Softball is right around the corner!

Well with Christmas over my mind has totally shifted to softball season! As soon as Christmas break is over it will only be a couple of weeks before the spring season starts! I am excited! I think it’s going to be a great season! I thought I would give my opinions on some of the division 1 college teams! I hope to learn more about some of the division 2 and 3 teams this season but right now I don’t know much about them. So this will be exclusively division 1! I see an amazing amount talent in several teams and I can’t wait to see what this season will bring! I love seeing how much this sport is growing even if does seem kind of slow to those of us who love it so much! I think this is obvious by the new Reese Witherspoon movie “How Do You Know?”! Although it’s not about softball, softball does play a part in the movie as Reese Witherspoon’s character is a professional softball player who is cut from the 2011 National Team and some of the best known and favorite real softball players helped with this movie! I am so excited to see it but honestly don’t know when that will happen lol! As a poor college student movies don’t happen often! But I just wanted to remind you guys to go out and see it! I see this as another great opportunity to support this amazing sport! So back to college softball and my opinions!

1. University of Washington- As you all know I might be a little biased when it comes to this team! I think this is going to be a very difficult season for my Huskies though! I love these girls on this team so much and there is so much talent on this team but I’m smart enough to know the loss of their leader, ace pitcher, and number one hitter will be huge! I’m not saying they can’t do it because I fully believe they can! But it’s going to take a tremendous amount of work! I see them winning a lot of games, growing together as a team and deepening the bonds they’ve already formed! Honestly I see this team surprising a lot of people with how hard they work and how well they bounce back! I look for them to have a pretty good showing but more importantly I see them doing a lot of work towards building another team that will make a run at another National Championship! No sir this team, these girls, and their amazing coaching staff aren’t going anywhere!

2.         UCLA- This is another team that I am very fond of! They too are a team full of talent!  They too have lost a big part of their team in a leader and great pitcher with the graduation of Megan Langenfeld! But I see this team going far and making a good run at another National Championship!

          

     

3. University of Arizona- I think it looks to be another great season for this team! If you are a softball enthusiast like me you know Arizona has long been the dominate team in college softball, kind of like New England in football! I don’t think this year is going to be any different! They have a great pitcher in Kenzie Fowler! As long as she has indeed fixed the IP issues and can stay healthy she will dominate this year! They’ve also got from what I have a heard a pretty good freshman pitcher! I look for another dominating season for this team!

      4. OU- I love love love this team! They have an amazing coach in Patty Gasso! They have an amazing pitcher in Keilani Ricketts and just a whole bunch of talent! I can not wait to see what they do this year and fully expect them to easily make it OKC in June!

      5. University of Alabama- The Tide is another team that I adore! They have great coaching and one of my favorite pitchers Kelsi Dunne! I think this is going to be a huge year for them and Kelsi Dunne! This is her senior year and I see her going out on a huge note! This team is my bet for the first SEC national championship!

       6. University of Tennessee- This is another team I am expecting big things from this season! Ivy Renfroe blew me away last June in OKC and I expect her to do the same this season except now she has a year of experience and her little sister with her! Those two are going to be hard to beat!

       7. University of Georgia- I have a love hate relationship with this team! They have some great talent especially on the offensive side of the ball! They are scary good when they get rolling! But there are a lot of things about this team that I simply do not like or agree with. First off their pitching staff in my opinion is not as strong as most of the teams they will be facing. You can hit as many homeruns as you want but if the other team is matching you homerun for homerun it’s not going to really matter. Second I don’t like their coach and her methods. I don’t like the style they play with. If you’ve watched this team you know exactly what I am talking about. They call timeouts after every pitch when they are hitting and gather at the pitching circle after almost every pitch when on defense. Their games have no rhythm to them and last 3x longer than most other games. In my opinion it’s a legal way to play dirty. In some ways I enjoy watching this team and the great hitting they do but as long as they very little pitching and rhythm they’ll have a hard time winning a national championship. Their frequent stopping does what they hope and throws off teams but there are times it throws them off as well! I fully believe no other team or coach has really followed suit in using this method for a reason!

    8. University of Hawaii- This little known team came roaring into the picture after knocking off Alabama last year. They have a great and experienced pitcher in Stephanie Ricketts (older sister of Keilani Ricketts at OU) and some amazing bats of their own. This team set many records last year in homeruns! These girls are well coached and I believe they will be back in OKC in June!

