girl split time at first base too. My junior year, I decided not to play because of financial reasons. I was at the point where it wasn't any fun anymore and I just didn't want to be there anymore. So I made one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. I realized that paying bills is more important than playing intercollegiate softball for a division III school. I don't regret my decision but I do miss it. Now, I just play slow-pitch softball for fun.