the crier podcast 5

The podcast producer, Frank McDonald, interviews Stacy Johnson, the head coach of the college's softball team. They discuss how students can join the team, the requirements, practice schedules, travel arrangements, and the number of players and positions on the team. Stacy talks about the importance of sports in teaching life lessons and building confidence. She also mentions the team's competitive record and the importance of physical and mental fitness. They discuss areas the team needs to work on and the challenges of playing in college. Stacy mentions upcoming games and the success of former players. Overall, she emphasizes the college's support and opportunities for growth. Good afternoon, Red Barons. I am Frank McDonald, your podcast producer. This week is break week, so my partner, Joshua, will not be here, but I still have a fun podcast coming your way. Today, I have a special guest. She is the head coach of the softball team. Her name is Stacy. Hi, Frank, thanks for having me today. I'm Stacy Johnson. I'm the assistant dean of student services here at the college, and I also serve as the head women's softball coach. Thank you. So first, I wanted to ask you, if a student was interested in joining your softball team, how would they do that? So, on our website, which is www.redbaronsathletics.com, prospect questionnaire on there, so you can go on and electronically fill out a form, check the sport you're interested in, and then that goes to the coach of that sport. So that's one way, or a student can stop into the athletics office at any time and provide their information to Isaac Bushy, our athletic director, and he'll get with the coaches that'll then reach out to students. And what is some of the requirements? So, you have to be a full-time student. You do have to carry a certain grade point average. There are academic eligibility guidelines. Traditionally, 12 credit hours pass the semester at a 2.0 GPA, so that's the first thing. And then you also have to have the ability to play at the college level. How many practices do you guys have, and when are they? We practice quite a bit. We have a fall season in the fall semester where we practice about three days a week, and we have scrimmages on the weekend. And then this is our competition semester in the spring. So we started practice the day before Sunday, the day before classes started, and we go all the way through, hopefully, until after commencement if we're lucky enough to make it to the national tournament again. That's awesome. How many players do you guys have? This year's roster, we have 17 young women. When you guys travel, how do you guys travel, and what does it take for you guys to prepare to travel? Our athletic director coordinates all the travel arrangements for us through our bus company. So we travel by bus to all of our away games. And all of our student-athletes, not just the softball players, they all need to make sure that they schedule their classes around our away games. So we try to coordinate, as an example, baseball and softball play on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the week, so the students know not to take classes at that time if they can avoid it when they make their schedule with the EAC Center. Okay, do you guys have any overnight games? We do, occasionally we do. Those a lot are in the beginning of the season, like in March, some of the games that we've already played, and we do fundraising for those trips to pay for the hotels and the food. Could you tell me, how many different positions do you guys have on the field? So there's nine defensive players on the field at all times, but you can play 10 in the lineup because you can use a designated player who can hit for one of the girls in the lineup. So 10 could play in a game at a time. Okay, and now do you have three outfield or four outfield? Three, three in collegiate softball, yes. Okay, that's awesome. So why did you become a coach? I was always an athlete growing up. I played ball since I was a little girl, and I continued through high school, and I also played collegiately, and it's just something that I enjoy. It's my hobby, it's my passion. I benefited from the life lessons that sports can teach you. Anything from confidence, you know, everybody always talks about the, you know, getting along with others and being a leader, that is part of it, but also part of it is the self-reflection, pushing yourself and learning how to be the best version of yourself that you can be, and learning how to advocate for yourself. Just be a competitor. We all compete every day, whether it's in the classroom, at our jobs, we all compete, and it's important for young people to learn how to do that. So I feel like it's bigger than the sport, pushing them to achieve what they can on the softball field as well as in the classroom. Okay, what are you looking for for the team to be better? So we're very young this year, but I love the positive attitude and the work ethic that this team has. They're very hungry. We are a very competitive program. Some things that some people don't realize about us, the last three years we've played in the national championship game, and we've been right there to win a national title. We've won our region three years in a row, we've won our conference seven years in a row, so we are highly competitive, and right now seven of our former players are playing at their