 | Championship Diary Brittany Anderson (left) has started every game for the Buccaneers behind the plate this season and has set a personal best in batting as a junior. She and some of her teammates will be recording their thoughts on the Spring Sports Festival and the team’s activities for you here each day so check back to keep up with what is going on with the Bucs as they compete for the national title. |
Houston: May 15, 2008
“I don’t care what the score board says at the end of the game, in my book we’re gonna be winners…” HoosiersWhile I am not a huge basketball fan, I thought that this quote was so appropriate after such a tough loss which ended our incredible season. My mom always tells me to keep things in perspective, so here’s my shot at it. While we may have lost these last two games at Nationals, our team has so much to be thankful for and even more to build upon.
So I thought about everything we gained this year. We set school records and won 35 games in a row. We rode a heck of a streak that created excitement and momentum that took us deep into our season. We won the Division II Leadoff Classic in my hometown of Phoenix in front of my friends and family. We took first place in the Charger Chillout hosted by Alabama Huntsville. After completing an amazing regular season and winning the conference title, we then won Regionals. We were given the opportunity to compete against seven teams in the national tournament. This has only been done three other times in school history. While we say a tearful goodbye to our four seniors, we are so grateful for all they have given to this team. It seems like just yesterday when I was a freshman and they were sophomores. Our school should be proud of how they led this team and the traditions they passed onto to us underclassmen. You have passed the torch to us, and we will carry it forward and make you proud. While it is so hard to look forward to next year, when the pain of our season ending is so fresh, we really have no choice. Next season will bring new faces and teammates, and I am confident that we will once again be in the hunt for that elusive ring.
One last time I want to thank our coaches who threw thousands of front toss pitches and BP, and never stopped believing in us; to the school administration who provided the generous resources and un-ending support; to Keith, our SID, who broadcasted games to the family and friends who were unable to be there; and lastly to our wonderful families and friends who were there from first to last pitch.
In closing, I call upon a quote from my favorite movie Bull Durham. “It really is a simple game, you throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while.” I’d like to think that it’s just raining. Till next February, farewell from Houston!
Houston; May 14, 2008
"Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn't one more thing that you could've done. Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart? If you can do that, gentlemen, then you're perfect."
Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights
I thought it would be fitting to make this the quote of the night. Well, if you didn’t already know, we dropped our first game to St Edward’s (I like to avoid the word lose whenever possible!). J We were losing 4-0 heading into the top of the seventh inning and all of sudden, with our backs against the wall we finally answered with a bit of offense. It’s amazing what can happen when we all come together. Unfortunately, the hits came too late, but I know in my heart that we are far from ending our season.
This team has more fight and more drive than any I’ve ever seen. This is why I chose this quote, because we play for each other. This is a team where if someone makes an error, someone is right there to pick them up. We will take what we can from this game and learn from it. Everything is a learning experience and that’s how we are going to look at today. Being positive is essential here. There were many text messages and calls letting us know that we were not alone, one in particular from Liz Morgan. Her message had said that they were listening and behind us and then many words of encouragement, thanks Liz. Confucius seems very wise! One last text that was sent to me was from John Mall, he was listening to the game as he was working. He said, “I’m listening and giving the motivational gipper messages rolling aimlessly through the desert on a freight train named Desire.”
At the end of our meeting, Sara's speech made us crack up. That's exactly what we needed. We needed something to lighten the mood and help us remember that we need to have fun and laugh and be the team that we are, the funny, sarcastic group of girls that I'm not ready to leave behind. I have faith we will jump back and we have faith in each other. For the first time this season, we have nothing to lose. There's no streak, no record…we are in Nationals with the other seven best teams in the nation who had great seasons like ours, who are here for one thing, a ring. So it's not going to be easy, but we're not going down without a fight.
Eventually we headed back to the bus and went to eat. My brother-in-law sent me a text that read, "Keep your head up, there is still tomorrow. You guys won 35 in a row, you can handle five." He's right. We can handle it and tomorrow…is a new day.
Around 7 pm, we went to eat for the 14th time that day, because when we aren't on the field, we're eating. So, Mr. Covone and the administration treated softball, golf, and both tennis teams to a great dinner in celebration of an amazing accomplishment; four Barry spring sports represented in the National Tournament. It’s awesome to be a part of this.
When we got back after dinner, we got our stuff and headed to our rooms to gear up for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last game, our last seven innings, our last 21 outs. Tomorrow we are "playing for the moment." Tomorrow we are leaving it all on the field. So here's to tomorrow, our last...
