16 Things You Should Know About High School Softball

This blog is a re-post from 2020.

High school tryouts will be held during the next few weeks. Since I want you to be as prepared as possible, I interviewed current and former successful high school athletes to get their advice on making the team, playing time, and becoming a champion. Whether your goal is to make the freshman team or to win a State Championship, showing up as a confident team player will make your softball experience positive, no matter the outcome.

You’ll hear from Julia Youman ‘20 OPRF and IHSA State Champion, Mackenzie Janes ‘20 Jones Prep and 4-year Varsity Letter winner, and Molly Murray ‘19 Lane Tech Conference Champion and Sectional Runner-up.

Molly started taking pitching lessons with my Uncle, John Hanrahan, as a young player. When I started giving lessons to her team, she switched to me. Molly went from being a physically strong but average pitcher, to doing the necessary work to excel. She developed into a city champion with one nasty screwball. Molly is currently on the crew team at Fordham University.

Mack Janes wanted to pitch on Jones College Prep High School team and so she started coming to Pitching School as a freshman. She put in the effort, completed the practice, and helped to make her previously noncompetitive team, competitive. She pitched all four years on the varsity team.

Julia Youman was one of my first students when I started giving lessons on a regular basis. She was just having fun playing in house league and learning the skill of pitching. She started to show great athleticism and understanding of the game. Julia became an exceptional leader, exceptional pitcher, and has the most command of her entire pitch arsenal of most athletes I’ve seen.

What do each of these athletes wish they would have known? What made them great pitchers? What were failures they overcame?

Here are the top 16 lessons learned from these great pitchers.

Playing Time:

Mack: “Take it into your own initiative to talk to your coach about any problems you have. If you have your parents go talk to them, their mindset about you is going to be different.”

Julia: “Avoid having your parents talk to the coaches about playing time. The best thing you can do if you are upset, just try to make every moment count, even if you are sitting on the bench.”

Teammates Making Mistakes:

Julia: “Just try to do your best, if they aren’t fielding well, then you have to just strike them out. You also can’t blame the rest of your team.”

Mack: “Try to take the game into your own hands, make the best of the situation because you will not always have the perfect team, however you win as a team and lose as a team.”

Molly: “You can only control so much, still believe that my team was trying their best even though they weren’t making the plays, just try to focus on yourself and doing your best, don’t gauge your success on whether or not the whole team is doing well that day”

Quitting

Julia: “ Remember why you are playing. There were so many times when I wanted to quit, but didn’t. However, I like the competitive nature of the game and that is ultimately why I didn’t quit.”

Mack: “Find the good on the team. Find one person you can joke around with. I don’t think I’ve ever quit, but sometimes it gets hard and you need someone there to just have fun with.”

On Leadership

Mack: “There are certain points when you can have fun, but other points when you should be serious.”

Julia: “When teammates got mad because of a strikeout I’d get mad when they would throw their helmets or sulk in the dugout. The main problem I have had is having to remind people that it is not an individual sport.”

Molly: “I was the captain last year and I did yell at them a lot.”

What Keeps You Going

Molly: “My sophomore year, first round of sectionals, playing Leyden. The first inning I gave up 6 runs (not all earned), 3-run homer that tipped off the outfielders mitt and went over, then came back and shut them out the next 6 innings and ended up beating them.”

Mack: “Played Guerin, one girl flipped off the catcher, I struck her out to win the game. My most successful moment though, was a perfect game in the first round of sectionals.”

Julia: “The most successful pitching was against York in playoffs. I did well in the moment and held my own against a lot of really good seniors.”

Mental Toughness

Julia: “Becoming tough took a lot of work. I used to cry in the middle of the inning when I would walk people. [It’s about] just going through those moments and talking yourself down, focusing on one thing at a time, trusting your teammates to be behind you, and years of playing intense travel games.

Mack: “I found a way to make it fun for myself, drown out the other team when they cheer, and trust [my] team.”

Molly: “Junior year was my worst time mentally for pitching. I had a lot of anxiety due to coaches pushing to advance in state, a lot of pressure . I had to go back to reminding myself that I am out there for me and have fun.”

Keep It Up

Molly, Julia, and Mack were exceptional Practice Pro students. While they each came from varying levels of play before high school, they each strove to reach their potential.

I’m proud of all three of them. They have each become mature, determined young women that will, no doubt, accomplish whatever they wish in life at least in part, because of what they learned in softball.