In this heartfelt episode of Catching You, co-host Rusty Ham is joined by his daughter Lacie, who shares her experiences and reflections on returning home from college, her high school and travel softball journey, and college recruitment struggles due to various setbacks including a head injury and COVID-19.
They discuss her transitions between different softball teams, key achievements, and memorable moments with her friends and teammates. Lacie also recounts winning the Alliance Tier 2 national championship and committing to San Jose State. Emotions run high as Rusty apologizes for missing her final travel ball game, and they hint at a special guest for the next episode.
A couple of years ago, as a family, we created family core values. One of them is, "We face challenges with optimism while displaying a growth mindset." We wanted to tell our story so others, who relate, can navigate through these challenges better. Contributing to our Podcast will show we're on the right track and we're making a difference to those who have similar stories. Buy Us A Coffee
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[00:00:00] So it wasn't like I was against it, but my whole life was, you're going D1, you're going D1.
[00:00:08] Like D1 or not, nothing, D1 or nothing.
[00:00:11] So did I have some prejudice against it?
[00:00:14] Yes, I did. Totally.
[00:00:17] But that's how I was coached and raised and that's what I was...
[00:00:22] It was ingrained in my brain my whole life.
[00:00:25] My ultimate goal was go D1.
[00:00:28] Hello and welcome to Catching You, a dad and daughter softball journey.
[00:00:33] I'm Rusty, a dad who's been in the dugout and on the sidelines.
[00:00:37] And I'm Lacie, the daughter whose journey through softball has been filled with incredible
[00:00:41] winds, tough losses and so many lessons both on and off the field.
[00:00:45] For the past 16 years we've navigated the highs and lows of softball together, from
[00:00:49] the local fields to national tournaments and everything in between.
[00:00:53] From the challenges of recruitment during COVID to the mental and emotional roller coaster
[00:00:57] that comes with being a student athlete, we will be sharing the perspectives of both
[00:01:01] the parent and athlete and firsthand experience of the impact of sports on
[00:01:05] mental health and the importance of support from the sidelines.
[00:01:09] Welcome back everyone to Catching You and your co-host, Rusty Ham.
[00:01:15] With me is my now home from college daughter Lacie.
[00:01:21] Lacie Shehi.
[00:01:22] Hello.
[00:01:24] Lacie, you're home now.
[00:01:26] How do you feel about that?
[00:01:27] You're 21 years old and you're back home in your cozy little bedroom there.
[00:01:36] I missed it.
[00:01:39] I definitely needed to get out of San Jose for a little bit, come back home and
[00:01:47] see Jesse graduate.
[00:01:51] They just have a new environment for a little bit and then go back for my last year.
[00:01:58] Senior year, go back to the grind.
[00:02:02] Yeah, so yeah, your brother's graduating high school tonight, which is cool.
[00:02:07] Wearing my gown.
[00:02:09] That's right because they give him a gown for a five-foot to five-foot three person.
[00:02:16] He's not five-foot three, he's 60.
[00:02:18] So luckily you are tall and he's able to use your old gown, which we kept for some reason.
[00:02:26] Secretly knew that something was going to happen.
[00:02:28] That's right.
[00:02:29] Yeah, so very cool.
[00:02:31] Same high school that you graduated from.
[00:02:33] Cool stuff.
[00:02:34] So Lacie, we are, we just finished first year 18s.
[00:02:40] Remember COVID cut it short, right?
[00:02:42] So after the fall, you played that one showcase game with Tony Braccomante.
[00:02:49] We ended up choosing to leave.
[00:02:51] We played for athletics, McCargo, Greg, Dave and we left them after COVID.
[00:03:00] So COVID remember, everyone probably was in COVID but in Southpaw, we were able to go to Utah.
[00:03:06] We talked about Utah with Greg and Utah was a little more relaxed with face masks.
[00:03:13] We still had to wear face masks when we were around people, but Utah was a little more anti, I guess you would say.
[00:03:21] So there was a tournament up there showcase playing that, you know, okay.
