PSU Softball: The Definition of Student-Athletes

by Heidi Johnson

It is not always an easy or glamorous life being a collegiate student-athlete. There are many demands on their time. Practice, games, off-season strength and conditioning and individual training, appointments in the training room to stay healthy, team community service efforts, media interviews ... Oh yes, and as a STUDENT-athlete, there are classes, study sessions, group projects, papers to write, homework. You want to do all you can to help your team succeed, but you also have to remember you are here, at college, to prepare for a future.

The best teams find ways to support each other on and off the field. They find ways to be successful on the field and in the classroom as a group. They have they big picture in mind. While it is important for them to work hard and win on the field or court, the real importance is getting ready for careers, and for the majority of student-athletes, those careers are not in the sport they are currently playing. The attitude of success in all arenas flows from the coach down to his or her players. At Pittsburg State one of the team that exemplifies this ideal is the softball team.

In the fall semester, with three new freshmen, off-season training, games and game day duties at both volleyball and football games, the PSU Softball team collectively earned a 3.536 grade point average. That's pretty impressive, especially when you consider there are 16 players with majors on the team including education, nursing, finance, construction management and physical education. Even more impressive is that the team, which has five four-year seniors, has a 3.445 cumulative GPA, with only one member below a 3.0.

Last season the team also did well on the field, finishing the season with a 31-24 record compared to a 23-29 record for the 2008 season. The team is poised for even more success in 2010. It is obvious there is something that makes this team click on all cylinders. Many of the players attribute their success to the attitudes of their coaches, Brad Horky and Ashley Loncarich. Horky says the success is due, in part, to the leadership of the team's five four-year seniors.

The four five-year seniors, Lindsay Birchfield, Jessica Jones, Lora Lockhart, Melissa Slayden and Annie Thurber, have a collective 3.53 cumulative GPA. They have a .277 batting average and  a 2.78 earned run average. They have earned six All-MIAA honors, four MIAA Scholar-Athlete Awards and have been named to the MIAA Academic Honor Roll seven times. This group knows about success on and off the field and has the leadership abilities to pass that along to the rest of the team.

The seniors attribute their success and leadership abilities to the face that they are so close.

"We are like a family," Birchfield said. "We never really fight or get mad. We know how to push each other in the right ways to make us better. That is an advantage to having played together so long."

The five had a bond almost from the beginning and started to develop leadership skills early. Lockhart remembers a time when they were the freshmen that the seniors were getting after one of them for something. The freshmen all stood up for each other.

"A lot has changed since that first year," Lockhart said. "We gained leadership starting with our sophomore year. Five is a big group and each year things have gotten easier for us. We are able to work together with the new players and tell them what the coaches expect. That preparation will be one of the keys to our success this year."

The seniors help with things on the field, but don't have to push the other players too much to succeed in the classroom. Each new player that comes to the Pittsburg State program knows immediately that is something Coach Horky expects. One of the main things Horky stresses to his players is that they go to class, but according to Jones, it isn't something he has to say more than once. The reputation of the program for having a high GPA brings more smart and responsible players to the team. Those are the kind of people Horky and Loncarich recruit.

"We have a lot of smart people on the team," Jones said. "As a team, we have to take pride in it, pride in our sport and in ourselves. That pride helps us perform in class and on the field. Coach Horky knows our degrees are the most important things to our future."

Lockhart has some major tests for her construction management degree during one of the MIAA weekends. Horky is doing whatever he can to help be able to both help the team on the field and do the best she can on her test. Another example of the pride the softball team takes in their progress toward degrees is that all five of the four-year seniors will either graduate in May or December.

These five seniors, and the rest of the Gorilla softball team is ready to further expand their success on the field even further again this spring. The season is just a week away from its opening day and they are excited.

"We are focused on our team attitude," Jones said. "We know everyone is important and plays a part in our success. If we play 100 percent every game and give our all, we will do well."

"We have a lot of experience on the team this year," Birchfield said. "We've gotten better every year and with five four-year seniors and the transfers that have come in, we should be good."