Cat's Corner

Sunday, March 9, 2007

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Wow, what a trip it has been!

Our team just spent the last 10 days in Florida, and not only did we play some great softball, but we had some great experiences as well.

We all arrived in Orlando on Thursday night and we had the evening to ourselves. Most of us ventured to do what we do best (well second best), EAT. Our roommate assignments normally stay the same, but on occasion we get a new one. Lucky for me I was reunited with my roommate from 2004, Jessica Mendoza. It was fun to sit in our room and reminisce about how time has flown since the last Olympics. It didn't seem too long ago that we were falling asleep watching Sex in the City like we did this week.

We played two good games in Altamonte Springs (Fla.), our official East Coast training facility. Central Florida gave us a run for our money with a 1-0 game, and it was fun to see our team challenged. 

Sunday morning our team loaded up the bus at 8 a.m. to head over to Tampa Bay. Coach Candrea is a HUGE Yankees fan, so he had organized a trip for us to see their Spring Training facility in town. We headed to the new Legends Field to watch BP and take in the game against the Phillies. When we arrived we were told they were going to introduce us on the field and then given Yankee hats to wear. To our surprise, Jorge Posada came out of the locker room to say hi and shook our hands. It was a very impressive gesture that our team enjoyed and will not soon forget.

During the game Alicia (Hollowell) and I wandered around the stands. Our favorite spot was the deck out in right field; you have the most incredible view of the whole park from out there. After five innings, we loaded onto the bus to make our way down to Hollywood, Fla.

Our Hollywood stop ended on a fun note. Toward the end of the game someone noticed Terrell Owens outside our dugout. We spent five minutes debating if it was really him or a look-a-like, but then we saw him sign an autograph and we all got excited. He came onto the field after the game and a few of us bugged him for autographs and pictures. He was really nice and honored all our requests. 

We bused from Hollywood back to Tampa on Wednesday. We stopped at IMG Academy in Bradenton. This academy is known for producing nine top-ranked tennis players and a number of golfers, baseball, basketball and soccer players, as well. They are adding softball to their program, so they asked us to come in and say hello to their high school players. Their facility is practically a mini college with state-of-the-art facilities including a delicious cafeteria, weight room, training room, and physical therapy area. It was very impressive.

Clearwater, Fla. is normally beautiful. We enjoyed the sun for about a day and a half before the rain came. In that time, though, we got in a good practice, and a fun conditioning workout on the beach. Our strength and conditioning coach, Brandon Marcello, does a great job working us out, and he didn't disappoint here either. After warming up, we had two-man relay races, which were basically a fun way to make us do sprints in the sand. (Jennnie) Finch and I were paired up, and we held our own! After some agilities with more sprints we had a two-team obstacle course race. We had to go through an agility ladder, jump some mini hurdles, pick up and put down a tennis ball on a cone, and then race around a path laid out by Brandon. My team lost both times (the tennis ball killed us). We kept having it fall off the cone which caused us to go back and put it on, thus losing time! The last phase of conditioning was an all-out sprint to the water. What I would pay for a picture of the 18 of us taking off to the ocean on a dead sprint.

Friday we were treated to another spring training game. This time the Tampa Bay Devil Rays invited us over to be honored before the game. We met Manager Don Zimmer and chatted with the players. After being introduced, the five pitchers threw out a first pitch. We all missed incredibly high except Alicia, who skipped the dirt. I was excited to see my friend, Jeff Nieman throw in the game. Unfortunately, this was the only activity of the day as the rainstorms came in and cancelled our games again.

Saturday we finally took the field with two solid wins. Our team was anxious to finally wrap up this leg of tour. Bus rides and rain delays make the 10 days seem so long.

We’re currently back home. I enjoyed landing in Chicago last night and not seeing snow on the ground! I’ll practice here with our DePaul team this week and then head out to California on Friday for an appearance at Cypress Sporting Goods in Monterey. Then it's down to Fullerton to compete again.

Until next time ...

#8

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