Summer Softball

The first phase of softball is always the high school season. I play for a small town named Byron (next to Rochester). We open enroll there instead of going to Rochester because of how much better the academics are. The high school season is difficult because playing for a small town limits the amount of girls that you have go out. Normally we have 9 or if we’re lucky we will have one sub. School softball is great because you have a place to have practice every day and polish your skills for the rest of the year. High school is always lots of fun and I love my teammates, but the true season I look forward to is travel ball.

This summer I am playing for two teams the Rochester Royals 16u and The Danes 18u. We have our first Royals tournament this weekend and I can’t begin to explain how excited I am for it to finally start!! I have played for the Royals for 5 years now and every summer it is the time of my life. My dad and Steve Lewison began the team when I was in 5th grade. It is crazy to think that most of these girls I have been playing with for over half of my softball career. Now wonder why my team is so close!

This will be my first year playing for the Danes. I played fall and dome ball with the team and was amazed at how much I learned over that short period of time. I was very excited when they asked me to come and play with them this summer. There is going to be lots of good competition and I feel that I am going to improve a lot learning from the older players and new coaches. I can’t wait for Danes camp and for the season to finally begin!

My teams are just like my family because I spend so much time with them. At least four days of the week I am playing softball whether it is a league game or in a tournament. Last summer the Royals played over 100 games together. That is A LOT of bonding time. Although we are playing with each other almost every day we still make plans to hang out one night a week. We always have movie nights, or sleepovers, or our favorite, to go tubing down the river all day. Even though I don’t spend much time with people other than my teammates I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Especially because those are the people that I love and want to be around the most.

The Beginning

Spring in Minnesota is always unpredictable, and provides plenty of heat waves and even blizzards as summer rapidly approaches. As unpleasant as the weather may be for this time of year it gives me an excuse to be inside watching college softball. Every year since I can remember I have watched the NCAA WCWS on TV. But for some reason this year is different. Sitting here on my couch watching Maddie Shipman turn a double play for Tennessee or Meagan May bomb another homerun for Texas A&M, I realize that is what I want to do. I want to be one of those amazing players on TV that first inspired me.

I was inspired by Katie Burkhart of the Arizona Sun Devils in 2008 when she led them to victory in the world series. You may think Arizona, why Arizona? I am from Mesa Arizona and have always been a big ASU fan because of it. Like Katie, I used to want to be a pitcher. But at the age of about 12 I changed my mind. Now I play 3B and sometimes SS. After watching the games I thought to myself, how much hard work she has had to put in to become that good. So, I now set out on my journey to make that dream a reality.  One day a little girl will say, I want to grow up and play like her. My name is Vanessa Anderson. I am 16 years old and live in Rochester, MN. This is my journey and I hope to show how my hard work pays off and in the end how I will fulfill my dreams.