[00:03:26] So after Greg, we meet with him and he says, yeah, you can go up to 18s, but you're not going to play for Dave, right?
[00:03:34] Dave, what kind of?
[00:03:35] It was some other random.
[00:03:38] Yeah, it was a coach that we weren't necessarily fans of.
[00:03:41] Yeah.
[00:03:43] So that was that.
[00:03:45] So it's the summer.
[00:03:46] So then we come back and if you guys don't know who, Kim Briggs is now with the Bengals.
[00:03:55] He created the Bengals.
[00:03:58] I don't know what the first name is, but back then it was SoCal A's Briggs, right?
[00:04:04] So the 18U, he had two 18U teams.
[00:04:09] He would bounce back and forth from one of them to the other one.
[00:04:14] Not necessarily your team.
[00:04:17] Look my name.
[00:04:18] No.
[00:04:19] Yeah.
[00:04:19] And we were in, we got to choose whether we would stay online for school or be hybrid.
[00:04:28] So I'd go to school two days out of the week.
[00:04:33] Yeah, Tuesday and Thursday I think it was.
[00:04:35] Yeah.
[00:04:36] And then the other two days I'd go online.
[00:04:39] Yeah.
[00:04:40] Yep.
[00:04:41] Yeah, teaching while I was there was, I had to go every day as a teacher and there was probably five or six people in the class each day.
[00:04:52] And we would just walk the track.
[00:04:54] That's all we did in the first semester.
[00:04:56] We, and this, we couldn't go inside.
[00:04:59] We couldn't go in the gym.
[00:05:00] I had to stay outside.
[00:05:02] So it wasn't a, but on that team, correct me if I'm wrong was Maya Perez.
[00:05:09] Who's.
[00:05:10] That was Greg's team.
[00:05:13] Oh, okay.
[00:05:14] So Greg, so Maya Perez who did very well right in the regionals.
[00:05:20] Her first career homerun was a grand slam against Texas.
[00:05:24] That's right.
[00:05:25] Yeah.
[00:05:26] The latest girl I knew ever.
[00:05:28] She's nice.
[00:05:29] Yeah.
[00:05:30] And you've played with a lot of great girls, right?
[00:05:32] Yeah, I did.
[00:05:33] So now we're with Sol Calais Briggs in the fall.
[00:05:38] And describe that and what happened, right?
[00:05:41] We go, so something happened with San Jose State where you at now.
[00:05:47] Yeah.
[00:05:48] So you get to get to the connection with Briggs and all those coaches are and how that kind of came to fruition there.
[00:05:54] It was a big change like even with athletics, Mercado.
[00:05:58] It was definitely a different vibe.
[00:06:01] Cause now I was in my junior or I'm entering, I'm entering my senior year of high school, but with Greg, I was in my junior year, which is prime recruiting high school year.
[00:06:11] And so with that busters, it was never that recruiting was never really the main focus because you've said before like the coaches come to us, like we don't go to the coaches.
[00:06:22] So big thing with athletics, Mercado and that so Cal athletics was like you need to reach out.
[00:06:29] You need to email.
[00:06:30] We're going to call coaches for you.
[00:06:32] We have all these connections.
[00:06:34] Like this is going to happen.
[00:06:35] We're going to get you recruited.
[00:06:37] So it was definitely really different than what I'm used to.
[00:06:41] But that's how it was on Sol Calais.
[00:06:43] We had a recruiter with us who would contact coaches for us and give us feedback, whatever they were saying.
[00:06:51] Was it the most competitive team?
[00:06:56] Not so much.
[00:06:56] I went to a couple of games and it was, I wouldn't say it was bad news bears.
[00:07:03] But there was you had some talented girls, but it was not as serious as teams that you've been on the past.
[00:07:09] No. And I was not used to that at all.
[00:07:12] Oh yeah. I'm just playing softball for fun.
[00:07:14] I'm like, I'm here to get a scholarship.
[00:07:19] Yeah.
[00:07:19] Well, I'm here to win.
[00:07:21] I'm here to get a scholarship.
