Seven Days Before DC's Florida Road Trip

So... SEVEN MORE DAYS until our first game at Centre College!! We are all counting down the days and getting anxious for our first game. Our theme of the week is Industriousness. Industriousness means diligent and hardworking, someone who is earnest and makes a steady effort. By doing ordinary things well, one can have extraordinary results. Individually, we are average but collectively we are extraordinary because of our industriousness. Over the next week, as we prepare for our first game, we need to work hard on the little things to make ourselves better so we can have extraordinary results.

The seniors had to come up with a challenging team building activity for last Saturday. It was all about accountability within the team, on the playing field and off the field. After the activity, they read us our mission statement. Every day before practice, we read this to prepare ourselves for the upcoming season. This is a statement that we all need to abide by to achieve what we want this season. We also got "buddies" to make sure we all hold ourselves accountable to each other on the team.

Saturday is our team retreat. During the retreat, we usually play multiple games (dodge ball, hide-and-seek), have team building activities and talk about the Florida trip. We get to find out what we have been waiting for all pre-season. OUR ROOMMATES! As the anticipation grows, we are still working hard at 5:00 a.m. Stay Tuned for another update before our Florida trip!

Katie Miller, Ashley Switzer, Gloria Basinger

Ridinger and Samples Discuss the Preseason

So….We are all really excited about our trip to Florida in less than three weeks! As of Friday, we have 11 practices until the big game down at Centre to begin our journey to the HCAC Tournament. We have been working very hard at practice to prepare for the upcoming season and the anticipation is building among the team for the end of 5:00 a.m. practices, which means the end of big ben, pain pyramids, and stairs workouts, as well as other rigorous indoor conditionings that we all love to hate. But when all is said and done, working hard during these activities teaches us discipline, commitment, and motivation to do better for not only ourselves, but for our teammates and the common goal of making the trip back to the HCAC Tournament.  

Last Friday, our team had our first Speaker on Success, Coach Oakland, who talked to the team about what we look for in a friend and in a teammate. The team came up with very important characteristics such as being supportive and honest, being committed, expressing loyalty, and being trustworthy, just to name a few, and these are all qualities we expect from one another in order to maintain a great team chemistry. The team building activities that she had us do promoted the themes of her presentation by making us work together towards a common goal, communicate with one another, and to respect other teammates’ ideas by being open to suggestions and not talking over fellow players. We always look forward to our Speakers on Success, because they always provide insight that helps to motivate us to stay on the right path in achieving all of our team’s goals. 

Finally, we concluded the winter softball clinic series this past weekend with a defensive clinic for K-6 and hitting/pitching clinics for K-12. We met some potential recruits and worked on the fundamentals of softball with the youngsters. The group that worked the defensive clinic played a major role in demonstrating the drills and simplifying the drills so the young campers could grasp the purpose of each drill and understand how these drills will make them better, more well-rounded softball players. 

We have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks and we have to stay on task in order to be competitive this season. Our team retreat is coming up and we are sure it will be a great team bonding experience! We’ll be sure to keep you posted on the happenings of Defiance College softball. Peace!

Aubrie Ridinger and Katelyn Samples

Anticipation Building for the Start of Softball Season

It's almost the end of week three, and we have 22 days and counting until we leave for Florida! We are all really looking forward to our trip, and we are ready to have another great start to our season. Our hard work and dedication will pay off when we finally get to see warm weather and start the 2011 season.

We had a great start to the week with the Packers winning the Super Bowl, and to celebrate their victory we began practice Tuesday with a great game called dodge ball!  Also, the hitters began seeing live pitching in the batting cages, making our season really seem closer.  Seeing that it's week three, everyone is getting in the swing of things, including waking up for our early 5:00 a.m. practices.

At the conclusion of this week we will be halfway through our preseason, with Florida only three weeks away!  As a team we will stay focused, dedicated, and use our cooperation skills (theme of the week) to be ready and be successful for what there is to come.

Lisa Brophy, Izzy Huffman, Shauna Bowers

Freshmen Jackets Give First Impressions of Practice

It is our first experience of college softball and so far we have gotten seven practices under our belts. Our first practice, we were very anxious because we didn’t know how hard it would be and what would be expected of us. We had a wakeup call for the first practice with realizing just how intense conditioning would be, but as the week went on, we also realize how rewarding it is in the end.

Our next challenge came in the next practice when we woke up for our first 5:00 a.m. practice in our entire lives. As the week progressed we became accustomed to waking up early, which helped us to have a better focus on softball. With the first week down, we now have five weeks left until Florida and our first game. As freshmen, we are both nervous and excited for our first season of college softball and we are ready to take on the challenge.  

Macy Ferrall, Kari Baumgartner