On Feb. 7, Harding University will make history. The athletic program will debut its first softball team since the program’s termination in 1985. The team will be traveling to Durant, Okla., for its first game against Missouri Western State University.
According to Head Coach Phil Berry the team is ready to set the bar high by practicing six days a week. Two of those days, practices last up to four hours, and the remaining days the girls dedicate three hours of practice time. In the fall semester, the girls worked hard conditioning for the upcoming season this spring.
Berry said he was honored when he was offered the opportunity to return to his alma mater and pave a new way for athletes. According to Berry, the most challenging part of starting from scratch with this new team is the inexperience of competing at the collegiate level.
“We work every day to try and make practice harder than games,” Berry said. “We know that if we can put pressure on them in practice and have them step up to that (collegiate) level, then hopefully that will keep the games fun and enjoyable while enabling them to perform better on the field.”
The team has a couple of upperclassmen leaders: juniors, Amber Rollins and Carolyn Clayton, who have performed more competitively before joining the Lady Bisons team. Rollins, a Searcy native, is a transfer student from The University of the Ozarks where she played softball and gained experience at the college level. Clayton, a transfer student from Weatherford College, was a two-time All-Conference player. She was also a member of the conference and regional championship team as a sophomore. While the majority of the team is freshman girls, Rollins and Clayton have presented leadership skills by setting an example of how to find a balance between academics and athletics.
When asked if the team was nervous about competing for the first time Rollins said they are not nervous, but excited more than anything.
“We know we are going to be the under dogs and we really just want to come out and show people what we are made of,” Rollins said. “We are going to try and get as far as we can.”
They hope to be as competitive as possible and do their best to make it to the conference tournament. The team will make its home debut on Feb. 21 against Southern Nazarene University.
