First Team Party

This past Friday was the first team party over at Coach Pooch's house. This was the first time the whole team and staff have gotten together outside of a "softball" atmosphere and were able to relax and have some fun together. The staff had fajitas catered by On The Border (a big team favorite!), and everyone played alot of pool and watched the Olympics on tv. After everyone ate, the staff talked to the team on what it means to be a "Shocker Softball" player, and all that entails, and gave out the first practice t-shirt of the year. Above is the first team picture of the year, a couple of our players stuffing their faces with fajitas (eating is a big deal with our team!), and some of the new rookies chilling out with some of the returners.

Former Shockers Face Olympians

Earlier this summer, four recently graduated Shockers, Britnee Barnett, Katie McGeeney, Cynthia Verhulst, and Ashly Bright, had the opportunity to face the U.S. Olympic Softball Team as part of the Mid-West All-Stars. In addition, Coach Perniciaro was selected to be an assistant coach on the squad. The team was made up of mostly current and former athletes from different schools in the Missouri Valley Conference. Even though the Olympians had another dominating performance, our former Shockers represented our program well. Katie McGeeney was the leadoff hitter and recorded a hit off of Cat Osterman, while pitcher Ashly Bright pitched almost two innings, allowing a couple of hits and striking out Crytl Bustos and Caitlin Lowe. Former 4 time All-Missouri Valley shortstop, Britnee Barnett, dazzled the crowd with several great defensive plays.

A New Year is Here!

Today marks another chapter in Shocker Softball history as the 2008-2009 Shockers meet as a team for the first time this morning. All the new "rookies" moved into their dorms in Fairmount Towers, and are now slowly getting acclumated to life as a Shocker! Our newest Shockers consist of BoBo Brown (Bakersfield, CA), Kersti Rowan (Dallas, TX), Holly Eckert (Athens, TX), Kasha Kolb (Chelsea, OK), Brittney "Ozzy" Osborn (Edmond, OK), and Hillary Fort (Ankeny, IA). We held our 1st team meeting at 9 A.M. this morning, afterwards the team attended a meeting with all of the student-athletes at WSU to welcome them back to school, go over academic policies, etc. This evening they will have to go through an eye exam with the team doctors before taking their physicals tomorrow evening. School starts on Thursday (which they are all excited about!), and then the grind starts Sunday morning with our 1st round of conditioning test.