[00:07:22] Like I was all business, but I remember when coach breaks was saying how San Jose state got new coaches.
[00:07:34] There's a lot of spots that opened up.
[00:07:36] Like this could be a great opportunity.
[00:07:37] So I think I immediately started reaching out to them and sending some videos to them.
[00:07:44] And then I got some calls back and then they started coming to my games in Lake Elsinore, saw my coaches and then.
[00:07:56] Yeah, I don't really, I don't really remember like how it all went down.
[00:08:04] But yeah, it's just the stars a line for you.
[00:08:09] Right? Because we talk, you've talked about your frustrations with your head injury and that five steps backwards, right?
[00:08:18] During a very hot recruiting time when you're in 14s and Campbell.
[00:08:24] Then you talk about COVID where we go to visit North Carolina.
[00:08:29] This is the ACC team.
[00:08:32] They needed a pitcher.
[00:08:34] They were going to come out and watch you pitch your pitching.
[00:08:37] You're going to pitch against Noriko and all these, these top California teams and then COVID hit.
[00:08:44] So another step, another five steps backwards, right?
[00:08:49] Then the San Jose state coach happens to get fired, right?
[00:08:53] Because when you got on the briggs, you still were not.
[00:08:56] Like you came back, you're starting your high school season.
[00:09:00] You weren't, you still were not getting like offers or people wanting to chat with you.
[00:09:05] And we were like, remember, I don't know if you remember, we were talking maybe we should just go to the JC and play for Junior Comet for a couple of years.
[00:09:13] Yeah, that was, it's a route that works for a lot of people.
[00:09:24] It's definitely a route that saves you money.
[00:09:28] It's those coaches have connections with D1 schools, D2 schools, you're, I wouldn't say granted, like a spot somewhere.
[00:09:39] But going to the Juco route is it's a tough deal, but I think it makes you stronger as a player.
[00:09:44] I've had some friends go to the Juco and make it out to D1 colleges and they said that it was the best decision they made.
[00:09:52] So it wasn't like I was against it, but my whole life was you're going D1, you're going D1.
[00:10:01] Like D1 or not nothing, D1 or nothing.
[00:10:04] So did I have some prejudice against it?
[00:10:07] Yes, I did totally.
[00:10:10] But that's how I was coached and raised and that's what I was in.
[00:10:15] It was ingrained in my brain my whole life.
[00:10:18] My ultimate goal was go D1.
[00:10:22] Right.
[00:10:22] Yeah, and you're playing on the high end teams as well.
[00:10:26] These girls don't go to JC if you're playing for Steth and Campbell, Greg in your head.
[00:10:31] It was almost D1 or nothing.
[00:10:33] So options were running out.
[00:10:35] You get one offer from Longwood and the offer was like, Hey, here's a couple of dollars.
[00:10:41] Come play for us.
[00:10:45] Let's take a quick break.
[00:10:46] If you want to leave us a message, use the link in the show notes.
[00:10:52] And if you want us to respond, leave your name and email address.
[00:10:56] Also, please rate us in or leave a review as we're trying to grow the show every day.
[00:11:02] Finally, Lacey and I both love coffee.
[00:11:04] We would greatly appreciate any contribution to the show.
[00:11:07] That link is also in the show notes.
[00:11:10] Thank you.
[00:11:10] Take care.
[00:11:15] Now Longwood is a private university in Virginia.
[00:11:19] Yeah.
[00:11:20] And I remember talking about it with you guys and I was like, yeah, it's 70% women, 30% men.
[00:11:28] Maybe 2000 people go to that school.
[00:11:32] Very limited athletics.
[00:11:34] I remember saying that I wanted like a football team and go to football games or like sporting
[00:11:39] events and have athletes be all kind of friends together or something like that.
[00:11:44] And Longwood was not that.
[00:11:48] And you had to pay a lot of money to go there.
[00:11:53] A lot of money, yeah.
[00:11:54] So that was one option.
[00:11:58] Portland State was another option.
[00:12:01] I remember talking to that coach.
[00:12:03] I remember talking to the Monterey Bay coach who I think just resigned actually.
