2013 Minnesota USSSA State Tournament

For the past four years I have played in the Minnesota USSSA State Tournament. Our first two years playing 14u we got beat up pretty bad and struggled to make it through to Saturday night. Even last year, in our first year playing 16u, we were knocked out Sunday morning. But, this year things were finally different. This year we became the 16u state champions. 

This weekend we were undefeated. None of the games that we played were very close besides for our Saturday night game against the Clutch Hitters. The Clutch Hitters are our unspoken rivals. They are a very good team and always give us a very good game but the true rivalry stems from our players. One of our first baseman, Lexi Ripka, used to play for Clutch. She is our only player from the cities and it also happens that she is our head coach Steve Lewison's niece. She stopped playing for them for several reasons but you always want to beat your old team right? The best part about the win against them was how we won. In the 5th inning with about 10 min to go left in the game we were down by two runs. Our leadoff and number two hitter were standing on first and second. I come up to the plate and they decided to intentionally walk me to load the bases. Now,in steps our number four hitter Lexi. On the first pitch she drives the ball to the gap scoring all three runs and putting us up by two. From there we went on to win 4-2. We were ecstatic because of how we battled back and were able to win for our teammate.

Getting the win was great but, looking to the future, what matters even more is what we can learn from the game and the situation. In that game we learned how to stay composed and how to come together as a team when we were behind and come out with a victory. In this intense atmosphere you have to remember to stay calm and not put more pressure on yourself, especially when you are losing. You have to stay composed and learn not to panic but to feed off of the pressure. For us things were even more intense because not only are we fighting to stay in the game but were losing to Clutch. As the innings pass the pressure is mounting, and the girls start to press more and more. This is where I learned how to be an even better leader. I realized how my team was behaving, so as we came into our infield meeting I called everyone together. I told them, to just relax. We had seen this pitcher before and know that we can hit off of her. Lets focus on just hitting the ball hard and good things will happen, we CAN do this. I learned how to take the focus away from the pressure and replace it with high energy, and being positive to motivate them that we can do this, we will win. As a team we learned that we can come from behind and win in a big game. Now we have that experience we will be even better off next time knowing how to deal with the pressure, and believing because we have been here before and won! 

Softball has a great way of giving you feedback about your actions, and it isn’t whether or not you win the game. What determines success or failure is the look in your teammates eyes when they believe in you, when they relax and rally around each other and perform better. It could have turned out differently. They could have caught Lexi’s hit into the gap and we may have lost. But we still would have learned so much about ourselves and life. If you open your eyes and embrace the moment you can learn something very beneficial from these games. 

College Camp Experiences

Normally when you think of summer you picture laying by the pool relaxing now that school is out. But not for me, my life has gotten about 5x busier since I officially became a junior! Besides for watching the state tournament, in the last two weeks I have had the opportunity to attend the Illinois State Camp, Danes Camp, and Wisconsin Camp along with playing with the Rochester Royals and the Danes every weekend. I learned a lot from each camp that I attended and hope to take little things from each of them to improve my game. 

The Illinois State Camp was in Bloomington, Illinois. (For those who don't know where that is, its in the middle of a corn field next too all of these ginormous State Farm buildings! ;) ) In the morning we started out with their usual warm-up along with intros from the coaches and players. From there up until lunch we worked on fielding. We completed their normal every day drills working on different throws, footwork, drop steps, and full infield drills. After lunch we moved to hitting. First Coach Fischer explained the way that they teach hitting and the proper mechanics. Her goal was to get us to try something new that we hadn't done before or take something that they taught and add it to your swing to make it better. After we moved to different stations doing tee, soft toss, and front toss drills. For the finish we split up into 4 groups to scrimmage another team while the other two groups were touring the indoor facilities. Illinois was my first outdoor college team camp. I was nervous because of the unknown but knew that I would have a blast because I was getting the chance to play softball. I love hitting so the biggest thing that stood out to me was how their hitters all started. Their stance started open with their negative movement and then finished closed with their positive movement. The reasoning behind it is so that they could have two eyes on the ball instead of one. Which makes a lot of sense because I definitely see better with two eyes instead of one. 

Danes Camp was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was three straight days of learning and hard work. On the first morning it was raining, so we held practice in the dome. There we learned all of the plays we will run this year, our throwing warm-up, and completed our first challenge drill. It had finally cleared up so we drove back the the fields in Hudson to work on bunting and slapping. I had never slapped before so that was very interesting. I learned so many new types of bunts besides for the normal sacrifice that I had been taught before. It opened my eyes to how many more tools I can learn and add to my game to make me that much better of a player. To finish the night we did the Big 300. The Big 300 is a very simple drill, field 300 ground balls as a team without everyone getting out on an error. We only got to 298 when our last girl and team captain had an error. The Big 300 isn't just a drill, but a tool to teach life lessons, use strategy, and where your true leaders stand out. Over the next two days we continued to learn all of the information in our style sheet...(by the way, it is 130 pages, thank you Tim!!) Although it is a lot to process, it is the greatest learning tool someone has ever given me. This way if I have questions some of them I can answer them and learn the why even if I am not around my coaches. On Thursday night we had a double header which was very encouraging in showing us how well we were coming together. Friday was mostly batting practice and then starting the journey over to Mankato for our first tournament! Even though I was exhausted from it, I learned so much and feel I improved a lot over the course of the three days. 