four-year schools that they transferred to, and they made their roster and they made their team, and a few of them are even on scholarships for softball. It is a lot, and I'm just looking for us to get better every day. We're right there. We've played a lot of Division II schools, but to this point we're eight and 10 currently, but we're playing out of our division, so that's actually very good. I'm very pleased with that, and now we just need to get outside regularly and hit our groove. Okay, so do you like to practice more in the morning or at night? So we usually practice after school, four o'clock-ish, because of the class schedule. I also have a full-time job here, so I can't practice in the morning, and the girls have classes as well. It's easier for them to get here at four o'clock, and honestly, it trains your body because those are the times that we play the games, so it gets us ready to prepare and compete that time of day. Gotcha. What kind of fitness does it take for someone that wants to build on being better? I just think that's an overarching philosophy we should have in our lives. The better we take care of ourselves physically and mentally, the better we are at anything that we do. So we do preach a lot and talk a lot about getting in the weight room and the fitness center outside of practice times. You've got to put the cardio time in and the strength and conditioning. It also not only makes you better, but it helps prevent any injuries that could possibly happen, and if an injury does happen, the stronger you are, the quicker you recover and get back out on the field, and we also talk a lot about it's not just the physical fitness, it's the mental fitness. Putting yourself on the line and competing and those pressures to do well in the classroom, their time is very limited for their own free time to take care of themselves. So we talk a lot about finding time for yourself, find something you like to do, go and talk to somebody if you need to talk to somebody, and just stay positive with each other. Okay. What things that you have seen at the games that they need to work on? The things that we need to work on are things that'll come over time as we start playing more. Just finding out where everybody fits on defense and what our best people are at our best positions and where we fall in the batting order, but it's just getting, I think, used to the college game. In high school, they're used to playing one game and being done. Here, we play double headers. So we play the first game, take a 15-minute break, and start all over again, and play a second game against the same team. So it's not you beat somebody the first game, and then you go hoot and holler on the bus and have a good time and smile. You have to clear that out of your head, what happened in the first game, whether you win or lose, and you've gotta go do it again. So it's that mental preparation part that we're learning still. And just the competitive level, I would say, is a little bit higher than some of them are used to from high school as far as the pitching that we see and things like that. I know when I play and I still play, that's a challenge. You never know with the weather, if that's gonna turn, or if you're tired from playing a game. What are your pitch count? What's that like? I know growing up, there's limits. Are there limits for college? So there aren't limits per se, but there are rotations more in baseball than in softball. The softball pitching motion is underhand versus baseball. So it is a more natural movement on your shoulder and on your arm. So you are capable of pitching more than you could with baseball. So with our girls, they can pitch one of the games with a doubleheader every time we have a doubleheader. So they can pitch multiple times in the week. Gotcha. How many pitches do you have? We have four on our roster right now. That's awesome. Is there anything you would like to add? Nope, I just appreciate the opportunity to talk about the softball team. It's one of our more competitive sports we have here at the college. We've been in the national spotlight. We've had student athletes from the softball team, like I said, earn academic scholarships, softball scholarships. We have a few that are playing at a high level right now. One of our athletes from last year, she's at Caldwell University in New Jersey. She's having an outstanding season. Students that are doing well when they leave Corning, and I think that's just a testament to what Corning Community College, the small piece of the bigger picture, that we are a place where you can grow, you can get better, and you can pursue your dreams. Nice. I know as a student, Corning has been very helpful. So I would just like to thank you for coming out. Do you guys have any home games coming up? Well, we're supposed to, but I don't know if this weather is going to cooperate. We're supposed to be home on Saturday, this Saturday, against Niagara at noon for a doubleheader. But with this weather, we'll see what happens the next few days. Okay. Well, good luck. If you guys are here on campus, come out and support your girls' softball team. And I want to thank you for coming and doing an interview, and hopefully we can do this again sometime. Thank you, Frank. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. I just wanted to let everybody know, since my partner is not here, I'm going to do the closing. So be empowered.