[00:12:10] Just tired, I think.
[00:12:14] That was D2.
[00:12:15] So I remember really liking her though and having a good conversation with her.
[00:12:21] And then there was San Jose State.
[00:12:24] So what happened?
[00:12:27] So I called me, I would call Tammy all the time.
[00:12:31] And I think during this time still athletes were still not allowed to officially visit the campus with their coaches.
[00:12:43] So yeah, you and I went up there and we walked around the campus.
[00:12:47] Yeah, walked out with my future teammate Caroline Bowman who was so nice to walk us around and everything.
[00:12:55] And it was definitely different.
[00:12:58] San Jose is the center of Silicon Valley.
[00:13:01] There's San Francisco about 40 minutes away downtown area.
[00:13:06] I remember walking around downtown and everything was boarded up.
[00:13:09] Nothing was open.
[00:13:11] There's broken windows.
[00:13:14] Yeah, I think we took a wrong turn and remember that we took a right and were like, let's make a U-turn here.
[00:13:21] Yeah, I think we stayed at the hotel in downtown and the fire alarm went off at two in the morning.
[00:13:28] And we're like, what is this?
[00:13:30] Yeah, so the stars of the line was you weren't getting a lot of options.
[00:13:37] You just mentioned probably four schools that were and these are in your head.
[00:13:43] You've been prepped to go to these power five schools and then your options are running out.
[00:13:49] And then all of a sudden this coach gets fired from San Jose State.
[00:13:52] Tammy from Cal comes over, gets hired.
[00:13:55] Yeah, I think you said more than half the team quit.
[00:13:59] For whatever reason we don't know.
[00:14:00] I think maybe they liked the old coach and they're like, no screw this.
[00:14:03] We're out of here.
[00:14:05] So that left money open and they needed pitching.
[00:14:09] And so they came and watched you play when you were on breaks and you got offered.
[00:14:15] And it was a yeah.
[00:14:17] Hello?
[00:14:18] Yeah.
[00:14:20] But I remember Tammy calling me and telling me the whole logistics of it.
[00:14:26] And you don't want to like immediately be like, oh yeah, yes, I'll take it.
[00:14:31] I'll just say, oh, let me talk it over with my parents.
[00:14:34] But I remember because where you were home where you I think you were doing something in your office.
[00:14:42] And I came up and I started bawling my head off and you're like, what's wrong?
[00:14:47] And I was like, no, it's a good thing.
[00:14:48] It's a good thing.
[00:14:49] Yeah.
[00:14:50] And I think you started crying too.
[00:14:54] Yeah.
[00:14:56] Cause I'm not ashamed to say that I cry.
[00:14:59] I'm a crier.
[00:15:00] You're it's okay to cry.
[00:15:02] It's okay.
[00:15:04] It was just a great it's everything I probably could have asked for in a school.
[00:15:13] There's competitive athletics.
[00:15:15] We're at a competitive conference.
[00:15:18] We play all these competitive schools.
[00:15:21] I'm still in California.
[00:15:22] I could drive home if I wanted to.
[00:15:25] There's the beach about 40 minutes away.
[00:15:28] There's the city.
[00:15:30] There's downtown San Francisco, all these things I could go and do.
[00:15:33] It was.
[00:15:35] Star's line.
[00:15:36] Yeah.
[00:15:36] Totally starts lining up so get offered.
[00:15:40] You commit.
[00:15:42] Which was awesome.
[00:15:42] We're all on the couch and you had the speaker phone out.
[00:15:46] We're listening to you and I was proud.
[00:15:48] I was proud of you because you worked so hard, right?
[00:15:51] We talked about how hard you worked and all the setbacks you had and then having them
[00:15:56] having them offer you money to go play there and you have an opportunity like you said
[00:16:02] to play in a competitive environment and get the college experience, right?
[00:16:08] To live on campus and do all that kind of stuff.
[00:16:10] I was a commuter.
[00:16:13] I commuted to my school.
[00:16:16] I never experienced living in the dorms or frat parties and all that kind of stuff.
