This week on campus, while many students are starting Spring Sing and getting their first homework assignments, a handful of talented girls are suiting up for practice as they prepare to revive a lost sport on campus.
Softball is officially in session.
Although the team will not begin to play competitively until spring of 2014, scrimmages will start in 2013 and head softball coach Phil Berry said he has plans to maximize the use of this time. The team met Jan. 16 to discuss practice plans and strategies. They also completed a series of fitness tests Jan. 17. Conditioning, hitting practices and weight lifting began the week of Jan. 21.
The conditioning will be challenging for the players, many of whom have not played since high school.
However it promises to push the players to reach great potential. For several of the players, they have had a year away from the sport and this week was a test of their strength and endurance.
“I don’t know about the other girls, but I haven’t been pumping much iron lately,” sophomore Amanda Richardson said.
Richardson and freshman Julia Chambless, both members of the team, said they have grown up playing the sport and welcomed the chance to get back into what they love.
Chambless said when she received the call from Berry saying that she had made the team, she realized the opportunity to make the program their own.
“It’s a really great feeling to know that you are one of the first,” Chambless said. “You know no one is there before you and that will never change.”
Although it will be a challenge for the team to build a reputation, it is also an opportunity to start out strong. Richardson said she is hopeful to see how this training will build a strong base for the new team. The original Harding softball team was on campus from 1983-1985, so this program is essentially being rebuilt from scratch.
“We want to lay the right foundation for the program,” Berry said. “There is only one set of firsts and that is the excitement and challenge–to represent the university correctly.”
Berry said that the ultimate goal of the softball team is to be true to the university’s mission, to compete and to win championships. He said he is looking to build an atmosphere of student involvement and is excited to watch the student body come together to support the sport of softball.
“These girls, they are revved up and they are ready to go,” Richardson said.