When coach asked the driver to be here on time the driver started freaking out, talking about how we didn’t understand how bad the traffic was and that she had done the best she could. Coach turned to her and said, “We’re from Miami, I think we know about traffic.” The driver then turns and says that she wasn’t going to drive us. She gets off the bus, closes the door behind her and starts talking on the phone. We were completely stunned. We were trying to figure out how to get to practice when she gets back on the bus collects her stuff and says, “Have a nice day!” then leaves us on to the bus! 
Amber Jack 
“If you build it they will come” Field of Dreams. 
It was a bit of a rough morning to say the least. Having won the South Regional championship on Saturday, our flight was made for early this morning so we met at Barry at 3:45 AM this morning to leave. As we were packing up the vans to head off for the airport, my teammates all looked as if they were sleepwalking. They obliged me as I took picture after picture, they’ll thank me later! The flight seemed short; however I can speak for most of us when I say that we all slept through most of it. 
Houston we are ready for take off! Greetings from Texas, home for cowboy hats, “Yee haws!” and of course…the SOFTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! It feels great to be here and the atmosphere is stellar! Driving through downtown Houston and looking up at all the skyscrapers left me with a sore neck, but getting to the hotel and seeing all the NCAA banners left me with a smile on my face because… we’ve made it!
As I read this message I really began to see some similarities. It may not make sense to some, but we are also rolling along with the desire to prove to everyone that we are the best. We need to show everyone that we aren’t wandering aimlessly. We did not come to the National Tournament to go two and barbecue, we are here to win!
So in closing, tomorrow we will play as if it is the last game of the season. We will leave it all on the field. In my heart, I know I will only be satisfied with nothing less than that type of performance. We play for our fans, we play for our seniors, we play for each other, but most importantly we will play this game for ourselves. Win or lose we will leave that field knowing that we can look each other in the eyes and say we gave it all we had. In the end, we will have no regrets! PLAY FOR THE MOMENT!!!!
GO BUCS!!!
Ali Perantoni
At the end of our meeting, Sara's speech made us crack up. That's exactly what we needed. We needed something to lighten the mood and help us remember that we need to have fun and laugh and be the team that we are, the funny, sarcastic group of girls that I'm not ready to leave behind. I have faith we will jump back and we have faith in each other. For the first time this season, we have nothing to lose. There's no streak, no record…we are in Nationals with the other seven best teams in the nation who had great seasons like ours, who are here for one thing, a ring. So it's not going to be easy, but we're not going down without a fight. Eventually we headed back to the bus and went to eat. My brother-in-law sent me a text that read, "Keep your head up, there is still tomorrow. You guys won 35 in a row, you can handle five." He's right. We can handle it and tomorrow…is a new day.
Around 7 pm, we went to eat for the 14th time that day, because when we aren't on the field, we're eating. So, Mr. Covone and the administration treated softball, golf, and both tennis teams to a great dinner in celebration of an amazing accomplishment; four Barry spring sports represented in the National Tournament. It’s awesome to be a part of this.
When we got back after dinner, we got our stuff and headed to our rooms to gear up for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our last game, our last seven innings, our last 21 outs. Tomorrow we are "playing for the moment." Tomorrow we are leaving it all on the field. So here's to tomorrow, our last...
Houston; May 13, 2008
A Funny thing happened on the way to the fields today…
This morning after breakfast, we gathered up our equipment and headed outside to load up the bus that Barry had charted for the tournament. When we saw the bus hadn’t arrived yet we all sat down to wait. Today was especially important to be on time because the NCAA only granted us one hour starting at 8 am to practice on the game field. Exactly 25 minutes later our bus shows up. We immediately started loading and as we are doing this Coach Penner gets on the bus to talk to the bus driver about being late.
When coach asked the driver to be here on time the driver started freaking out, talking about how we didn’t understand how bad the traffic was and that she had done the best she could. Coach turned to her and said, “We’re from Miami, I think we know about traffic.” The driver then turns and says that she wasn’t going to drive us. She gets off the bus, closes the door behind her and starts talking on the phone. We were completely stunned. We were trying to figure out how to get to practice when she gets back on the bus collects her stuff and says, “Have a nice day!” then leaves us on to the bus! After realizing the driver was actually leaving us stranded, we started looking for the button that would open the door, but couldn’t find it. After a couple minutes, we finally figured out how to get off the bus and were able to catch the shuttle to the field and 
thankfully it didn’t cost us that much time!
thankfully it didn’t cost us that much time!Despite that debacle, practice went well. We checked out the field and worked on some offense and defense. We then headed straight to Habitat for Humanity. We spent a couple of hours building a house for a woman named Francine. She had lost everything in Katrina and seemed so thankful that we had come to help. After we had left, we began getting ready to attend the opening ceremonies. This event was being held at the Houston aquarium.