[00:16:21] I just commuted back and forth to my mom's house.
[00:16:24] I was still living up with my mom when I was going to college.
[00:16:27] So I was so proud of you.
[00:16:29] So we commit and then unfortunately after Christmas, we come back and we jump teams
[00:16:37] again.
[00:16:38] Remember we talked about it earlier?
[00:16:39] Where we were so committed to the Bat Busters from you were nine years old.
[00:16:44] Toe probably I think when you're 15 or 16, we were strictly Bat Busters.
[00:16:51] We were all in and now we're about around the Greg to Briggs.
[00:16:55] We ended up coming back to Bat Busters with Tony Braccamonte,
[00:16:59] which is the team you played for that one time at those.
[00:17:02] Okay.
[00:17:03] So it was a team that looking back, we talked about it.
[00:17:06] I feel like we probably should have stayed.
[00:17:08] Like I said, we're going to have a bad taste in our mouth at that time.
[00:17:11] We're just like, yeah, let's try different thing.
[00:17:13] Come back to Tony Braccamonte, Bat Busters.
[00:17:16] And it was kind of a cool ending to your travel bulk.
[00:17:21] So explain that or describe like who was on the team, why that was so real for you
[00:17:28] to get committed number one.
[00:17:30] So now that's off your chest and then come back to a team with good.
[00:17:37] Just describe that.
[00:17:38] So Tony Braccamonte, I remember when I first started out on like team Mizzuno,
[00:17:45] like he had a older team that we would go practice with.
[00:17:52] And so I remember him since I was little, but I never really got close with him
[00:17:57] like that as a coach or anything.
[00:17:59] But we get to this team and there's at least, we have T and Emily who I started
[00:18:08] out travel ball with on team is and you're very close with their parents.
[00:18:13] I'm very close with those girls.
[00:18:14] And then we get a Rissa to come onto the team with Lugo with Tom Lugo.
[00:18:21] Those are girls that I have deep friendships with since I was nine.
[00:18:28] So now I'm 18 in my senior year and I'm ending my travel bulk career
[00:18:33] with the girls I started out with.
[00:18:35] And then I am meeting all these new girls on this team and we get close so fast.
[00:18:43] And the whole season we had our like, we had incredible highs, incredible lows.
[00:18:49] And that's like what you want to go through with a team.
[00:18:52] And that's what brings you a lot closer.
[00:18:55] We had like terrible friendlies and then awesome friendlies.
[00:18:58] And then we go to, we're in the summer and I'm, we go to Colorado
[00:19:03] and we do terrible on Colorado.
[00:19:07] Or guys like this is not and then with this is not how we're supposed to be playing.
[00:19:12] Like we worked so hard all for this.
[00:19:15] I have a key memory because on, on SoCal athletics there wasn't very much like discipline.
[00:19:22] I'd say, right?
[00:19:24] But you go to Bapusters and you're in for a loud one.
[00:19:28] So whoever knows who, whoever does foul pools at practice knows what I'm talking about.
[00:19:35] Like we're at practice and we're setting up and T is 14 minutes late to practice.
[00:19:44] But she lives about 10 minutes away from where we practice.
[00:19:51] No one's ever late, right?
[00:19:54] No one's ever late.
[00:19:55] We run 14 foul polls while T is watching us do it.
[00:20:00] Like she can't run with us.
[00:20:02] She, we run because she was 14 minutes late.
[00:20:05] And those are the type of things that like I bet other teams do this,
[00:20:10] but I felt like only Bapusters were like the ones to do that.
[00:20:13] And I was so glad to be back on a team that actually cared enough.
[00:20:19] And practices were brutal.
[00:20:21] Yeah, I remember the first practice, right?
[00:20:24] First practice year back on like, I just, I felt at home, right?
[00:20:28] Cause you got Lenny in the stands, you got Tom in the stands,
[00:20:31] all these guys that we, when we were 10, you and 12 of you
[00:20:35] and we're hanging out together at these hotels now we're back, right?
[00:20:38] So we feel like we're home in the first practice.
