Eighteen games into their 50-game season, the women’s softball team is off to a bit of a tricky start. With a 6-9 overall record walking into the three-game series against the Embry-Riddle Eagles this past weekend, the team looks forward to the future and hopes to learn from the past.
Head Coach Julie LeMaire said, “This season we are playing against some high-caliber teams from across the nation. Two weeks ago, we played Lynn and we made some mistakes that hurt us but we saw some promise as well. Throughout the week we have been building up our strengths and weaknesses, even in areas we haven’t even shown [on the field] yet.”
High-profile team or not, this program has a lot to offer. When they started out this season, they really only had a handful of returning players familiar with the NSU program, which meant that these new faces had a lot of catching up to do.
According to senior outfielder Dana Edmundson, one of the biggest contributors to a team’s success is the chemistry.
“We have each other’s backs and we support each other so we can get better every day. By getting better mentally and physically with Coach LeMaire from fall training until now, we’ve grasped so many new concepts,” said Edmundson. “We’ve seen glimpses of [harmony] in parts of the games but we are going to try [in the future] to work more consistently and that’s when we will blow up.”
The team is building up that chemistry in the best way they know how, through team-bonding experiences. Before every game, when they do their signature chant in the huddle, they have their catcher, sophomore Alex Suzuki, wear a swim cap from NSU and pop out the circle at the end, just for some laughs before the game. They also bring a team “paddle” which is decorated with a cutout of a shark with Coach LeMaire’s face on it. This paddle is the team’s version of a “spirit stick,” which brings luck and a bit of fun into the dugout during the game.
Even though the team’s dynamic is different than last year, the team hopes that once they get this unity and culture going, then they will be a strong and tough program to compete against. However, the focus right now is to find the strengths and weaknesses of these newcomers and hone those skills.
“We are trying to see what the newcomers can do at this level,” said LeMaire. “Making sure they understand that their past experiences need to be left in the past, since it was at a different level, and prepare them to play against teams of this caliber.”
Newcomers are not the only ones to watch out for, as veterans of the program are also stepping up their game. Coach LeMarie said that these girls have been stepping it up in the off-season and have really contributed to the team as much, if not more than, last year.
Coach LeMaire recently received an accolade with the help of the NSU team by winning her 300th career win as a coach. LeMaire, though humbled by the accolade, feels that there is a lot more involved in this process than just her work as a coach.
“It’s more exciting to see how you’ve modeled them and see them competing for you, with you and through you,” LeMaire said. “The softball program has a chance to be very good at a high level and just because it’s not being proven on paper doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. Recognizing that and seeing where we need to improve and working on those strategies is more exciting than the milestones.”
For Edmundson, this is her last season with the Sharks as well as her final semester as a college student. Over her two year career here with the Sharks, she’s learned a lot from the coaches and from the program. Edmundson hopes she can contribute all the skills she’s gained over the past few years and bring that to this season to finish off on a high note and leave a mark for those to come into this program. Her biggest piece of advice? Buy into the program.
“The biggest thing is to buy into the process. We are players, but at the end of the day, the coaches know so much about the game [that you will learn],” Edmundson said. “So if you buy in this season, you will learn so much, you will be more confident in your abilities and you will become a better player.”.
The team hopes that students can find an opportunity to come out to the games and is thankful for the continued support of their fans.
“We have a lot of extremely talented athletes on our team and have some great competitor’s [lined up],” said LeMaire.
The next home game for the Sharks is March 6 against Albany State at the Ad Griffin Complex at 5 p.m.
