Every day after school, girls wearing cleats and carrying softball bags walk out onto the back field. They greet their coaches, run a few laps, stretch and then head off to the batting cages. Moving together as a group, they begin practice. This is the routine of Archer’s softball team.
Spring sports at Archer have officially begun as of February. The varsity softball team had their first game of the season Feb. 17. Assistant coach Mea Flores-Bradford said the team has always been good at keeping the energy up and uplifting girls who are newer to the sport.
“They’ve always been really good with that, and with the whole cheering,” Flores-Bradford said. “They always make sure to uplift and just want everything here to be positive.”
Freshman Harley Nichols said she has always been interested in softball and joined this year as a new player. She said she already feels like she’s grown in the first weeks of the season.
“I know how to hold a bat now, so that’s better,” Nichols said. “I think that just showing up to practices, being around other people who are so skilled at softball, really helps me improve as a player.”
As she becomes more comfortable with softball, Nichols said a challenge for her so far has been learning the intricacies of the rules.
“One thing about it is not really knowing how the game works,” Nichols said. “Obviously, you hit the ball; if you make it, you run to the base. But there are a bunch of little specific rules that I’m still finding out.”
Flores-Bradford said learning opportunities for less experienced individuals are very important. The small rules, such as when to run or how to come off a base, can be hard to learn in the first few weeks, she said.
Both Flores-Bradford and JV Head Coach Samantha Golding said a lack of prior knowledge of these rules can cause disconnect within the team. The two coaches, who have worked together with this team for six years, said they plan to close that gap by emphasizing game-based learning in practice, encouraging mentorship from the more experienced players.
This is the first year the coaches have been able to field a JV team as well as a varsity team. Golding said the intergeation of the JV team will help with more specialized and focused practice to help players learn the game and also allow everyone to get additional playing time.
“You’re wanting to make sure you’re able to field the most competitive team possible, but you also want to make sure everybody gets the experience, has the fun, gets to learn,” Golding said. “So that’s why I think it’s so great this year that we’re going to have the JV team.”
Another method for balancing the different experience levels in the team is giving support and advice from teammate to teammate, Golding said. Sophomore Lily Bratman has been playing on Archer’s softball team since sixth grade, and she said she plans to help her new teammates on the field by keeping a positive attitude and reminding them that everyone was once a beginner.
“Because I’m still working on my skills, when people are feeling discouraged, I just tell them how everyone was once starting new, and our coach always says softball is a game of failure,” Bratman said. “There are a lot of new people on our team, and everyone is doing really good.”
Jayne Weiss is another freshman on the team, but she has been playing with Archer softball for three years now. While she isn’t new to the game, she is new to the varsity team this year. This season, Weiss has been learning to balance transitioning to the varsity team and continuing working on her skills, while also being in a new position of leadership as a varsity player.
“It can be hard because I’m still learning, and I have a lot of self-doubt because I’m definitely not the best or anything,” Weiss said. “Overall, I think it’s good — fun to help others.”
To grow through this season, Weiss said she plans on leaning on the mentorship of the older players to help teach and improve her skills.
“Even when we’re just packing up all the stuff,” Weiss said, “there’s always helping each other carry the things and packing up the things that we use for practice.”
Flores-Bradford and Golding said another way they foster community among the girls at practice is catching and throwing in pairs. They try to mix it up and can see that in every pairing, all the players are really good at supporting each other.
“In terms of how the team operates and how the team interacts with each other, you wouldn’t know that there’s any difference because they’re all teammates,” Golding said. “And they all act like teammates, which is a really, really wonderful thing to see.”
Bratman said the reason the softball team has an easy time working together — no matter who is there or how much they know— is that each player is actively trying to get better, and each player loves the game.
“There’s not really a challenge because everyone’s trying to learn something new,” Bratman said. “I think we all just have a passion for it.”