[00:20:41] Somebody missed a ground ball and he pointed to the polls.
[00:20:47] And I was like, finally she's, this is what she's wanted this whole time.
[00:20:52] She's wanted you probably did not enjoy.
[00:20:56] Oh, I dread her.
[00:20:57] I'm sure during polls you were just like, this is what I wanted.
[00:21:00] This was the type of atmosphere I was in.
[00:21:03] So let's get in.
[00:21:05] So we joined them, however, we got a pause because you're now in your high school
[00:21:09] season is about to start.
[00:21:11] So spring, softball happens is your senior year where we're back to playing.
[00:21:17] Remember, cause your junior year was cut short.
[00:21:19] Senior year, you're back to playing high schools.
[00:21:22] You have a full season.
[00:21:25] You're great, right?
[00:21:27] Your picture, we win league for the first time in a long time.
[00:21:31] I think 2018 was last time we won league.
[00:21:34] So we're back to winning league.
[00:21:36] You get into, and if you guys don't know California, it's called CIF, which is our playoffs.
[00:21:41] Get into the playoff.
[00:21:43] Get to the semifinals of CIF.
[00:21:46] And again, Southern California teams.
[00:21:48] And this is division one, mind you, division one Southern California teams are pretty good.
[00:21:54] You got modern day and narco Esperanza, who we played for fight against.
[00:22:01] You got hiding to be, she remember that hiding to be skin where there was one, nothing.
[00:22:06] This is pictures dual.
[00:22:07] Here's like two guys, the whole game.
[00:22:09] I need to be just forget.
[00:22:10] Yeah.
[00:22:11] But we play semifinals CIF.
[00:22:14] You play against Esperanza.
[00:22:16] You play against a girl that was on that.
[00:22:19] Not team was in a, but she was with you 10 year and 12 you.
[00:22:23] She committed to Oklahoma at the time.
[00:22:26] So this is a battle.
[00:22:27] We tie at the top where you go up one in the top of six.
[00:22:31] They tie at the bottom six.
[00:22:32] We go to extra innings 11 innings, right?
[00:22:37] This is the series semifinals extra innings 11 innings.
[00:22:41] It was second and third.
[00:22:43] I don't know if you remember that second third one out.
[00:22:48] And she comes up to bat.
[00:22:50] So first base is open and remembering toe and needed Walker.
[00:22:57] Yeah.
[00:22:59] So Tony asked me if we should walk her.
[00:23:03] And I think, I don't know if you wanted to walk her and I think you wanted to pitch to her,
[00:23:07] but we pitched to Hannah anyway.
[00:23:10] Now again, this is an Oklahoma commit.
[00:23:12] Yeah.
[00:23:13] And first base is open with one out.
[00:23:15] I think if we walk her, we end up winning the game because I think you'll get the next two outs.
[00:23:21] No problem.
[00:23:21] But if they score it, because this is bottom 11, if they score it's games over anyway.
[00:23:25] You leave a screwball a little bit over the plate.
[00:23:29] And she wins it.
[00:23:31] I don't walk off home anyway, but that is exciting yet.
[00:23:35] That was the end of your high school softball career, which was fine.
[00:23:40] We got semifinals.
[00:23:41] You won a league.
[00:23:43] I think you get a first team all league.
[00:23:46] So all good stuff.
[00:23:47] Then we come back to Tony.
[00:23:48] So talk about again, just to set the stage for Lacey's last softball travel ball,
[00:23:56] her raw is it's no longer PGF.
[00:23:59] PGF is still there, right?
[00:24:01] A lot of good teams still go to PGF.
[00:24:04] We're not discounting PGF, but at the time when we were coming up through Bat Busters,
[00:24:09] PGF was the thing, right?
[00:24:11] That was our main goal.
[00:24:13] And I'm sure everyone who's listening recognizes Alliance, right?
[00:24:19] So Alliance created a kind of a competitive tournament to PGF.
[00:24:26] So Bat Busters, Corona Angels, Athletics Mercado, kind of these major teams in Southern California go to Alliance and not PGF, right?
