Softball

The biggest reason that I am here attending NDSU is because I play for the softball team! I never would have thought I would go somewhere that is even colder than Minnesota. Originally I had crossed North Dakota off of my list to even look at just because of where it was located. Then I started talking to Jamie and fell in love with the school. I came on a official visit to meet the coaches and team and knew that I would probably be coming to school here. My freshman year of softball has been unlike anything that I have ever experienced. In the fall I thought four hour practices were long and dang was I wrong. We came back after winter break a week early and had practices for nine hours. Yes nine! We did everything you could possibly think of for defense, hitting, base running, and lots of conditioning. I have never felt so old and sore in my life before. Every night after practice all of the team would go to ice bath and then have team dinner at Darren's or go out to eat. Most of the time we got olive garden or some type of pasta so that we could have energy for the next day. I really did not think that it was possible to be that tired and sore. It was a super long week but I felt like I improved and learned so much in just one week. We now live and breathe softball and school, we don't really have time to focus on anything else. In February we will start traveling all of the country to play teams. We get to go to the coolest places this year. WE start out playing at the University of Texas, then will also get to play against Alabama, Stanford, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Louisville and Baylor. Our coaches said that this is probably the toughest pre season schedule that we have ever had. So we have been working super hard. It is crazy to think that in less than a month the actual season will start and we will get back to playing games. After just practicing for about five months it gets you really excited to think about going somewhere warm and actually getting to play on dirt again. After preseason traveling we will get into our conference schedule that determines our seed for conference tournament which is our bid into post season. The team has won conference the past three years so there are a lot of expectations for how we will do this year. We want our seniors to always go out as champions so we will have to really come together as a team and play our best for that to happen. Not knowing what to expect is scary in some ways but so exciting in others. It is so intimidating to think of the big name schools we will be facing but then again it is just softball, a game that I have been playing since I was eight years old. Three weeks to practice as hard as we can and improve so that we are ready to bring it when it is go time.