The Badger camp started out with the usual introductions and check ins for camp. But then we went right into my favorite part, hitting. To begin Coach Schneider had us spread out and close our eyes. During this he talked about mechanics and had us feel with our bodies what the correct form was (after watching him with our eyes open). Then we broke up into our hitting groups of about 6 girls to do different tee stations, baserunning, live front toss, and bunting. After hitting we had a chalk talk. During the season, Coach said they try to have at least one chalk talk a week. A talk would contain anything from proper mechanics, strategies, plays, or even inspirational speakers. One of the biggest things that stood out to me during the talk was how they talked about plussing your plusses. Focus on the things that you do well and be positive while working on the things that you can't do as well. They also talked about how much they love their kids and that by being positive they give so much more back to them. After the talk it was finally lunchtime. I love lunch! The second half of the day was throwing, their everyday drills, and diving practice. They worked a ton on picking shorthops and making sure you had good diving form to make great plays. Coach said that if a girl doesn't dive for a foul ball, that the Softball Gods will come back to get her by letting the hitter get a hit or her making an error. So the lesson is, dive for that ball!! Lastly we did several drills to try and recreate how you have to be able to think and react at the same time. To do this we started out very simple by doing a simple pattern through a ladder. Next we added that you had to juggle two softballs as you went through the ladder. Each round we built up how much you had to do at once until we were sitting on the ground facing backwards, then get up, juggle the balls, go through the ladder, all while counting down from 50. I was amazed at how much slower my brain worked after adding all of these things and simply how hard it was to count backwards! The next day was all scrimmaging. You were assigned to a team, went through warm-ups, an evaluation, and then got to show your skills at the scrimmage. 

During these camps I learned a lot about myself. The combination of driving to Illinois, getting home at 1 AM, leaving for Danes at 7:30 AM, then having camp all week, and based on weather cancellations, two tournaments in one weekend taught me how far I can push myself. You hit the wall of how much you think you can do, and if you can break that, you find you can do so much more. I learned to fight through fatigue and how mentally strong I need to be to stay focused and be on top of my game.  

Besides for cramming all of these camps into the past two weeks I have played in three tournaments one the first weekend and because of weather cancellations two after the week of Danes camp. Most kids would complain that they don't have enough free time and want to be with their friends, but my friends are my teammates and wouldn't trade the opportunities I have been given to learn more about softball and show my skills for anything. 

The most important thing I learned was to recognize and be thankful for how blessed I am to be able to play this sport. Many other players have the talent but their families don't have the money to give them the opportunity. Also others may have the money and the talent but, like one of my former teammates, not be able to play anymore because of injuries. I am incredibly blessed to be able to physically and mentally play the game that I love. 

Camps

Today I attended the Illinois State University camp. It was very interesting to hear their views on hitting and the different ways that they perform skills. I had a lot of fun while being exposed to new drills and techniques. I have attended other camps for colleges before that have been similar but I really enjoyed how there weren't as many kids and only a certain amount of players at each position to provide ample reps and opportunities for the staff to coach each position. It was a very rewarding experience that I enjoyed. 
Tomorrow is another camp and the first day of the Danes summer season. Before we have any tournaments we have camp. Camp is held over the course of three days to work on skills and gel as a team. This is my first time attending camp and I am so stoked! I have heard from my teammates that have already been to it that you will learn more in those three days than you would in a year of normal softball and even though it is tiring it is so much fun. It is going to be awesome to practice and get to know the team better than I already do. Each day is a great opportunity to learn and get better in the competitive learning environment that has been presented. By the end of camp I know that I will have learned a great amount, improved my skills, we all as a team will know a lot more about each other and also be confident in our teammates that they know their jobs and will execute them.

What Softball Has Given Me

I started playing 10u softball when I was 7 years old. Like most kids in that situation, I was very scared. Before my first practice my dad reminded me, "It doesn't matter how old they are V, you can hit better than most of them." Suddenly age didn't matter to me anymore, only skills did. Softball has given me three major things: 1) Confidence, 2) Desire, and 3) Opportunity.