[00:24:36] So we go to, now you're Bat Busters, we go to, you qualify for Alliance.
[00:24:42] Tier two.
[00:24:43] We kept going to qualifiers and making it to the championship and losing in the championship.
[00:24:49] Of these tier one, right?
[00:24:51] Yeah.
[00:24:52] But once you get to the championship, you automatically qualify for tier two.
[00:24:56] Okay.
[00:24:57] So I think we did that twice.
[00:25:00] And Tony was like, we're just going tier two.
[00:25:04] It's worked out, right?
[00:25:06] Because if you want to bring up the fact that we didn't come to your last tournament,
[00:25:11] you can do that now on the podcast and we can get it recorded.
[00:25:16] You brought it up just now.
[00:25:18] So now that we're on the topic, we can bring it up.
[00:25:22] Right.
[00:25:23] So those of you that are listening, my wife and I go to Las Vegas every year for some husband and wife time.
[00:25:30] And we miss her last travel ball tournament ever.
[00:25:35] And we miss her in your life.
[00:25:37] You'll never, yeah.
[00:25:39] You'll never be in travel ball ever again.
[00:25:41] This is your last tournament and your mom and dad are not there.
[00:25:46] Right?
[00:25:47] So what happened?
[00:25:49] What did we miss?
[00:25:51] I don't...
[00:25:51] Okay.
[00:25:52] So Alliance is different than PGF because they form it like the World Series.
[00:25:57] So we have regionals, super regionals, and then the World Series, which is so much...
[00:26:02] It's really cool because it prepares you for what it looks like to be in college when you go off to college.
[00:26:10] So I think we had...
[00:26:11] We started off in pool play with five other teams.
[00:26:15] I think we did really well.
[00:26:17] Four and one or something like that got first in our pool.
[00:26:21] Sure.
[00:26:22] Yeah, you wouldn't know.
[00:26:24] Yeah, pick one now.
[00:26:25] And then we go to regionals.
[00:26:29] I don't remember who we play in regionals, but we won.
[00:26:33] But then we go to the semifinal series and it's against another Bat Buster team, which is...
[00:26:39] They're a very competitive Bat Buster team.
[00:26:42] I haven't...
[00:26:43] We haven't played them ever like in the whole season, but now we're playing them, of course, in the semifinals.
[00:26:49] And so mind you, a bunch of girls throughout the season have quit.
[00:26:54] And Tony never brought around more people.
[00:26:56] So we're at nationals with 12 players.
[00:27:04] Yeah, 12 players.
[00:27:06] So we have three extra girls on the bench, non-pitchers, ready to go in if someone...
[00:27:18] Oh, three.
[00:27:19] Other teams, you might have probably six or seven other girls.
[00:27:24] Yeah, like a second set of mine.
[00:27:25] Yeah, a second set of mine.
[00:27:26] But we have three.
[00:27:29] And we have two pitchers.
[00:27:32] I'm one of them.
[00:27:33] And then another one is Kelsey, who is now at USD.
[00:27:38] But at this time, Kelsey was struggling a little bit.
[00:27:43] That leaves me.
[00:27:46] And there's no other pitchers.
[00:27:49] It's just me.
[00:27:50] We're in...
[00:27:52] There's theories with this Bad Buster team.
[00:27:54] And I think either the first or second game we lose.
[00:27:59] But one of those games, we walk off in this crazy fashion.
[00:28:04] But it's out of three.
[00:28:06] So we still have one game.
[00:28:09] And we have, I think, like 30 minutes to get ready for the next game.
[00:28:12] And we're like...
[00:28:14] And we're in Oklahoma City as well.
[00:28:16] So it is burning hot.
[00:28:19] Everyone's faces are beat red.
[00:28:22] Yeah, July in Oklahoma.
[00:28:25] Oh my gosh.
[00:28:26] Think about it.
[00:28:27] I just felt...
[00:28:29] Yeah, everyone was so tired, you could tell, but obviously not done.
[00:28:36] Because there's still always another game to play.
[00:28:39] So we ended up winning that last game against them.