 There are teams that I like and have opinions on but these are the main ones. I might tackle the others in another blog! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a wonderful Happy 2011! Get ready guys softball season is just around the corner! Let’s go Huskies! We believe!!! 1 month and 14 days!

P.S I think my next blog will be about individual players. I am going to decorate a bulletin board with autographed pictures and other softball related things. It looks pretty cool in my head LOL! Maybe I’ll include a picture of it in my next blog if it’s done! If you have anything you want me to write about let me know and I'll see what I can do!

 

Time to write a blog(probably not going to have much to do with softball!)

So I've been meaning to write this blog for a couple of weeks but things have been crazy! I had to finish up my assignments and my finals were last week! I finished the semester with a 4.0 GPA. Glad the semester is over and I am ready to enjoy the Christmas season! I decided since I have nothing going on right now I would write a blog about something going on in my life!

It's funny I about when nuts stressing myself over this semester and ended up with a 4.0 GPA! I love school but it stresses me out lol!

I'm not usually the type to set New Years resolutions. It just isn't my cup of tea. But for some reason I am feeling the need to do so this year. I would like to think of it as more like goals. But here is my list.

1. I want to make more friends and learn to trust people again. I've been working on this for awhile and seem to never make any progress. I'm NOT known for being an outgoing people person lol! It just isn't me. On top of that I've been hurt alot. I spent several years putting my trust in people who didn't deserve it. But I want to make quality friendships! Some of my best friends are online friendships! Don't get me wrong they are great and I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these people but I want someone I can go out and grab a cup of coffee with. I want someone who shares my interest and who I can just hang out with on occasion.

2. I have to learn to drive! I've put it off and put it off but it's time!

3. I want to find some way to help the sport of softball! I've never played but the sport has really touched my life! It has become a passion for me! It has given me so much and like I said I've never even played. I want to make sure it's there for my daughters to play if they want or my nieces!

4. I want to continue my blogs and find the passion for my videos again. Something happened and I am not sure what but I no longer have the passion and ideas for my videos! I want to again! I want to make more videos!

That is what I have so far and it's ever growing lol!

I don't know if I will be back to write again before Christmas(or New Years) as I am going to be extremely busy the next couple of weeks so I'll go ahead and wish everyone(or the occasional ghost who read these lol) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

59 days until the first Udub softball game!! I can't believe how fast it's going and how close it is! Let's go Dawgs!

The end of the back to school tour

I'm very sad to see the back to school tour end! I've very much enjoyed following it and learning about all these different college teams! There are some really good ones out there that you just never hear about! One thing this tour has shown me or maybe more liked made even more apparent for me was the need to keep fighting for this sport! As I followed the tour I was just blown away by the amount of talent on all of these teams!

I also have to say for the NPF girls this tour has made it more apparent to me just how dedicated they are to this sport, their fans, and the NPF! These girls give up so much to play this sport they love! They spend countless hours on red eyes from here to there! They spend countless hours working out and keeping themselves in shape. They spend countless hours on the field playing! They spend countless hours signing autograph after autograph after autograph! They spend countless hours doing clinics and giving lessons! And they do it because they want to and they love it(maybe not all the time but for the most part they love it!)! If we all found one thing to be that dedicated to, how different would the world be?

I also have to say there are some amazing coaches out there! You can probably guess that I'm a big Coach Tarr fan but there are alot of really dedicated amazing coaches out there at all levels! They aren't generally talked about or noticed! I just want to say thank you to all of them right now because without them none of this would be possible! They are the silent leaders of their teams. They also put in hard long hours and give up alot! They are very dedicated to this sport and helping to make their players better people and players! Without great coaches softball just wouldn't be what it is!

As I end this blog I just want to say thank you to the NPF, the USSSA, all the colleges, their coaches, their players, the behind the scenes people who you don't think about, the people who kept us updated, and the NPF softball players for an amazing tour! You all are amazing! I can't speak for any of the other fans but I am very much enjoyed this tour!! There were some really great memories for all of us!

86 days until Husky softball!! Woohoo! It will be so so weird and kind of sad for me without Danielle Lawrie(and also Aly, Amanda, and  Bailey!!) but still can't wait!! Let's go Dawgs!!

What softball means to me!