We ate, listened and danced to music and looked at all the animals. There were games and prizes that you could win and a couple rides as well. The best attraction in my opinion was the two white tigers. I never realized how enormous they are! All the girls really seemed to enjoy the event and were very sad to leave.
Well it’s getting late and our first game is tomorrow at 10 am!!!! I’m so excited and probably won’t be getting much sleep tonight. I have to give a shout out to my brother Jeff Anderson, or Krispy to his closest friends. He has been so supportive of me and completely happy for the team. Love u Rice Krispy! Well signing off again from Houston! Good night!
GO BUCS!!! Britt
Amber Jack After the initial rush of yesterday afternoon; through exhausting travel and the bus ride into beautiful downtown Houston; the frenetic thoughts of, "wow, we are actually here, this amazing hotel is all decked out for us, we are one of eight teams left in the nation, etc," we have become acclimated to our surroundings and have accepted that we are truly here and that winning a national championship is a real possibility. We play our first game tomorrow morning and that is the only game that we are focusing on. Our team saying is "play for the moment" and that is exactly what we intend to do: every pitch, every swing, every play on that field could mean the difference between memories of glory or of regret. It's not about the championship game yet, but about the journey we need to complete in order to get there.
We will climb into our beds tonight and consider everything that we have gone through, all of the hard work that we have put into every minute of our season and every other season before this that brought us here. At the same time, however, I realize that tomorrow's game will be no different than any other that we have already played: balls, strikes, grounders, fly balls, runners out and safe, dirty and sweaty uniforms, intense team circles, voices lost from cheering for teammates, mental toughness and focus, and a pure love for the game that we all share. A huge “thank you” goes out to all of our fans, parents and friends for their incredible support and we are happy to be able to share this with them, whether they are in the stands watching or watching online. We could not have gotten this far without you.
Now, let's make history! AJ
Houston; May 12, 2008
“If you build it they will come” Field of Dreams.
Houston, we have arrived. We have finally made it to the home of the 2008 National Championships Festival. The hotel has been transformed into a carnival celebrating the athletes who are all fighting for the chance to call themselves the best. We fight for the title, the pride and of course the coveted ring. There are banners, signs, gifts and even the room keys all display, “I chose Division II National Championship.”
It was a bit of a rough morning to say the least. Having won the South Regional championship on Saturday, our flight was made for early this morning so we met at Barry at 3:45 AM this morning to leave. As we were packing up the vans to head off for the airport, my teammates all looked as if they were sleepwalking. They obliged me as I took picture after picture, they’ll thank me later! The flight seemed short; however I can speak for most of us when I say that we all slept through most of it. We touched down in the Houston airport and all of a sudden there is a new feeling in the air, Shyla Rider turns to me and says, “Do you realize we have a one in eight chance of getting a ring?” It hadn’t really hit me yet that we were one of eight teams left in the nation still finishing their seasons. We had always said our goal for the season was to win the National Championship, its amazing to be so close to our goal!
Now, I have to take a minute to thank everyone who has helped and supported us through our season. I cannot begin to tell you how much it has helped to be able to look over and see all of our fans cheering for us. It means so much to us to know the school and athletic department has always been behind us. This support has certainly given us the extra push that has gotten us this far. A special shout out must be made to Barry Witcher, he wrote a song for us and it was incredible! Thank You so much! It has become our theme song, along with Kanye West’s Champion. I knew you would like that one Danielle!
To the parents and families of those on the team…we recognize the sacrifices you have made to be at as many games as possible! For those of you who cannot physically be here, we have brought you with us. For friends and families who are beginning their journeys to Texas, we look forward to sharing this incredible experience with you!
Well, we have our first practice early tomorrow morning so its time to turn in. Good night everyone from Houston, Texas!
Amanda Goelz
Houston we are ready for take off! Greetings from Texas, home for cowboy hats, “Yee haws!” and of course…the SOFTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! It feels great to be here and the atmosphere is stellar! Driving through downtown Houston and looking up at all the skyscrapers left me with a sore neck, but getting to the hotel and seeing all the NCAA banners left me with a smile on my face because… we’ve made it!I’m not alone when I say it has been very gratifying to be a Buccaneer this season, both on, and off the field. From spending time together with teammates and coaches, to all the continued and endless support from family and friends, Barry Softball is all systems go!
LET’S GO BUCS!