[00:28:44] And now we're in the World Series, basically, championship.
[00:28:47] But still out of three.
[00:28:50] So we're playing bombers, some bombers team.
[00:28:55] There's so many bombers team.
[00:28:56] But those girls, some of that, like that whole lineup, D1.
[00:29:01] I mean, I know a few of those girls were going to Louisville or something.
[00:29:04] All these ACC, something teams.
[00:29:07] So parents aren't...
[00:29:11] They're still not there.
[00:29:12] We're still not there.
[00:29:13] And we will not be there.
[00:29:15] Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:16] Yeah, we were in Las Vegas.
[00:29:21] So I remember playing the first game.
[00:29:25] I really wish I remembered how I played, but I think I was so burnt that I was so focused on just hitting my spots instead of pitching as fast as I can.
[00:29:39] Or I just wanted to spin it and hit the spot.
[00:29:42] So we win the first game and we're like, okay, this is it basically.
[00:29:48] And I remember in that game break while the girls are hitting the whiffles, whatever, I go out into center field and I just sit there and I close my eyes.
[00:30:02] And I'm imagining winning the championship.
[00:30:07] And I've never done that before.
[00:30:09] Really, that was my first time ever envisioning something like that, which later now I know what it's called like imagery and like meditation in a way.
[00:30:22] Had no idea I was doing it at the time, but I did it and we go out and we win the second game and we win the championship.
[00:30:32] And it was my last ever travel ball game of my life and I ended in a dog pile and it was with like my best friends in the entire world.
[00:30:41] So I couldn't, I probably couldn't have asked for anything better other than having us there.
[00:30:47] Yeah.
[00:30:47] So to come full circle is awesome because your first travel ball experience 10 year you lost the national championship, 12 year you lost in the semis.
[00:30:58] You have your setbacks, your head injury.
[00:31:01] We have COVID and for you to come back and play with some of those girls that you played with initially and to win it to get dog pile is your second dog pile that you've encountered is awesome.
[00:31:16] Right.
[00:31:16] It's not a lot of girls experience that.
[00:31:20] And so we talk about the ups and downs and everything in between as far as this podcast.
[00:31:26] You have some ups and downs.
[00:31:29] This is your up you're entering into your college years now on top.
[00:31:35] You win league in high school, you get to 70 finals in high school, you win the championship, the second tier Alliance championship.
[00:31:43] So you're just on cloud nine at this point.
[00:31:45] You're like, okay, this is why I love softball because it's just I'm on the team that I love the girls competitive.
[00:31:53] I have a coach that is discipline but he's super nice.
[00:31:56] He's like a Chris Garcia part two right?
[00:31:58] He's a 2.0 car.
[00:31:59] He's super disciplined but then off the side he's like very caring and he cares for you guys.
[00:32:05] So awesome lays.
[00:32:09] You are now.
[00:32:10] How did you feel when I FaceTime you and I had my little trophies in my hand?
[00:32:15] We, yeah.
[00:32:16] Where were we?
[00:32:17] We were, I don't want to say what we're doing but we're a bit, but we were, mom and I were together and we were both crying.
[00:32:26] And yeah, so we were just super proud of you for sure.
[00:32:30] Again, we've apologized.
[00:32:31] I'll apologize again on the record.
[00:32:34] I apologize for not being on your last travel ball game.
[00:32:40] Please forgive us.
[00:32:41] Why is your there my last college game?
[00:32:44] We will.
[00:32:44] We'll be there for your senior day and we'll be there for your last college game.
[00:32:48] Hopefully you are in San Diego because that's where the tournament is at, right?
[00:32:52] Good stuff, Lays.
[00:32:55] Love you.
[00:32:56] We have a surprise for everybody for next week.
[00:32:59] We may or may not have an Olympic Olympian on our podcast next week, but stay tuned.
[00:33:05] So Lays, I love you.
[00:33:08] Love you.
[00:33:09] We'll see you in about two seconds after we hang up here.
[00:33:14] And we'll catch everybody else on the other side.
[00:33:17] Bye everybody.