NU Women's softball team hopes to start season off right

By Stephen Hodgson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Dennis Tyner has been coaching on the Norwich University women's Softball team for the past 10 years and has been the head coach for the last four.

According to Tyner, the team has been a winning team since the 1994 season, when they had 16 wins and five losses.

"That was the first of a string of winning seasons that we have had; ever since then, we have not had a loosing season," Tyner said.

"Last year we had a tremendous year; we played the most number of games I believe that the team had ever played," said Tyner, whose is also the division head for the Norwich University David Crawford School of Engineering. "We played a total of 41 games."

"That included a horrible start for us," Tyner said. "We started off 10 games down in Florida. When we returned, we were one and nine."

After losing five one-run games, the team returned to finish the year with the team's best season in their history.

After going to Florida for spring break last year and playing a less then desirable 10 games, the team returned this spring break better prepared for the games that they will be playing.

According to Heather Labranch, 20, a junior English and elementary education major from Bow, N.H., after the team got back from Florida, the team went on a 12-game winning streak before losing their first game.

"I don't think that we were all on the same page about why we were down in Florida," Tyner said. "I questioned the team's motivation for being down there; we did a lot of fundraising to go down there."

In the fall the team plays an unofficial fall ball season where the team gets a chance to get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and also allows some of the first year players to see what college level softball is really like.

"Some of these kids have come from high school who have never played college ball, before; that's a major transition for them," Tyner said.

One of the advantages of the team playing fall ball is they get a chance to play division one and two schools.

"That's how you get better, by playing better competition," Tyner said.

The NCAA only allows the team to play five preseason games but allows the team to get ready for the season to come.

One of the key factors to the success of the team is the fundraising that the team does throughout the year.

The team does a variety of things to raise money, such as offering food tents at football games and selling refreshments at the weekend campus movies. The team has sponsored campus game shows and helped with Casino Night.

The team went to Ft. Myers, Fla., again this year for spring break. According to Tyner, Ft. Myers is the place to go for anything that has to do with women's softball.

Ft. Myers has some of the best tournaments, and because of this, it again allows the team to play other teams that will get them ready for their very fast paced season.

Five years ago, when Assistant Coach Jacqueline Patts (NU'00) was a junior, the team went to Orange County, Calif. The competition was better, but the weather was worse, and the facilities were not nearly as nice as down in Ft. Myers, according to Patts.

This is the first time that the team has gone somewhere for two consecutive spring breaks. It is very hard for the team to raise all of the money that is needed for the trips, and therefore they usually go every other year.

The games which are played in Florida count for their record for NCAA, but they do not count for their conference record.

It is never good to lose a game, but it is much better to lose games in Florida than it is to lose them here in their conference.

There are four teams which practice in the field house, and because of this there is a rotating schedule that starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m.

The team practices one hour and 45 minutes, Monday through Friday, in the field house with the option of also practicing on the weekends. Each week a team is given a new time to practice.

The team has been practicing on a hard floor in a field house, which is very different from the dirt and grass of a normal field. And the climate is different, as well.

"Down in Florida, it can reach 90, 95 degrees," Tyner said.

While in practice, the coaches try to make sure the team knows all of the fundamentals and know every situation that they could get. This way, when they get on a real field, all they worry about is the fact they are playing in the sun and on a real field.

"These are the best practices I've seen in the history of the program since I've been affiliated with it for ten years," Tyner said. "They know exactly what the coaches want. When we come down, it's 'you run here, you run there, you run here, you run there.'"

"We're known as the track team," Patts said. "The hunger this year is just phenomenal; the hustling has not stopped. Every year, we strive to take the team to a different level."

Last year, after making it to the GNAC quarterfinals and finishing fourth in a double elimination tournament, they planned to come in at least second.

"Softball is like any other sport; you can be overly confident and overly cocky. I think that's what we were when we went down to Florida last year. I don't think we will be this year," Tyner said.

Last year, the team fell apart in Florida, according to Jennie Johnson, 21, a senior sports medicine major from Northwood, N.H.

"We were, like, three weeks ahead of where we were last year going into Florida," Labranch said.

The goal for the team when they are down in Ft. Myers is to come back at least 500. This means that the team plans on winning at least half of their games.

"We're playing 10 games, so we want to win at least five and definitely more then five," Johnson said.

Last year, when the team went to Florida, they played a lot of teams they could have beaten, but they were not prepared, according to Tyner. "That's a mistake that we're not making this year."

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