University of Michigan ‘06 - Softball
My whole life I knew I wanted to go to Notre Dame. I researched other schools but it was only to please my mom; I knew Notre Dame was the place for me. I started my recruiting process by throwing my eggs all into one basket…big mistake! One thing I didn’t realize that I know now, recruiting is based on having what the team needs. If you’re a pitcher and the school already has 3 stud pitchers, start looking at others squads that need pitching in the next few years. In my case, Notre Dame didn’t need a catcher so I wasn’t a high priority. It didn’t work out there.
Pay attention to your gut when you’re on visits. I visited Hillsdale College in Southeastern Michigan. It is a small D-2 school with extremely nice facilities. The date was September 11, 2001. I watched the second plane collide into the towers from a computer lab, surrounded by college students, none of whom I knew. Bless their hearts, they tried to make the visit continue, doing their best to sell the school, but there was nothing they could do, I couldn’t attend there because it was such a traumatic day.
My next visit was destiny. After my quest for Notre Dame crumbled in the summer before my senior year I sent out letters to any school I had time to research. On all my letters I had copied the school’s emblem and put it right in the middle on top, making it look like official business. The coaches loved it! The school I fell in love with was Loyola University Chicago. I was looking for a program that would help me improve but where I could also have an impact in my first year and beyond. I truly loved my future teammates and that is crucial; you’ll be spending an enormous amount of time with them. The coach was genuine and even though she did tell me she was recruiting another catcher to make me hurry my decision process, I later found out there was no other girl. The school had the program I wanted and the location as well. All in all, there were many ways in which I clicked with this program.
If I had rested my decision only on the head coach, I would have been lost when I found out that the coach took an assistant coaching position at Michigan State University weeks before I was to begin my freshman year. I eventually did transfer to the University of Michigan because too many things started changing at Loyola. I no longer fit there and I needed a place to belong. It’s a scary leap, transferring, but it isn’t the end of the world. I helped win a National Championship and was an All-American my senior year.
My Advice:
Becky
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Becky,
Some of what happened to you happened to me, except I never really had a college in mind from the start. I moved away from CA when I was almost 13, it was where I grew up and dreamed of playing softball for some of the top colleges in the United States. But, as I traveled to the complete opposite side of the US - to Georgia - I realized it would be very hard to be recruited to go back. So I spent time focusing on my career goals and deciding on the major I wanted. And a school happened to find me! Once I talked with the coach I was interested to see the school, and I did. In a small small small town in WV, I found myself in a VERY old school with not the greatest facilities but the team seemed very welcoming and the coach was pumped and ready to make a difference for softball at this small D-2 college, it was going to be his fourth year. After one year of what I considered to be a decent year, everyone had high hopes for next year. But those were cut a little short when our coach had to move away with his wife for family reasons. He got a job coaching at a different school, but they did not have my major. It wasn't a very hard choice to make but I still had to choose to stay or to go. I picked to stay and finish the degree I wanted and find out who the new coach would be. The new coach ended up being the assistant coach and I was interested to see what would happen. The staff was joined by another lady that has been coaching for a long long time and I was very excited. She was going to be the motivator we needed. The year was a roller coaster year with many "events" that stirred the team. The season ended on a very bitter note for me despite making First Team All-Conference Honors. The next season again a new coach was to come in, one that had never coached much softball and defiantly not on a college level. The Coach and I did not see eye to eye and I again had to make a decision, except this one I felt would be life changing. I chose not to play softball and to seek more medical advice on my growing pain in my back and shoulders. I took the year as a red shirt but not because I had to, but because this coach and team had pushed me away from the sport I loved. I just couldn't enjoy what I loved doing with people that didn't seem to care or know what they were doing. This is my senior year and the coaches have changed yet again. And again I feel that the coach and I might not be seeing eye to eye. I want to play more than anything but I don't want to sell myself short and not feel that I am accepted with the team or that the other members of the team and coaching staff don’t have the same passion and desire I have for the game. I hope I make the right decision, but I guess only time will tell. I looked into other schools and trying to transfer, I got a few offers from other coaches in the conference, one of which offered a full ride, but I kept resting on finishing my degree. No one else had the same degree and I’d have to add another year of college, which would be okay because I have two years to play, but sigh, my career is important to me and I really want my degree! And maybe that means sacrificing the rest of my playing career in college, but I’m not going to make it the last of my softball career. It’s just been an emotional career in college filled with highs and lows and has made me wonder if I made the right choice on my recruiting path out of high school. If I tried hard enough to find the best school for me. Part of me says yes because I have excelled in the classroom and in the working world. But part of me still longs to belong to a team that loves the sport as much as I do and to play with a group of women who are like family. Life is like being a batter, you have to make choices in the box and decide how you’re going to react to each type of pitch thrown and if you’re going to let some of them pass you by, or if you’re going to swing as hard as you can and go after something aggressively. But you only have a split second to decide what it’s going to be. Don’t let life pass you by without you knowing.