 I decided to start a blog to write down my thoughts. Most of it will be about softball but I will probably throw in other things as well lol! Softball seems to have always been apart of my life even though I've never actually played. I am so clumsy and I'm not known for my athletic abilities. But I remember as a child going during the summer several times a week and watching my dad play slow pitch. It was great and I have great memories of that. My Mom played softball growing up and loved it. We've watched softball whenever it was on TV for as long as I can remember. It's just always been there. But I don't think I really was really really into it until 2007! As I watched the Woman's College World Series I was totally pulled in by an amazing pitcher. I'd seen pitchers that I liked all my life but there was just something special about this one! The pitcher I was watching was Danielle Lawrie and she was the pitcher for the University of Washington Huskies! They were eventually knocked out the tournament but she really made an impression on me! As most of you who are going to be reading this know she red shirted the next year so she could play in the Olympics for Canada.

I watched beyond excited in 2009 as she came roaring back and led her team to a National Championship! I remember how excited I was and thinking that if I was this excited man how excited are they? It was an amazing thing to watch and I still love to look back at the videos and articles and remember that day!

I ,like every other Husky fan, hoped and prayed they would repeat in 2010! It was a close call in Super Regionals against Oklahoma. They lost the first game 6-1 and Lawrie gave up an unheard of (for her anyway) 5 homeruns! But she bounced back and had 2 amazing games the next night to send the Huskies back to Oklahoma City and to the Women's College World Series. I felt good about things and truly thought they would bounce back and if not repeat go along way. But again as most of you who will be reading this know that wasn't how the cards fell. They lost two games and were knocked out before the tournament even really got started. I knew no matter what happened these were Danielle Lawrie's final games as a Husky but I don't think I really understood what that would feel like until it was there. I know I was no where near as sad and disappointed as her and the team but my heart ached for them all! I was so sad. I was sad because they got beat. But the bigger sadness (if that make sense) was in knowing that 4 amazing careers were over. I didn't expect the emotions I felt that day. They took me off guard. I knew I would be sad but never expected the hot tears that streamed down my shocked face as I watched the interview they did with Danielle Lawrie after the game. I felt so broken for her as I watched her fight an impossible battle to keep her composure as she talked about her career and her team. It just seemed so unfair! Many emotions went through me that day but the one thing that remained steadfast was pride! I was so proud of Danielle Lawrie and the rest of the team! They may not have repeated but that group of women and coaches will always be winners and champions in my eyes! They now have a lifetime fan in me!

 I've always watched sports. My favorite (other than softball) being football! I've watched many young men's college careers end and never felt as sad as I did at that moment. It took me several weeks to finally figure out why. For those football players it's not really the end. It's the beginning for them! They will have the opportunity to go play in the NFL. Their careers have just begun. But that isn't the case for softball players. I didn't know at the time but there is a professional softball league! The league is called the NPF (National Pro Fast pitch) and it consists of 4 teams. The USSSA Florida Pride, the Chicago Bandits, the Tennessee Diamonds, and the Akron Racers! Unfortunately it has neither the spaces nor the money the NFL, MLB, or NBA have. It, like most of women's sports, has little money, few spaces, and get's little to no coverage! They are trying to grow these programs and raise awareness but it's not an easy task. One of the things that they did was the Back to School tour this fall (it wraps up this weekend). A group of the NPF all stars went around this fall and played many college teams. I think this is a great thing for both the NPF and the colleges they faced! The more awareness we can bring to the sport the better! Also the Chicago Bandits have just broken ground on their new stadium! I was so excited to find out about this league and to know that Danielle Lawrie and so many other women are getting the chance to use their talent and play the sport they all love and have devoted so much of their life to!

Another hit softball took was when it was removed from the Olympics. I'll never forget as I watched the last softball game of the Olympics when team USA came up just short against an amazing Japanese team and the pain in all of their faces. I'll never forget watching them place their cleats on home plate. The tears and the broken heartedness were overwhelming for everyone who loves the sport! We need to get softball back in the Olympics and we need to support leagues like the NPF for the future of the sport! There are so many girls out there who devote all their time to the sport it should be there for them to continue to play after college at a higher level! Not just girls from America or Canada but girls all over the world!


Here is a link to the NPF website where you can find out more about it!
http://www.profastpitch.com/

I will leave you will a couple of my favorite quotes.
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!"
"When the world says give up--hope whispers-- try one more time!"