As a younger kid starting from when I was about five until my eight grade year I was very shy and insecure. I  went through the awkward chubby phase for longer than most, which doesn't do a whole lot for ones self esteem. But, each year as I continued to excel more and more, I slowly came out of my shell. My skills and being able to make such a huge impact on a game with how I play has changed me so much. Before, I would  not be confident enough to go up and talk to someone that I didn't know or interact a lot in a group setting. Now I am the exact opposite. I am very outgoing and sure of myself when interacting with others. My brother likes to relate my confidence to "swag." Well my swag isn't loud and cocky like some accomplished players. I prefer to let my actions speak for me and carry myself in a way that exhibits quiet confidence.  What gave me the most confidence is that because of my abilities and my personalities I have become a leader. Having people look to me in situations for advice and being able to lead my team to victory has only increased how much I believe in myself.

Another thing softball gave me was desire, desire to be as good as I could be. That means putting in lots of hard work and getting myself into better shape. I started to work out daily and eat healthier. Growing a couple inches has helped but I have really slimmed down since seventh grade. Along with getting in shape I wanted to be the best player I could be. So in the mornings I would, and still do, go to the batting cages at school. There my dad and I would spend countless hours hitting off the tee, front toss, and off the machine. As I put in more and more work I have continued to get better and excel in the things that I want to do.

Finally the last thing softball has given me is opportunity. It gives me the opportunity to meet new people, show how good of an athlete I am, what I am able to accomplish, and a chance to play the sport that I love. Through the years of playing on so many different teams I have had the chance to meet so many people. At the state tournament this year it hit me just how many people I recognized that I had played with or against over the years. It also seems that no matter where I go, whether it is a tourney, a camp, or just to the practice fields, I always run into someone that I know. Making all of these new relationships are great because of the variety of people and the personalities you meet are all over the board and help you become a well rounded individual in conversation. Every time I play I have the chance to demonstrate how well I can truly play the game of softball. In the future I hope that all of my hard work pays off and softball gives me the opportunity to achieve my dreams.

Summer Goals

Each day presents an opportunity to get better. During the summer that opportunity is even greater because of how many more games you play and how much more time you have on your hands. This summer I have made three goals for myself. 1) I want to get better at hitting the ball to all fields with power, 2) I want to utilize the extra training time to get stronger, faster and more agile, and 3) I want to challenge my development of the mental understanding of the game and absorb as much as possible from each situation and each game.

Hitting - Any good hitter can pull the ball with power. The difference between good and great is being able to hit the ball anywhere it is pitched with authority. I want to make myself a threat and be able to hit to all fields with power. Right now I am becoming better at going with the pitch and driving it to right field. But my goal is to be able to hit the ball just as hard and far to right as I can to left. That way when you step into the box the pitcher doesn't know where to pitch you. No matter where it is, if they throw a strike, you have the ability to make them pay.

Training - I have always been active in sports and weightlifting. But this summer I want to take my fitness to a whole different level. I want to be stronger, faster, and more agile. To do this I will be participating in speed and agility training at the athletic club in Rochester along with my lifting workouts. Also, I have been able to overcome athletic situations which require core strength and balance with aggressiveness and force. But at the next level just the talent that you were born with and determination isn't enough. To increase my balance and agility I am starting to do yoga! It is much much harder than I ever expected it to be, “ isn't it just stretching?” No, it is much more and I can tell that it is going to benefit me in the long run.

Mental Understanding - My last goal is to develop my mental understanding and absorb as much as possible from each situation in each game. Even though most teenagers like to think they know everything, I know that is definitely not the case. I have so much to learn about life and especially about softball. This is the first full year that I will be playing with the Danes. Just playing in the fall and domeball seasons I learned so much from them. I want to take the advantage of all of the knowledge of the game around me, ask questions, listen and learn, learn, learn.

Loving the Game

I have always liked playing softball. But what really made me love the game in the beginning was the people I played with. I can remember the day that my dad first signed me up to play softball. A couple days later I got an e-mail back saying that I was going to be playing for the Century team. I cried and cried because at time I wanted to be on the JM team (who I played basketball with). Now I wouldn’t be with any of my friends and to top it off Century was JM’s biggest rival. It had to be a ten year olds worst nightmare. Reluctantly I went to practice. I forced myself to go in with an open mind and remember that they are probably nice people too. It turns out that I have been playing for that same coach for five years now and think of him to be my second dad. I became great friends with all of the girls on the team and several of them are still my teammates.

That was the first official Royals team. Now we are much older, skills have increased, the faces of players have changed but one thing hasn’t, how much fun we have playing together. Even from the beginning the team has been made up of a bunch of goofballs, but now we are goofballs that really know how to play softball. Being able to play the game you love with your best friends has to be one of the best feelings in the world. Every time that we have a practice, a game, or anything to do with softball I cannot wait because of how much I have grown to love the game.